The Man Who Wanted to Feed the World (Part 2)
by Isabella

Note: This is the second part of our Live Aid coverage. For part 1 click HERE  

THE FEDEREAL DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF ETHIOPIA

An analysis of what Bob Geldof and his partners did in the 1980s, first of all, requests basic knowledge about the region of Africa, which was the target of the measures.

The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia is inhabited by almost 75 million people. As one of the seven world regions with the biggest biodiversity, it is famous for its scenic countryside and looks back at a 2000-year-old history of mostly Catholic culture. Because of the beneficial natural circumstances most of Ethiopia's economy is based on agriculture (e.g. coffee, leather and pulse), which makes up half of their GDP. However, frequent drought and poor cultivation methods often lead to poor harvest. Above all that many farmers are dependent on world market prices and the decline of coffee prices forced many to find a supplement income source.

The country was an aristocratic feudal state, until in the seventies a new government wanted to establish socialism and began to nationalise the land, the industry and major companies. They now operate on a land tenure system: the government owns all the land and leases it to tenants on a long-term basis, which hampers entrepreneurial activities of the individuals.
© 2006 UNICEF

In the 1960s Ethiopia annexed the UN federation of Eritrea. Since then the population has to bear frequent fights and civil wars, which is the reason for hundred thousands of refugees all over the country.

Today Ethiopia is one of the poorest developing countries. The average age of an Ethiopian citizen is 17.8 years, 59 per cent of them are illiterates. 47 per cent of the children under the age of five are malnourished. Only 22 per cent of the people have access to clean water. In Ethiopia one doctor should care for 34,000 inhabitants.
From an economic point of view, the country's GDP is at an average level of 60 billion US$. This accounts for the same as Vodafone UK's income in 2005 with 66,000 employees. Wal-Mart USA, the biggest company worldwide, registered an income of 288 billion US$ that year.

Prof. Hans Illy, a European political scientist who also lived in Africa, claims in an interview that Africa has not been completely decolonised by the Western countries – i.e. it has not been "psychologically decolonised". During the dependency a lot of cultural roots have been destroyed and afterwards the Western countries did not enable the former colonies to rebuild their own identities. Suddenly they had to perform on a global market, without even having the chance to create their own countries' economies first. As Prof. Illy explains, Africans now have to count on Western help and aid, which makes them economically extremely dependent.

Such observations lead to the question whether aid really effects what the well-intended helper wants it to. The opinions are diverging. As far as Live Aid is concerned, Bob Geldof had many objectors who brought up different aspects of this and similar events, which have to be taken account of.


CRITICAL VOICES

In 2005 Moeletsi Mbeki, head of department of international affairs in South Africa, complained in an interview with a South African newspaper that Bob Geldof's projects did not help Africa at all. He claimed that Geldof was reducing symptoms and did not comprehend the complexity of the problems he was dealing with.

Within the last couple of years it became more and more obvious that development aid has to be examined with much more wariness than it has been for a long time. The support of developing countries should not be about covering short-term wounds by giving them food and medicine but it should be about development cooperation, which allows them to gain independency and build up a working society and economy. Therefore development cooperation takes on a political dimension, which makes it a lot more complicated than simply filling somebody's plate. Within 1997 and 2000 400 billion US$ of support from Western countries went to Africa – the situation has only improved microscopically, in some regions even worsened. This problem cannot be solved by money.

Moeletsi Mbeki pointed out that Bob Geldof's action supported corrupt elites in Africa since every donation for filling one more plate would give support to regents to avariciously eat one more. Therefore some president still purchase private jets and castles in Europe while their population is starving – some people will take care of it anyway.

Other people who raised their voices against Live Aid are James Shikwati, the well-known Kenyan economist and journalist, Stefan Kornelius from the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" and Joanna Macrae from the Overseas Development Institute – all of them ascertain that loud and short-term oriented answers do not support but, instead, even worsen Africa's development.

