Geldof is a moral inspiration
It is a privilege to have broadband in order to be able to hear the moral clarity of Bob Geldof. He was up at 6am on March 11 to launch Our Common Interest:The Report of the Commission for Africa with Brown, Blair and a host of politicos. You can download his speech in braodband and narrowband here at the Commission for Africa website and it is inspiring."...Let me tell you what the cost is....One half stick of chewing gum for each citizen of the G7 countries, a half stick each a day.."
I love hearing Geldof talk. Feeds into a childish pride of a fellow Irish man, the guy my parents tut- tutted about when he cursed the narrow-mindedness of this country in the seventies. But this transcends childish morality. None of us is pure. We can all be small minded and habitually selfish. But to hear about this stuff is to be snapped out of one's self-indulgent trance, to be reminded that I am one of the very lucky people on the planet, a rich person [ in global terms] living in a liberal democracy. I'm going to read this report.
The political bit: In an answer to Brian O' Connell of RTE news, Geldof was searing in his criticism of the government's reneging of it's promises on Overseas Development Aid (0.7. per cent of GDP on ODA by the year 2007). This promise should be a non negotiable component of any Programme for Government enacted by a government of which Labour is a part.
<< Home