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Live 8 money raised for Africa 'goes to civil wars'


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Billions of dollars raised for African famine relief by celebrities Bono and Bob Geldof have instead funded civil war across the continent, says terrorism expert Dr Loretta Napoleoni.
London-based Napoleoni, in Auckland to appear at the Writers & Readers Festival, has written two books, Terror Inc: Tracing the Money Behind Global Terrorism and Insurgent Iraq: Al-Zarqawi and the New Generation, on the economics of terrorism.Her latest book, Rogue Economics, studies the destabilising effect of economic globalisation, focusing in part on why more than half a trillion dollars worth of aid sent to Africa since the 1960s failed to reach the intended destination - developing the nations' economies.That huge amount of aid, which includes money from the United Nations and donations generated by Live Aid for Ethiopia, organised by Geldof, and the Live 8 concert in 2005, organised by Bono, has instead "served as a rogue force, notably as an important form of terrorist financing" in countries such as Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Kenya. Ethiopia, for example, received $1.8 billion in foreign aid between 1982-85, including a large contribution from Live Aid; $1.6 billion of that, she points out, was spent on buying military equipment.
"The money has ended up making Africa poorer and more violent because the money has been diverted towards warlords, weapons and armed invasions," she says. "The problem of Africa is corruption."
By Linda Herrick, nz herald
stone246

27 responses // Live 8 money raised for Africa 'goes to civil wars'

  • The problems of the world could all be summarize into CORRUPTION and f%*#ing greed!!
    gravityaddicts
  • http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/U2_2...
    Image...
    His haircut was the original terrorism that Bono supported.
    joshuaheller
  • Radix malorum cupiditas est.

    Corruption exists in every country, not just the 'poor' ones, it's just some governments manage to hide it better than others.
    _Hayko
  • not surprising

    people raise money and give it to them, and then they turn around and spend it how they want
    if fighting and war is more important then food then let them all starve stop giving them money and instead give them food and water.

    stupid celebraties can't do anything right funding wars half way across the world. pffftt...
    RoBot_rOcKer
    1 response to this
  • This is sad for the whole continent. I''m afraid people will hesitate to give aid to Africa if this is the result .
    stone246

  • ... a reminder that money is not the answer.

    No amount of money can replace true compassion.


    whatis
  • excellent article . i've known many people who've served as Peace Corps volunteers all over Africa and knew about the corruption this story refers to for over 20 years - one girl in zimbabwe told me she couldn't send her reports because the post-office attendants would take the stamps off and re-sell them - and this was happening while the country was receiving tens of millions in aid - another story : 2 guys helped build a water pump for a village in kenya , came back 2 months later , and it had been disassembled and the parts were being used on donkey carts - i have hundreds of these stories , not even involving war - there are countries so poor , and so accustomed to being poor , they can't afford to care about what happens for the greater good , and their govt's literally couldn't care less - they just want to be pampered , and outdo each other - it's backwards .
    sadly , going into Africa and solving these ills would require the kind of UN intervention which would create a body count which would make US losses in Iraq look like an afternoon in the park .
    the only thing that can save Africa is the kind of population control the promotion of contraceptives offers . perversely , doing nothing and just letting Aids thin the populations out is the other alternative - sounds sick , but this is the real world .
    malathion
  • Money isn't the answer but it sure goes along way in terms of funding Africa's hungry etc.
    stone246
  • Good one Bonner... Ah Bono.
    photobase
  • http://current.com/items/88868962_bono_is_evil
    No way! I was right! Bono IS evil!
    superkiy
  • Bono isn't evil. He may have had some of the worst haircuts known to mankind but this has no correlation for what he has done, or better yet what he, and those below him, have failed to do... Do you really believe that it was his intention to have the money diverted for military use. I for one do not.

    Loretta Napoleani is right on the issue of corruption, but it is not alone. It is this widespread corruption/ cultural differences(thanks imperialization)/ and the constants state of war that cause such things to occur.

