This hardly seems right:
Live 8 organizers told the Canadian Press this week that allowing the city’s relief organizations to participate would “dilute the focus” of the event.
“That decision came right from Sir Bob Geldof, himself,” Live 8 spokesperson Katherine Holmes told the news agency.
Dilute the focus? Poverty is poverty – no matter where it occurs! How could Geldof possibly think that banning local charities from receiving aid like food bank donations would dilute the focus?
I’m stunned.
As well as running a shelter for homeless women, King’s organization also hands out food to the city’s hungry. The society initially proposed the idea of a food drive several weeks ago, finally getting word on Tuesday from Live 8’s leaders that it would not be allowed to take part.
“We had everything in place,” said King. “We had volunteers, we had trucks, we had boxes, all we needed was permission to go.”
The purpose of the Live 8 concerts is to spur G8 leaders to rally around a more aggressive policy towards eliminating poverty in Africa and that certainly is desperately needed. But, how could Geldof and the organizers deny aid to those in communities that are hosting the concerts? That’s just unthinkable. It’s as if he assumes that concert goers are only able to focus on one thing at a time ie. if they are distracted by bringing a can of food to the concert, somehow they’ll totally forget the mission of the concert itself. How can this possibly be justified?
Here’s how:
“It’s about raising awareness for global poverty,” she said. “Mr. Geldof said it best: ‘It’s about opening your minds, not your wallets.”‘
GLOBAL poverty.
The charities in Barrie, Ontario were not suggesting that food donations be made in exchange for entry to the concert, which has free admission. They simply wanted to use the venue to help their city’s poor. Aren’t they part of the global community?
I’m truly flabbergasted by this news. It’s a sad day when people are told that their community’s poor as undeserving simply because the concert organizers are worried their political agenda will be muddied. Mr Geldof – have some faith in the citizens of the world who support your efforts to be able to understand your mission while, at the same time, helping out their neighbours.
I just don’t understand this. These local charities are being treated as opportunists while all they want to do is help. Perhaps they’ll get enough publicity now to encourage residents to make more donations regardless or in protest to Geldof’s decision.
Wow. This really saddens me.
What depresses me as much or more is that I’m so used to BushCo’s strategies here in the USA, that I can’t help but wonder if denying this group is just some way to generate publicity for this stated goal:
Like PT Barnum said, there’s no such thing as bad publicity.
Sounds high handed to me. I agree; as if folks couldn’t hold onto more than one idea at a time.
Does he think so little of his audiences?
If I was on the Barrie organizing committee, I’d look into whether food could be collected at off-site locations that concert-goers had to pass through anyway, like train and bus stations.
A local event that “just happens” to be held at the same time.
I hope they have an alternate game plan so the charities can gain something from this snub.
This controversy isn’t the only one. Some African bloggers are regarding Live 8 dubiously.
Thanks for that link. Interesting reading there.
it’s easy to talk about the problem when it’s “over there”. I don’t know if Canadian charities experienced this, but a lot of American charities saw a dropoff in donations after the Asian tsunami. I think being the end of the tax year had an effect as well; people looking for last-minute charitable deductions sent off checks to tsunami relief instead of looking to local charities that could use their dollars.
Another example: people thinking about food banks and food closets only at the holidays, when this is the time of year that many of them really need the donations, since kids are out of school and aren’t getting the subsidized lunch programs. In fact, our local library usually has a barrel for Second Harvest all year round; since the spouse and I are grocery shopping tonight, I think I’ll check the grocery ad and see if there are any sale items I can add to the list and drop off at the library on the way home… 🙂
I hope that any awareness raised by the Live 8 concerts can go toward coming up with solutions for global poverty, meaning both here and “over there”…