The Farce of Live8

For the past several months the focus of the entertainment world has been on the Live8 concerts and their great cause. Wow, simultaneous concerts with some of the world's biggest entertainers all giving their precious time and talents to help those in Africa. For a split second (then I came to my senses and realized who I was dealing with) I thought, what a great idea, private citizens raising money to donate privately to help needy people out. But as I realized later that the Live8 concerts were not to raise money to send to Africa, it was to prompt people to get their governments to send money. Here is Jonah Glodberg with an explanation:

You may be wondering how much money this intercontinental jam session
[called Live8] raised for the sick and dying of Africa. Alas, not a farthing.
Sir Bob Geldof was very explicit about this point. Live8 was intended to raise
consciousness and exert political pressure on the G8 summiteers. No one was
allowed to actually raise money for the masses of starving people in Africa.
None of the dollars spent on the concert by fans, corporate sponsors, or
television networks will reach Africa. Charities couldn't rattle tin cups
outside the porta-potties and concession stands. This was solely an effort to
prod the West to get behind the slogan, 'Make Poverty History.' ... Very smart
people have been trying really, really hard to make poverty history for a long
time. Heck, they've been working very hard to make Africa just ever-so-slightly
less hellish for a very long time. Debt relief is probably part of a potential
solution, but without ending Africa's tendency to produce horrible, greedy
dictatorships, debt relief is more akin to paying off a drug addict's credit
cards. Even if the concert-goers were speaking with a single voice, they weren't
saying anything of much use, except 'we care' -- and aren't we special people
for it? Geldof summed up the attitude perfectly when he said, 'Something must be
done, even if it doesn't work.' This concert was an exercise in boosting the
self-esteem of the audience." --Jonah Goldberg