the irony that is live 8

What's the real reason Live 8 is going on today? Call me a cynic but here are my reasons for believing so and maybe you will call me a realist by the end...

1.) This is an effort to put pressure on the G8 leaders to end world poverty.
2.) Contrary to popular belief, world poverty can be ended by a bunch of people going to a bunch of big concerts.
3.) Okay okay so there's a "workable plan" these celebs and masses of people are supporting for the G8 leaders to adopt.
4.) Drum roll please......... and the workable plan IS........... I don't know, I can't find it anywhere on the internet for my reading pleasure.
5.) One of my bosses tells me the plan is to simply erase the debt of these poverty-stricken countries.
6.) Okay so if all this is actually about money, please someone publish how much of their absolute excess money these celebrities have given. This statement excludes a few choice celebs who actually put their money where their mouth is.
7.) Also on the subject of money, if the billions of dollars of debt is simply erased... who takes the hit? I am under the impression that this is not just virtual money. Somebody's going to lose out on billions of dollars. What would the aftermath of that be?
8.) I somehow think that money is not the only cause of poverty.
9.) As pointed out so astutely by the same boss, if these countries aren't writing other countries checks for a billion dollars every year... what gaurantee is there that they will use that money to feed their poor? They can do whatever they want with it and frankly that means they could buy more guns.
10.) I say again... money is not the only cause of poverty.
11.) Excuse me for saying so but didn't they do this already 20 years ago and, in a move that made a lot more sense, encouraged people to call and donate, raising like $250 million?
12.) Why do they only care about people BEING there? What is the deal with that? What is going on behind that? Is this going to be used for political gain later? "Excuse me Senator, but 500,000 people showed up for this event in support of such and such... you wouldn't dare vote against so and so bill because we will promote it in such and such way and these people will think you are against solving world poverty and you will lose votes." No politician in their right mind is against solving world poverty... and if any campaign commercial tries to tell me so that's red flag #1 that something shifty is going on. Okay so it's like red flag 50. Live 8 is POLITICAL. And frankly, were I to go, I have no idea what I'd actually be supporting.

But I wonder how many people are actually going to these concerts in support of ending world poverty. Does it matter? If the numbers are going to be used for political gain later then it doesn't matter why they were there or not. They were there. And everyone was just manipulated and used as a pawn in some giant political chess game in which no one wins and lots of people are disillusioned.

I am in support of ending world poverty yes, but I think I'm more in support of ending lies and manipulation.