Breaking News: Bob Geldof is Not Jesus...

... he is still a shameless self-promoting twat who continues to use his celebrity in the contemptible support of power.

As George Monbiot writes in a new piece, now that the attention has gone elsewhere, the G8's "promises" on debt and aid to Africa have been broken with such speed as to surprise even the most hardened cynics. The G8 "deals" themselves were hailed by Geldof as a resounding success (he at one point chanted the hopefully-infamous line "On aid 10 out of 10; On debt 8 out of 10" like some glazed-eye mantra to his great suited gods). That African campaigners themselves and campaign groups worldwide described the G8's actions as "a disaster for the world's poor" seems to have been besides the point.

Anyway, check out Monbiot’s piece, best summed up as follows:

"He [Geldof] seized a campaign which commanded great public enthusiasm, which had the potential gravely to embarrass Tony Blair and George Bush. He asked us to focus not on the harm the G8 leaders were doing, but on the help they might give. When they failed to deliver, he praised them anyway. His endorsement and the public forgetfulness it prompted helped license them to start reversing their commitments. When they did so, he said nothing. This looks to me like more than just political naivity. It looks as if he is working for the other side."

I personally don’t know why Geldof was given so much time after already amply proving that he’s a moron with statements like this.

For a longer and particularly damning deconstruction of Geldof and the whole Live8/Make Poverty History campaigns, I can't suggest any better article than this piece here by Stuart Hodkinson.