>From the article posted by claudiok about the upcoming G8 summit: > Some British officials are nervous that if London beats Paris, > President Jacques Chirac of France will be in wrecking mood at > Gleneagles; though that seems a little unlikely.
If you'd seen Chirac doing his thing on a daily basis, as you have no choice but to see in France, you might not find this suspicion so unlikely. As some French wag put it, "Only George W. Bush could have made Jacques Chirac look like a good guy." > This time, though, things are a little different. UK Prime Minister > Tony Blair, anxious to try to rebuild some of the trust he has lost > at home, has formed an ad hoc alliance with Live 8 organiser Bob > Geldof to infuse some idealism into the G8 process. > > As a result, they have staged a kind of ambush for the other G8 > leaders: fulfil the expectations of the millions who watched the > Live 8 concerts around the world, they are saying, or be condemned > as failures. Interesting. Very interesting. If true, Blair, knowing he's on the way out, may be seeking to make at least part of his legacy to the world positive. It will certainly be a fascinating thing to watch. And, as a result of Live 8, millions of people *will* be watching. Until Saturday, they wouldn't have been. The vast majority of them would be watching the sitcoms or bowling doing whatever they would "normally" be doing. But this week, they will be watching these world leaders to see what they do about one simple statistic: one every three seconds. One every three seconds. That was the simple numerical message of Live 8. One human being -- man, woman, or child -- dies of poverty in Africa every three seconds. They die while we watch sitcoms or bowl or do whatever we "normally" do to avoid thinking about things like this. Since this broadcast, many of us, the everyday people of the world, are for a few days having trouble living with ourselves for not doing enough to end this slow genocide. We're watching these leaders, and asking them, "Don't you feel the same way?" I watched a lot of the Live 8 broadcast because the whole thing is just such an amazing, out- of-the-box-thinking PHENOMENON. Live 8 was an idea that at face value sounds absurd. Have a few rock concerts and affect the rich old men who will make decisions about life and death for millions of people in a room in Scotland. "Absurd," screams the rational mind. "Never happen," snides the inner cynic in each of us. But y'know what? It might just work. Wouldn't that be a kick in the ass. Unc To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
