I am writing my reflections on the train journey home to be posted some time tonight when I get home.
It was a great experience to be part of thousands and a real honour and privilege to be able to listen to both Bob Geldof and Nelson Mandela. So much for the hoped for 10 000; I just read there were 22 000 of us there! Excellent!
They both spoke of the long wait of 30 years to see countries meet their promise of aid being 0.7% of GNP. As someone said it’s a long time to wait for less than 1%
Today there was passion for justice and respect for each other. The event had brought kids, teenagers. Parents and grandparents and everyone in between -you would not normally expect to see so many different people from different backgrounds together supporting the same one issue – it was a bit like the gathering of people that you would like to see in church
At the end Mandela aid not want to leave but Bob told him he had to because he was too old! Sadly, Mandela did look old and frail -physical movement was very slow, although it was clear that his mind is still fast and he can still deliver an excellent speech
I really hope this makes the politicians think again. Things have to change. Situations have to be made fair. It is time for justice.
Jamelia sang ‘Stop’. It was an appropriate song. We were told a story of Mary, a farmer in Gambia. She lives by selling chickens. The problem is at the moment she cannot sell her chickens due to the heavily subsidised chickens imported from the rich nations. The Gambian government is powerless, if it wants the aid is has to take the chickens. Mary has no income so that we in the west can stay rich. This is an injustice. This needs to stop.
Nelson Mandela ended his speech by saying that poverty was not a natural state. It is man made. I personally believe that in the west we have come to expect certain parts of the world to be poor. Mandela went on to say that we can eradicate poverty in our lifetime. You speech was excellent and you can read it in its entirety here.
Bob Geldof referred to Bono calling Mandela the President of Africa, and then laughed saying it was unlike him to understate facts. Geldof introduced Nelson Mandela as the president of the world. He is soon to be 88 – how fitting a mark of respect it would be if the G7 leaders tomorrow were to commit to eradicating poverty so that Mandela could see that before he dies.
It is that simple – it is not complicated. As Geldof said, lets cut the crap and stop worrying about what it will cost. We are talking here about a basic human right, not an act of charity.
A much better report of the day can be found on the Make Poverty History website.
For those interested I have put my photos of the day in my Flickr album which you can access on the right hand side of this blog.
The Shiny Headed Prophet 