Lay off Live8 (From Barry And District News)

Lay off Live8

I AM writing in response to the letter from A J D Coxon (Barry and District News, July 21) in which he attacked the Live8 concerts. I was fortunate to attend the Hyde Park concert on July 2, and do not share Mr Coxon"s views. I feel I should first defend the music, which Mr Coxon rubbished without even watching the concert. He branded the performers as "foul mouthed and scruffy" and their lyrics as "banal rubbish". Nothing could be further from the truth from a concert that gave thought-provoking songs from some of the greatest ever artists who seemed to care deeply about the cause.

Mr Coxon also attacked the integrity of the event suggesting that the performers, who had more money, should not tell us how to spend ours yet the slogan for the whole event was: "We don"t want your money, we want you". The whole point of the event was to highlight the desperate situation in Africa, not to raise money but to change attitudes. Mr Coxon also doubted the effectiveness of the event commenting that politicians would not be influenced by "a few thousand of the less intelligent members of the community jigging up and down at a concert". Firstly I am a third year university student, as is my partner who I went to the concert with. Two friends, one a GP and one an Astrophysicist also joined us. Secondly it was not merely a few thousand people it was 250,000 people in Hyde Park, over one million people at other venues and over two billion watching on TV. Furthermore as a result of the Live 8 events over 30 million people signed a petition presented to the leaders of G8.

Mr Coxon also had some dated and ill informed views on the situation in Africa, suggesting that the Africans need to help themselves and that giving them aid is not beneficial as it goes into the pockets of the rich. This is not true. The money that is given in aid goes back to the richest countries in the world. For every $1 given in aid at least $3 is spent on debt payments and the money will never fully be paid back without debt relief. This situation is terrible but it doesn"t mean that aid doesn"t work. Also present at the Hyde Park concert was a young lady called Birhan Woldu who was dying 20 years ago but survived because of the Live Aid concerts in 1985. This served as a strong reminder of what can be achieved. Only time will tell what sort of impact Live 8 will have in Africa but one thng is certain - sitting back and doing nothing is not an option.

B Davies

Barry