I tried to get on board with the Live 8 program and tuned in to the VH1 broadcast carrying the concerts yesterday afternoon. I tried, but I shared the reaction of reader Julian Biggs:

I truly admire John’s efforts to support Sir Bob’s Live 8 work –- certainly, such graciousness and farsightedness is conspicuously absent on the other side of the aisle.

However, I would recommend you stay away from the comments on the One.org site as a more depressing mixture of naivete and ignorance would be hard to find. I know there are many reasons why it’s important to "do something" about Africa, but I really wonder whether this kind of effort does more harm than good. For example, it is clear from the website comments, the supporting ads, and the voices of everyone involved in [yesterday's] (by the way, atrocious) MTV/VH1 production, that the prevailing wisdom is as follows: (1) famine and hunger is caused by poverty; (2) poverty is caused by the G8’s lack of compassion, excess greed and affluence. The prescription is naturally to re-distribute wealth and money from the G8 countries to "Africa."

Time after time, the TV announcers reminded us that things are "even worse in Africa than they were before Live Aid 20 years ago!" Clearly, none of them considered this might tell us something about the efficacy of Live Aid and its use of cash to solve problems caused by massive political corruption.

The New York Post reports on the success of the concerts: "Stars rock the world." In Edinburgh, where the G-8 conference will convene on Wednesday, the concerts occasioned a protest that recalled the glory days of the 14-mile anti-nuclear "human chain" in Berkshire, England. Note the reference to the "tens of thousands" of protestors in both the linked BBC story describing the 1983 anti-nuclear "human chain" protest and this AP story on the "Make Poverty History" protest yesterday in Scotland: "Protestors call for 'justice, generosity.'"