Shows how ignorant people are...

[Pilaf]

I was watching the Live 8 concert on MTV yesterday, which is supposed to help end poverty in Africa... at the very end of the program one of the announcers said something like "It's been a long day. Let's go get a cheese steak!" Ya know, that's completely ironic to me and all of us on this site who realize that the meat industry is partially to blame for world hunger.

[foxytina_69]

thats so sad. i wish they had'nt said that!

[tasha]

Some of those people who help to raise money don't understand the real reason they are there. They are uneducated about the facts and, yes, it is sad.

[Realfood Mary]

The whole thing seemed so misguided and celebrity driven that I actually started crying at one point and switched it off. It was Madonna what did it for me. Media hag. I hate her!

[kriz]

Have you ever seen Madonna's name linked to any good causes before?...I haven't.

[tasha]

Have you ever seen Madonna's name linked to any good causes before?...I haven't.

Ahhh...come on, she kissed Britney--I'm sure some men believe that is a good cause.

[spo]

Some of those people who help to raise money don't understand the real reason they are there. They are uneducated about the facts and, yes, it is sad.

You've said it all for me, tasha.
spo

[eve]

If anyone got up to explain the main reasons for African poverty - (1) bad trade deals with the rich countries, making them uncompetitive because the US and UK subsidise their own farmers so much, and (2) corrupt african governments - who would listen? Just giving handouts worsens the situation.

[bittersweet]

Farm subsidies are actually an EU issue over here, not primarily a UK one - but I agree they are foul anyway...

[realfood neil]

Geldof is an intelligent man so he should understand that his actions are disempowering people not empowering them. People think that going to a pop concert to listen to a bunch of over the top has been pop stars rant on about a subject most of them know very little about will change the world. The same attitude of the protesters who thought that turning up in London on Mayday would change the world. How naive can you get. Also marching through Edinburgh, do people really think that doing this will change the minds of politicians who do what their paymasters, the major multinationals companies tell them?
For all the crap that Bush sprouts he is the only one who doesn’t try to hide his colours. He said he will only agree to give Africa money or deal with the environmental problems if his paymasters the oil, coal and big chemical companies are not affected. Blair just tells out and out lies, and tries publicly to appease all sides but only signing up to agreements that help English companies.

People need to realise that one big demo is going to change nothing. Constant pressure is the only thing that will change politician’s minds. It wasn’t the poll tax riots that made Thatcher do a u-turn on the poll tax but constant pressure at a local and national level followed by the riot which was the final nail in the coffin lid. NAVS used to run big marches for animals in labs day through London. The marches averaged 15,000+ whereas most of the other demos throughout the year averaged no more than 1,500. Listening to people on the march you could hear them talk about how this was the highlight of their year. How they treated the march like a summer holiday. And how they really thought that turning up for their yearly march would really go anywhere to stopping vivisection.

These marches, pop concerts or any kind of big demo like this do not empower people - it gives them the impression that all they need to do is turn up on the event and leave the negotiating to the people in the know, those at the top. In the Live 8 campaign they leave it to Geldof and ‘super cool’ Bono to tell the politicians what to do, and they think the politicians will do exactly what they want because 205,000 people turned up to Hyde Park and over 200,000 turned up in Edinburgh. This will change nothing. If people need an example of why this doesn’t work 2million turned up in London to a stop the war march and Blair just went to war anyway. Democracy doesn’t exist until we force it down the politicians throats. The same goes for animal rights.

Rant over

[Raskolnikov]

The whole thing seemed so misguided and celebrity driven that I actually started crying at one point and switched it off. It was Madonna what did it for me. Media hag. I hate her!

*Sigh.* Indeed. I couldn't bear to watch her either.

[cedarblue]

(point of gig=to raise awareness of world poverty & suffering)

mariah carey "and heres my latest single"!!! [unquote 'go buy it now and raise me some more cash i dont need']

is she going to donate the $$ from sales of this single to charity as dave gilmour suggested bands who experience an upsurge of their record sales do??

[puffin]

(point of gig=to raise awareness of world poverty & suffering)

mariah carey "and heres my latest single"!!! [unquote 'go buy it now and raise me some more cash i dont need']

I got really annoyed about that to, blackeyed peas and will smith also mentioned that they were singing there new single, i dont know why they didnt just mention when it would be available in the shops to

[essence_uk]

Apparently the woman in charge of catering the backstage Live 8 goings on boasted on radio that she needed 2000 burgers and half a ton of bacon over the course of the day.

People, be very careful in which causes you support and which behaviours you thus perpetuate because western style development comes at great cost while the current charity trend is for live animal donations.

[tasha]

Apparently the woman in charge of catering the backstage Live 8 goings on boasted on radio that she needed 2000 burgers and half a ton of bacon over the course of the day.

People, be very careful in which causes you support and which behaviours you thus perpetuate because western style development comes at great cost while the current charity trend is for live animal donations.

I rarely donate to many causes anymore as I have learned of so many that actually test on animals, indirectly and directly support "animal massacre", etc.

Many charities raise money by having BBQ's and I have yet to see one that even offers veggie dogs.

Maybe I look too deep into things or go a bit too far, I realize some of these charities are for a good benefit, but while helping one benefit, I am sometimes supporting a a nasty cause behind closed doors. I hate trying to explain why I don't want to "help the children go to camp" or something like that, with Mcdonalds (they had a tent set up at the multicultural fest). I'd love to help out the kids, but in doing that, I am helping McD's to continue their charity and advertise their name! I sometimes feel as though they think I'm a rude fool--oh well!

I have my beliefs and they have theirs.

