LEYMAN: It has not even been a month since the so-called momentous G8/LIVE 8/Make Poverty History event took place. But what are we left with to hope for as far as the issues discussed and the causes in the fore were concerned?

Who needs make poverty history?

Certainly not the so-called 200 charities that had come together not so long ago. Did any of us consumer people know how their coming together worked?

Was it a coming together that involved individual charity organisations putting their business policies on the line in order to make way to work with other charities that are closer to the action and more focused on the poverty cause?

Were they coming together to create a completely new charity all with their assets that would lobby, campaign and take itself everywhere the lone charities already are for the cause of poverty?

Or were they a coming together, a collective charity forum that has single charities there only to be linked to their products or linked to their organisation for membership?

Which of the three sounds the most effective? Which of the three sound most convenient? And which of the three are the alleged two hundred charities for the make poverty history chosen as their choice of involvement?

Was make poverty history useful?

Judging by the sweatbands revelation it is easy to say no.

At this time the focus was on Africa, the humane UK NGOs hi-jacked and reflect the humanity of the UK by saying Make Poverty History. Remember jubilee 2000? Didn’t we do the same thing for the jubilee 2000? What is the deal now? Who’s in charge to Make Poverty History, and what has our participation got to do with it?

On the wearing of the white wristbands.

I am not sure how a concerned citizen living in the rich world was supposed to challenge the system that prevents provision of health and education to people overseas just by wearing a white band. If the leaked report did show anything wouldn’t it be that this campaign had been organised in such a way that was so convenient for everybody except the starving, and unaided people overseas? This campaign which was urging western governments to drop the debt and encourage fair trade is not new, as Jubilee 2000 was before it, and Christian aid to name one charity has been adopting this mind-set for a while. What did seem new was the opportunity to make the voice of reason heard. It being African season or the year of Africa over in the mother of empires, UK. So the opportunity is there to make the final offensive if we can call it that.

The last call to the governments of rich nations where most of the charity organisations reside; the last plea for action. All this and European Union presidency too! But what does the reality play as?

In various parts of this city you can read billboards. There is a billboard that reads; every generation can make a change… you can be that generation. (at the click of a button). And guess who is in the background? Nelson Mandela.

This kind of tone that the MPH campaign had, has become kind of like a designer campaign on par with the promotional approach designer labels have in their ads.

But what was behind the curtain, this slogan?

LEYMAN