G8 Summit: Misplaced Effort

George Monbiot writes about the almost non-existent follow-up to the G8 summit, "...Two months have not elapsed since the G8 summit, and already almost everything has turned to ashes. Even the crustiest sceptics have been shocked by the speed with which its promises have been broken..."...The objectives of the whole Live 8 campaign had little to do with poverty reduction in Africa. It was a scheme intended to project Geldof and Blair as humanitarian figures coming to the rescue of 'poor and helpless' Africans..."Says Moussa Dembele "Right from the beginning," says Kofi Mawuli Klu of the Forum of African Human Rights Defenders, "he has acted in his own selfish interests. It was all about self-promotion, about usurping the place of Africans. His message was 'shut up and watch me'. Without even understanding the root causes of the problems, he used his role to drown the voices of the African people and replace them with his own..."