Live 8 G8

Live 8, G8. It’s quite a week. I enjoyed what I saw of the Live 8 gig last weekend, and, for the most part, thought everyone did a decent job. Adrenalin got the better of a few, but the overall feeling was one of folk coming together under a certain amount of cajoling for something they basically believed in. For me it spells hope, common ground and humanity.Best moment for me was when Sting sang ‘Every Breath You Take’ with pictures of the G8 leaders behind him and worst moment was Snoop Dog. A little bad language doesn’t bother me, but his constant foul mouthed and self-absorbed lyrics were at total odds with what the day was about. It’s the names of the people dying in Africa we were about not his. ‘What’s my name?’ I wish all 150,000 of the crowd had yelled back ‘wanker’. George Bush arrives at Gleneagles, gets on his bike and puts a policeman in hospital. Classic stuff and I wont hold that against him. The anarchists would be proud too, but there behaviour disgusts me. They are an insult to the very folk they may claim to be fighting for and it of course undermines the good work being done by the millions that have been united under Make Poverty History. However, if those leaders get back on their jets with blood on their hands, then we should not approach forgiveness for there lack of decency. Theirs would be an act of the greatest ignorance in the face of overwhelming evidence and opinion of heart from much of the population of the planet.