not the motorcycle diaries

Madeleine Bunting says it thoughtfully:

“The strategy is bold but risky - it’s blowing the expense account; Africa won’t get public attention like this again for a long time, yet Africa needs a generation (at least) of sustained campaigning if it is to have any chance of tackling the catastrophe of Aids and its particular vulnerability to the looming crisis of climate change. Plus, there’s the increasingly embarrassing problem that African voices are virtually non-existent - not just their bizarre omission from Live 8, but everywhere; this is the rich north talking to itself about another continent’s future. That is mighty lopsided.

…..

The impatience of consumer culture with the complex and the slow moving might mean that certain marketing tricks are necessary to capture short attention spans. As [Kirsty] Milne points out: ‘For a generation that can vote someone out of the Big Brother house in minutes, a month-long media uproar makes more sense.’

‘Media uproar’ gives the illusion of a lot of support - are those watching Live 8 protesting or enjoying themselves? - and politicians are responsive to that. It doesn’t fit the template of how we have understood politics and protest in the past, but I’m hoping that doesn’t mean it won’t work. ”