    I do understand that Africa is not a total war ground, that would be biased on all accounts. There are regions in Africa(congo/somalia/sudan/etc...) that once there does seem to be a glimmer of hope for the future then along comes another dictator or rival group that screams genocide to provoke a war.

    Well, maybe I am just rambling on... In my opinion the only true way to solve problems such as the one in this article is to emphasize on education. Education that goes beyond the stigma of cultural differences to establish generations which truly seek improvement.

    The Invisible Children organization seems to be doing a good job at providing such an avenue possible for the children of Uganda. Hopefully. No, rather supportively, I wish to see such organizations that emphasize education succeed.
    camp_ernest
    1 response to this
  • bono may be evil but he isn't responsable. his heart was in the right place it's the people spending the money that are the problem
    RoBot_rOcKer
  • i will never take anyone seriously who wears sunglasses 24/7 - and if Bone-o actually has a sight problem , why hasn't he had lasik surgery , or wear contacts? Hey Bone-o , if you wanna see things in the proper light , take off yer freaking sunglasses a--hole .
    malathion
  • Its not bono fault its the corrupt officials of the countries the aid goes to. Though he clearly needs to invest more time and understands how and where the money is used .
    stone246
  • Bono is the biggest wanker of our time, and africa cant be helped.
    realcanadian
  • wait, what?...1.6 billion dollars out of 1.8 was spent on military funding???? can someone explain this to me please..
    keeshii768
  • I believe it
    tanyetta
  • Bono should follow up on all the money he raised and make sure it's going where it's was supposed to. There should be systems in place to make sure the aid gets to the people that need it.

    I think his charity work is partly a publicity stunt, and partly a way to deal with the middle class guilt that comes from sitting in a fat mansion watching the world suffer on TV through sunglasses. At least he tries I suppose, better than Madonna just going round buying babies ...
    Pardon
  • I think it is very easy for people who don't like Bono to say "you see? he's evil, boner, a stunt...bla bla", and i am amazed that they don't see that the problem is corruption, greed, no-education... People, do you really think that Bono can have such an influence on politics to be able to monitor where all the money gathered go to, to "save" Africa, to keep Africans from fighting and so on? To save the World? Of course not!!! But at least he tries to send a message...and the politicians who should receive this message, they really don't care at all as long as they can keep their countries wealthy and rich by exploiting poorer countries. And the best way to keep being rich is selling weapons. So i think the real issue here is "how many weapons is my country selling to Africa? how does my country contribute to this?"
    xx_leela
  • http://current.com/items/76394282_st_bob_or_sinner
    Image...
    This is a pod from last year that looks at what happened to a small African town that made Sir Bob development chief.
    Lina1980
  • I'll tell ya, we sent some of our best troops into Somalia to try and MAKE SURE that the people, and not the warlords, were getting the food that the UN was sending for the starving masses. The starving masses sided with the warlords and dragged our soldiers' bodies through the streets. Maybe corruption isn't the only problem in Africa, when entire cities of people literally bite the hand that's trying to feed them.
    hawaii_guy_1010
  • yeah just throwing money at problems & not offering real solutions is usually a bad idea...you gotta teach your brother to fish so he won't starve, but i think a lot of charities & the people that donate to them forget about making sure no one steals the rod after the lesson is just as critical.
    blackdaylight
  • Throwing money is not the solution, corruption certainly is not the only problem, somebody should monitor where the moeny goes to...it's all true. The truth of the matter is that this issue is very complicated and i'm starting to wonder if there exists a real will to solve all those problems Africa has...this is just my humble opinion.
    xx_leela
  • GOD HELP AFRICA...because I don't think we can...I WISH WE COULD- it's SO F***ing SAD!!!! I don't understand HOW people can live like that...in constant fear of murder/invasion/rape/AIDS/starvation...and NO ONE seems to be able to do a goddamn thing to help these people...surely they are not all corrupt or evil...they've just been condition to a traumatic way-of-life...and they don't know anything different...you see it in their eyes- the LACK of hope, the despair....it's HEARTBREAKING....is AFRICA really a "lost cause?"
    OneLuv
    1 response to this

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