It seems as if Bob Geldof himself also got conscious about the fact that money cannot solve any problem in the world. The DVD booklet includes the following comment of Paul Velleley, who was working together with Geldof:

"And yet there is a problem. I noted it not long afterwards in my book "Bad Samaritans: First World Ethics and Third World Debt", in which I wrote: "Geldof, for all his skill as a populist, found no way of moving the issue on from one of charity to one of justice. For compassion based on emotion can have a grave shortcoming."

It is not arbitrary to ask: Does that mean that it is better to do nothing?

Even Bob Geldof's critics admit that his activities had some positive effects on Africa: Ethiopia would have never got that much attention if not for the Band Aid Trust's commitment. As far as the financial donations are concerned, people experienced in development work know that there is no necessary connection between the collection and the distribution of it.












During the hunger period in the eighties an estimated number of 300,000 Ethiopian people died. Nobody had (re)acted until Michael Buerk presented the situation to the public and Bob Geldof decided to found the Band Aid. Bob Geldof surely did not regard any political dimension but made up a simple equation: somebody needs food – we need to give them food. However, there is a big difference between hunger caused by natural catastrophes, like the tsunami in Asia, and hunger, which is caused by deep-rooted problems of a political regime. The Ethiopian crisis in the 1980s had three major reasons, as David Rieff reports in the German newspaper "Der Tagesspiegel":
One reason was the two-years-lasting drought period in the sub-Sahara. The other two reasons were human made: The wars of the government against Eritrea and the Tigrean People's Liberation Front led to an increasingly higher number of refugees. The collectivisation enforcement under the socialist government was brutally put into practice by Mengistu Haile Mariam and the central committee in Dergue. In 1984 they proclaimed communism as national ideology – and quite similar to other communist countries the different tactics of nationalisation led to hunger in major parts of the population.

But how did Western organisations, which tried to save the lives of civilians, support this regime?

After having organised some aid work by themselves the Band Aid Trust gave millions of Euros to different NGOs, which also supported governmental so-called "humanitarian action". In fact these actions were disguised military acts. The socialist government displaced more than three million people. They had to undergo the procedure of a five- to six-days-lasting trip through the country. It is unknown how many people died during their transport; estimations range from 50, to 100,000. Only one NGO – Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) – refused to cooperate with Dergue. They reported about it later on and depicted the biggest deportation since the Khmer Rouge.
Ethiopia expert Alex de Waal reckons that up to half of the people who could have died during the drought and hunger crisis survived thanks to Live Aid. Unfortunately the same number of people died when they gave support to the deportation transport.


20 YEARS LATER

Bob Geldof utilised the media's attention and learned that celebrities can bring news to the public just by going somewhere – the media will follow. He went to Africa a number of times. He also learned about international trade policies, which make it almost impossible for Africa to export processed goods because of ridiculously high taxes. He used his celebrity to get in touch with Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, George Bush senior and George W. Bush junior, Tony Blair and the Pope. He also convinced the British Prime Minister Tony Blair to set up a Commission for Africa, which should give the world's richest leaders and institutions as well as African leaders a think tank "to question their fixed assumptions on "development" and to ask why it is that none of the existing "solutions" appear to be working" (Live Aid booklet).

In 2005 Bob Geldof expanded his activities to a political dimension: He does not only seek to collect money but wants to achieve benefaction. He presented a petition with 24 million signatures and names to international heads of government who were at the G8 meeting in Edinburgh while Live 8 was happening. On Saturday 2 July 2005 concerts took place in 10 venues. 150 bands and 1250 musicians played across the globe to ask people not to give their money, but to give their names.

Let's assume that there is no aid given anymore. Other interventions of the industrial countries will continue and the economic paternalism through Terms of Trade, the WTO and the World Bank is going to persist. Under these circumstances, how should Africa build up a new independent ideology?

Bob Geldof initiated the very venturous attempt to make the world a better place. Unfortunately he acted as if he invited people to his own home to give them food and ignored the complexities of individuals pooled in a nation. Being intensely committed to the situation in Africa, he learned to apply certain features of his celebrity. He knows how to pull people's attention and how to make them join a movement. This allows him to introduce international problems to the masses. Others should try to solve them.