LIVE 8 (page 4)

Bas

I live 30 minutes from the Live 8 concert in Philly and stayed as far away from it as I could. ; I didn't even bother to watch it on tv. ; ;Our local news is filled with ;the coverage of it. ;

Shame on you.....

Bas

Go here to sign the Live8 list: http://www.live8live.com/list/ ....I also uploaded my picture for the G8 march, felt damn powerful....

tijkmo

well there was the good the not so good and the awesome

the good....u2...elton...coldplay...(except richard ashcroft and pete doherty were mince) madonna keane dido..robbie williams..paul mcartney..annie lennox..rem

not so good...travis

poor...snow patrol...yet to see a good live performance from these guys...shame..cd is great

awesome...sting ..the who...pink floyd

talesin

DEF LEPPARD!

Demolition woman, can I be your man?

t

talesin

Hey, where is everyone?

Sir Paul McCartney,,, you can drive my car!

lol !

Satanus

Tale

Here are some examples of the sources problems in a few african countries:

what does cause poverty in the [african] Third World?

The answer is Africa's corrupt, greedy and evil dictators. Either they openly plunder their nations wealth, or they are simply incompetent, or a mixture of the two. Many simply steal the foreign aid they get from the West and line their own pockets with it. For instance, the former dicatator of Nigeria Sani Abacha and his associates swindled US$500 million out of his country. This is the exact amount that Nigeria owes the West according to the "1oo Days" publication of Operation World, a Christian group. Despite Nigeria's much touted oil wealth, the country is crippled by official corruption and mismanagement; whilst the Nigerian government sells its own people gasoline at prices that are amongst the planets cheapest, whole tanker truck fulls of Nigerian gasoline are smuggled into neighbouring countries for sale at highly inflated prices. Nigeria often fails to meet its OPEC export quota targets, and production is often disrupted by drilling and pumping equipment malfunctions and/or sabotage by unhappy workers. When Nigeria's oil wells are eventually pumped dry, the country, which should be amongst the worlds wealthiest, will have little to show for it.

Another example of Third World governments incompetence and corruption came in Sierra Leone. Despite being rich in gold and diamonds, government corruption and mismanagement led to the currency, the Leone, becoming so devalued so quickly, that the economy at one stage was forced to revert to bartering. The economy was left in such ruin, they could not even afford the ink and paper to print more bank notes. Sierra Leone has since become one of the worlds "hot spots". In nearby Ivory Coast, the former president Houphouet-Boigny spent nearly $US30o million building palaces, and built a church so large and expensive, the Vatican had to specifically ask him to reduce its size so as not to eclipse St Peter's as Christendoms largest church. The church is in the insignificant small village he was born in, and is the location the countries only major highway, despite the fact this village has little, if indeed any trade with the capital city. He also has plans to have his state funeral there, which will not be cheap.

In Zambia, President Kenneth Kaunde plundered so much wealth from his country and foreign aid, that he was estimated to be worth as much as US$ 6 billion. In the meantime, his government's spending on education more than halved, despite the number of students doubling.

But the gold medal for corruption, greed and incompetence, is hotly contested by Mobutu Sese Seku of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Mobutu was dictator of Zaire for nearly four decades, and ruled with an iron fist. He plundered as much as US$10 billion from his country and foreign aid, which he used to build dozens of palaces, chateau's and villas for himself and his innner circle at locations across the world. He ordered those around him to call him "Messiah", and over saw an elaborate and bizarre cult of the personality centred around him and his venerated mother. Hospitals were not built in over twenty years, and staff had to be bribed to work. Despite Zaire's staggering wealth in terms of Uranium and diamonds, its per capita income was 1/10th of what it had been under Belgian colonial rule. Roads and railways fell into such disrepair that journey's that under Belgian rule took just days could take months, and in some parts of the country, were now impossible. Despite the fact that a Hydro-electric dam built in Zaire would have generated enough electricity to supply nearly 25% of the entire African continents electricity, electricity was nothing but a distant dream for the people, who instead had to rely on candles and fire wood.

Mugabe has clearly cut off his ideological nose to spite his economic face. A committed Marxist, Mugabe spent much of his youth carrying out terrorist attacks on African's who would not tow the line. Once in power, he ordered the seizure of land from Zimbabwe's commercial farmers for "redistribution of wealth". These farmers provided employment for millions of Africans, many of whom were rendered jobless over night, indeed, Zimbabwe now has the worlds highest rate of unemployment. The farms also provided food, so much so Zimbabwe was once known as the bread basket of Africa. Now thanks to Mugabe and his hench men murdering and driving out the white farmers, and mismanaging the farms they seized, 3 million Zimbabweans face starvation. Corruption and incompetence led to inflation topping 600%, and fuel became so scarce, that ambulances had to be pulled by oxen. Yet despite all this, Mugabe and his wife Grace, jet around in Mercedes limousines, and Grace, a shopaholic, spends thousands on designer clothes.

http://www.ukipforum.co.uk/about4177.html

What is the solution? I'm not sure. Perhaps knock over corrupt rulers and keep replacing them w different guys until they get a good one.

S