We can rest easy. The Village Voice has spoken.
And here's what James Ridgeway had to say:
The G8 gathering in Scotland, featuring George Bush crashing his bicycle and Tony Blair strutting back and forth as the new kingmaker of Europe, provided the symbolic background for today’s terrorist bombings in London. The conference permits the assembled heads of African states to come forward, hat in hand, to thank their benefactors and ask for more, in the form of debt forgiveness. All in all, the summit is one of the more ludicrous meetings of rich and poor in recent times.
It was made only more so by Bob Geldof’s Live 8 concerts, in which the world’s music stars lent their names to the African cause. They managed to create the impression the rest of the world cared about Africa, when in fact, it does not....
Casting the image of someone who cares for sick and starving people in Africa doubtless plays to the president’s evangelical following—a movement that offers charity as a lure in the search for converts....
The economies of African nations remain fixed in time, never seeming to move beyond 19th century colonial status. Africa is immensely rich in natural resources, which for hundreds of years have been exploited by the industrialized nations of the West. Nothing changes here....[R]eliance on the export of low-priced raw commodities in Africa by cheap (and sometimes slave) labor never changes. Today it is reinforced by the policies of the IMF and World Bank which, if anything, push for more exports at the expense of developing national economies.
It is this situation that al Qaeda and allied groups, whose members have tried to take credit for today’s attack, seek to exploit.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera website visitors have weighed in on a poll:
Which event has more power to alleviate poverty in Africa?
a. Live 8 concert
b. G8 summit
c. Neither
a 13%
b 31%
c 56%
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