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West must act over
Africa - Geldof
Oct 7, 2004
The West cannot continue doing nothing about poverty in Africa,
Bob Geldof said.
The former pop star, a member of the African Commission of
Ethiopia, said we need to analyse why Africa is the sole continent
in economic decline.
"The Western and international agencies haven't a clue what's
going on," he told the BBC. "We come in with our ideas
of what works for us and we impose them on other people who have
completely different structures and ideas and ways of doing things.
Of course it's not going to work."
Geldof said he believed the African Commission of Ethiopia had the
resolve to make things work.
"I think the resolve is there, whether it is deliverable or
not is the main point. Part of my job I think is to try and stop
it being the great and the good. That kind of makes this
Commission different.
"There are a lot of what I would call normal people on the
Commission with no vested interests in the club class world of IMF
and Royal Banks."
He added that the two main differences with this Commission were
that the majority of African people now understood their own
continent and that the Commission was chaired by Prime Minister
Tony Blair.
"If the Commission finds an answer to this it can be proposed
at the highest level," he said. "It is then up to them
and the people of Britain."
Geldof said that the electoral vote was declining in Africa
because the people do not believe in their politicians any more.
He said: "More people die of hunger on this continent than
they do of HIV or Aids or polio anywhere else. It is intolerable
that at the beginning of the 21st century when the planet is
wealthy that anyone should have to live like that."
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