It was an amazing experience being there and seeing all the acts perform and being involved in something so huge.....However.
As everyone knows this was all about trying to convince the G8 leaders to drop the debt that Africa owes. There were moments when the whole issue was encapsulated and this ended up silencing the entire crowd. When Annie Lennox performed Why and also when Bob Geldof replayed the memorable footage of the Ethiopian famine. I looked all around and saw a couple of people with tears in their eyes and a lot of people just staring at the floor.
It was moments like this that were meant to convince people of the need to act. To make sure that they had not just turned up in order to listen to music but also to undergo a change in thinking.
During these moments I, like everyone else, felt quite sad as well, but it was a different kind of sadness.
I knew that this whole campaign to try and make poverty history was doomed to fail. Even if the world leaders do act and eliminate debt to Africa; Bob Geldof, Bono and most of the rest of the Western World will somehow believe that we will be able to eliminate poverty through continued trade without even having a thought as to how energy will play a part.
I must have been one of very few people who actually knew about PO and it's importance to the human race. Whenever anyone made mention of the problems faced in Africa and how we could solve them I just sighed because to me this event just summed up the whole consensus trance that has enveloped the majority of the masses.
This belief that we can eliminate poverty through constant trade without even stopping to think that it is powered by finite energy sources. It is a belief that is even shared by BOb Geldof, and it was frustrating to see a someone put in a position of influence as he is, and then try to convince the world of his beliefs without really thinking of the bigger picture.
If the concerts have their desired effect and help to alter the mindset of the world then it will just be one the biggest contributions to the trance which is leading humanity to fall off the edge of the cliff. If ever there was an event that summed this mindset up then this was it.
If PO happens the way I think it will then Live 8 will probably be remembered as the point in history where the population of the world came together to help eliminate poverty. What they failed to realize however, was that the actual energy source needed to do this had started to run out and so the dream became a nightmare.
I seen no reason to hope that this concert will have a bigger impact than the previous ones that were directed to try to change the world. It is JUST a concert!!!