[librahi]

I do agree, Bono is a great guy, great band, does a lot of good work, but why can't he see that factory farming is the major cause for all of this? Paul McCartney is a vegan, so is Natalie Portman, why can't they say something to that effect on stage? I don't get it?

Messed up world we live in. One by one, we can make a difference though, that's what I'm trying to teach everyone I interact with and seems to care...

[Realfood Mary]

Paul McCartney is not a vegan, sorry. He said so most recently on air with 4 million brits listening, though he is sympathetic to veganism, and one of his sons is a vegan. He was defending vegan parents, and pointed out that vegan kids he knew were "fantastic", but admitted to only being veg, and to having raised his kids veggie.

This isn't to criticise him, just to point out the fact. Personally I was really glad to hear him come on the Jeremy Vine show and tell him that vegans were not child abusers and to stop talking such nonsense.

I do wish he would go vegan though.

[Daniel]

People, be very careful in which causes you support and which behaviours you thus perpetuate because western style development comes at great cost while the current charity trend is for live animal donations.

Yes, this is exactly what Live 8 is doing. I'm actually writing an article on this right now on one charity that is "giving cows, goats and other food- and income-producing livestock to improverished families around the world."

Money from Live 8 goes to the Band Aid Charitable Trust. Here are some of the pojects they have fund:

In 2000, £19,792 went to a "Goat project". In 2004, £6,657 went to a "Pig farming project" and £30,000 to a "Fish and animal farming project" both in Uganda. In 2005, £48,718 to "Reclamation of grazing land leading to increased livestock and food security" in Ethiopia, and £15,680 to a "Livestock, seeds and training project" in Uganda. Money is given to Oxfam on a regular basis for projects like these in Ethiopia: "Household food security" (£62,285); "Livelihoods project" (£49,463); and "Agricultural livelihoods programme" (£350,000). An example of this "livelihood" work is Oxfam "gives poor families a pregnant cow and allows them to repay the 'loan' by giving the calf to another family."

[Roxy]

Oh god Daniel - I had no idea! Thank you so much for pointing all of that out!

Tasha - don't feel bad. You might remember recently that my boss put on a BBQ outside our store one day, to raise money for a couple of children's charities. She didn't supply any veg dogs or burgers, even at my request. Anyway, she was serving a customer one day prior to the BBQ and told the customer we were having the BBQ on Saturday. The customer said "will you be catering for vegetarians". My boss stumbled her way through some kind of explanation that it was too expensive or some crap. Well this woman said "I appreciate that you want to raise money to help children, but I don't see why animals have to die in order to help people. Actually, I boycott companies who fundraise and refuse to cater for vegetarians" and she walked out. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face and looked at my boss as if to say "I told you so".

Didn't change anything though. She still didn't cater for veggies.

[ccgyrl]

what drove ME crazy is that here in the states, you could only watch the live8 on cable tv, and those channels that covered it had lots of ads. i would be surprized if the money from the ads went to any good causes and i'm also pissed that this thing that was supposed to be free to everyone actually was only free to people who can afford cable.

[essence_uk]

Yes, this is exactly what Live 8 is doing. I'm actually writing an article on this right now on one charity that is "giving cows, goats and other food- and income-producing livestock to improverished families around the world."

Money from Live 8 goes to the Band Aid Charitable Trust. Here are some of the pojects they have fund:

In 2000, £19,792 went to a "Goat project". In 2004, £6,657 went to a "Pig farming project" and £30,000 to a "Fish and animal farming project" both in Uganda. In 2005, £48,718 to "Reclamation of grazing land leading to increased livestock and food security" in Ethiopia, and £15,680 to a "Livestock, seeds and training project" in Uganda. Money is given to Oxfam on a regular basis for projects like these in Ethiopia: "Household food security" (£62,285); "Livelihoods project" (£49,463); and "Agricultural livelihoods programme" (£350,000). An example of this "livelihood" work is Oxfam "gives poor families a pregnant cow and allows them to repay the 'loan' by giving the calf to another family."

It's perverse for vegans/animal rights advocates to get behind live/G 8 (and virtually all forms of famine relief/human centred chairty) period as the difference in interests is too wide to ignore. This is a humanist, speciesist centred cause with the continued domination of one species the sole outcome.

Seems almost illiberal at first glance and of course taboo to say that western model of development desired quickly by the massive populations (Due to grow further with conditions set to thrive) of so called "undeveloped nations" is terrifying. Increased depletion of resources, oil consumption for cars, increased electricity usage, increased habitat destruction for urbanisation and from purely vegan level more industrialised slaughterhouses to match the western luxury of flesh heavy diets.

This cause is one which boasted of using half a ton in pig flesh at it's corner stone event and ignorantly wants to offer factory farmed flesh as core means to feed any "starving" human. To the non-speciesist we may even query why the focus on the human animal when other species go extinct daily and already face fast losing their lands which they deserve equal consideration and claim to. As somebody suggested above the promotion of veganism is already the best cause of action for everybody (including but not only humans).

I applaud your article, I hope you make it throrough and distribute it widely because it's a matter of challenging the potentially disastrous outcomes of a goal that nobody in this sickeningly human-centric world dares criticise. If you need any assistance contact me.

[kimmyk]

Has anyone seen the new mikes hard lemonade commercial. I'ts stupid and sickening. Well Anyways the opening line to the commercial is "I'm here for the vegan convention." When he's at BB'Q.

[Lindsay]

How stupid is that liquor commercial?? Maybe they'll get a few complaints for their stupidity and distastefulness. I haven't seen the commercial, but I bet it's not long now before it comes on when I'm watching.