Live 8 urges leaders to “be great”
Live 8 organisers have issued a further plea to the world’s leaders to “be great” after some of the biggest names in music took to stages across the globe on Saturday to call for an end to African poverty.
Over a million people attended the anti-poverty concerts in ten cities, including London, Philadelphia, Paris, Berlin, Johannesburg, Rome and Moscow.
An audience of several hundred million also watched the concerts on television, while more than 26 million people sent text messages yesterday in support of the Live 8 campaign to implement fairer trade rules, cancel debts and boost aid to the poorest countries.
In a second open letter to world leaders ahead of next week’s G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, Live 8 organisers called on the heads of the richest industrialised nations to “really make a difference” to the poorest countries.
Bob Geldof, filmmaker Richard Curtis and U2’s Bono wrote: “For God’s sake, take this seriously. Don’t behave normally. Don’t look for compromises. Be great.”
“Do more than expected, not the least you can get away with.”
“You know what will really make a difference, what will turn extreme poverty around, what will actually begin to save the lives of millions of men, women and children.”
“Do it. Please do it. The world is watching.”
In London’s Hyde Park, scene of the biggest concert, the 200,000 crowd fell silent yesterday as Live 8 organiser Bob Geldof replayed Live Aid footage of the Ethiopian famine. After showing the image of a starving child, Geldof then introduced the same person, Birhan Woldu, now a healthy young woman, onto the stage.
The man behind the original Live Aid charity gigs 20 years ago told the crowd: “Mahatma Gandhi freed a continent, Martin Luther King freed a people, Nelson Mandela freed a country. It does work. They will listen.”
A host of stars including Paul McCartney, U2, Coldplay, Madonna, REM and Pink Floyd were joined on the stage in London by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and billionaire computer mogul Bill Gates, to highlight the anti-poverty message.
Meanwhile, in Edinburgh, over 200,000 protestors joined Saturday’s Make Poverty History march in protest at world poverty.
At 1500 GMT, the protestors, mostly dressed in white, stopped and held hands for a minute’s silence, forming a giant ring around the city centre.
