Live8, Ebay and misplaced moral outrage
ftp | 15.06.2005 11:38 | G8 2005 | Birmingham
Sir Slob Welloff (worth an estimated £50m) lead the baying hordes of 'Hoiler than thous' in a concerted attack on Ebay, forcing the site to withdraw Live8 tickets, on the grounds that the ticket sellers were
"capitalising on people's misery".
"capitalising on people's misery".
Playing Africa for profit
Today, the coverage of the Live8 event focusses almost soley on that moral outrage, and the root causes and misery of Africa's hungry millions are pushed even further into the background.
It is no surprise that the Live8 logo features Africa as a guitar, Welloff is playing the continent like an instrument to bring him adulation and cheers as he once again takes centre stage, shamelesslessy plugging himself and his record label stable...... at the expense of the same "people's misery" that he accuses ebay sellers of capitalising on.
The knotted neck of the guitar, with the words 'LIVE' above it are ironic as well. He most certainly has managed to knot up the already dubious aims of the Make Poverty History Campaign , by stealing the limelight with popstars and celebrities pushing his own pro-Blairite, pro-privatisation agenda.
Go to the front page of his website, and there is no link to Make Poverty History - instead you are invited to go to the Africa Commission, which the BBC tells us came from Welloff himself.
Whilst Live8 and MPH both advocate Debt cancellation and relief, there is a significant difference between them on the matter of TRADE JUSTICE , which MPH lists as it's number one priority. Welloff, Live8 and the Africa Commission have another agenda entirely.
For them the way forward is to deal with African corruption, and to embrace the New Partnership for Africa's Development NEPAD , which promotes neo-liberal buzzwords such as "democracy and good political governance". WB President and neo-con Paul Wolfowitz has declared corruption "the greatest evil facing the world since communism." (Move over Bin Laden.....eh?)
NEPAD is also fervently pro-privatisation as outlined in its Section 166.
" African governments must create a sound and conducive environment for private sector activities, promote foreign direct investment, trade, and exports, and local business must be fostered."
Whilst MPH calls for trade justice, Welloff and Live8 are pushing the agendas of the neo-cons, Blairites and big corporations, whose real interest in Africa is to exploit it more efficiently.
Thus no condemnation of the fact that the much vaunted $55m in debt relied is not new money, much of it is money that has has been promised before and never delivered.
No condemnation of the fact that any country benefitting fromn thse debt write-offs will have to agree to open up their markets and services to big Western MNCs, thus running the rest of exacerbating rather than reducing the misery in the long term.
And to muddy the debate even further, the debate is now reduced to the "ethics" of selling tickets fairly and squarely won in a lottery which paid the costs of the concert and gave £1.6 million to Bonny Prince Charlie.
Today we learn in the Guardian that:
"Live 8 organisers said they had not intended to produce official T-shirts or souvenir programmes for fear that it would muddy the message that Live 8 was designed not to raise money but to increase awareness of the causes of the Make Poverty History campaign.
They have now changed their minds in an attempt to stifle the market in bootleg T-shirts and other souvenirs."
Judging by the manufactured moral outrage in the news, and on bulletin boards (see for example Urban 75's thread where the autocratic and authoritarian editor was on 'top form'), Sir Welloff is winning the battles for hearts and minds, where a package designed to deliver the nefarious aims of the IMF, WB and WTO even more speedily will be declared a massive victory for "people power", and Africa will be left to return to it's inequality driven impoverishment away from the glare of the western media with its pop-stars and big business driven agenda.
If only the revulsion for making a quick buck at the expense of people's misery was directed at the super exploiters, eh? The Arms Trade, the Multi National Corporations , the politicians and their psycophantic popstars are much more deserving of the scorn - they really are "making a killing" at the expense of the starving. I have yet to see a convincing argument that there are any victims in the "immoral act" of selling a Live8 ticket on ebay.
Yet once again, the media driven outrage is directed at the little guys, in this case those who would rather have a grand than go and see a bunch of mostly white 'yesterday's heroes'. Tomorrow it will be directed elsewhere - Travellers? "Benefits Cheats"? Kids in Hoodies?
Who knows?
It is no surprise that the Live8 logo features Africa as a guitar, Welloff is playing the continent like an instrument to bring him adulation and cheers as he once again takes centre stage, shamelesslessy plugging himself and his record label stable...... at the expense of the same "people's misery" that he accuses ebay sellers of capitalising on.
The knotted neck of the guitar, with the words 'LIVE' above it are ironic as well. He most certainly has managed to knot up the already dubious aims of the Make Poverty History Campaign , by stealing the limelight with popstars and celebrities pushing his own pro-Blairite, pro-privatisation agenda.
Go to the front page of his website, and there is no link to Make Poverty History - instead you are invited to go to the Africa Commission, which the BBC tells us came from Welloff himself.
Whilst Live8 and MPH both advocate Debt cancellation and relief, there is a significant difference between them on the matter of TRADE JUSTICE , which MPH lists as it's number one priority. Welloff, Live8 and the Africa Commission have another agenda entirely.
For them the way forward is to deal with African corruption, and to embrace the New Partnership for Africa's Development NEPAD , which promotes neo-liberal buzzwords such as "democracy and good political governance". WB President and neo-con Paul Wolfowitz has declared corruption "the greatest evil facing the world since communism." (Move over Bin Laden.....eh?)
NEPAD is also fervently pro-privatisation as outlined in its Section 166.
" African governments must create a sound and conducive environment for private sector activities, promote foreign direct investment, trade, and exports, and local business must be fostered."
Whilst MPH calls for trade justice, Welloff and Live8 are pushing the agendas of the neo-cons, Blairites and big corporations, whose real interest in Africa is to exploit it more efficiently.
Thus no condemnation of the fact that the much vaunted $55m in debt relied is not new money, much of it is money that has has been promised before and never delivered.
No condemnation of the fact that any country benefitting fromn thse debt write-offs will have to agree to open up their markets and services to big Western MNCs, thus running the rest of exacerbating rather than reducing the misery in the long term.
And to muddy the debate even further, the debate is now reduced to the "ethics" of selling tickets fairly and squarely won in a lottery which paid the costs of the concert and gave £1.6 million to Bonny Prince Charlie.
Today we learn in the Guardian that:
"Live 8 organisers said they had not intended to produce official T-shirts or souvenir programmes for fear that it would muddy the message that Live 8 was designed not to raise money but to increase awareness of the causes of the Make Poverty History campaign.
They have now changed their minds in an attempt to stifle the market in bootleg T-shirts and other souvenirs."
Judging by the manufactured moral outrage in the news, and on bulletin boards (see for example Urban 75's thread where the autocratic and authoritarian editor was on 'top form'), Sir Welloff is winning the battles for hearts and minds, where a package designed to deliver the nefarious aims of the IMF, WB and WTO even more speedily will be declared a massive victory for "people power", and Africa will be left to return to it's inequality driven impoverishment away from the glare of the western media with its pop-stars and big business driven agenda.
If only the revulsion for making a quick buck at the expense of people's misery was directed at the super exploiters, eh? The Arms Trade, the Multi National Corporations , the politicians and their psycophantic popstars are much more deserving of the scorn - they really are "making a killing" at the expense of the starving. I have yet to see a convincing argument that there are any victims in the "immoral act" of selling a Live8 ticket on ebay.
Yet once again, the media driven outrage is directed at the little guys, in this case those who would rather have a grand than go and see a bunch of mostly white 'yesterday's heroes'. Tomorrow it will be directed elsewhere - Travellers? "Benefits Cheats"? Kids in Hoodies?
Who knows?
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