Poverty

The most inspiring thing in my youth was live aid, the original, and reading Bob Geldof's book. I even wrote a childish letter to him, and I was moved. I wanted to save the world, I wanted to change the world. Sadly it never quite worked out like that.So now twenty years on, and I read the press which ranges from positive to quite cynical, and I am more confused as the world seems so much more complex to me now.

I feel that we should always try and help those that are less fortunate and that surely to do something is better than doing nothing, and an insane man would surely say canceling debt relief is a bad idea for these countries. I do realize as I am older, though, that the issue is far more complex, and poverty far more widespread than just Africa. I have traveled to many other countries outside of Africa where it exists.

It is quite ironic seeing a live aid concert in Russia, as it is a rich country but it also contains huge swathes of poverty, shocking for a Westerner, but still not as devastating as that seen in Africa. I also heard Madonna say she lives just around the corner from Hide Park, the location of the London event. Sometimes walking through London one can be shocked by seeing people sleeping on the streets, and I want to cry. I live in one of the world's richest cities yet, even here we are not capable of looking after our own.

Why are these people on the streets, without doubt some because of drug habits, but the point remains we don't live in perfect societies in the West, and many middle ranking countries or smaller countries suffer massive problems with poverty. Latin America has suffered enormously over the last forty years, as has India and China although they are rapidly dragging themselves out of poverty.

So in no way here is there an undercurrent that we should revolutionize our economic system, socialism failed, and the dynamism and wealth of capitalism won't be replaced by another system, but we should still strive for a way of harnessing capitalism without crushing its dynamism and wealth creating facilities.

So perhaps we also need to look inside ourselves, and ask ourselves what role we have to play in society, both internationally and locally, and we need more of community spirit on a local level and also on a global level.We must never though, move too far away from the knowledge that competition with success and failure are an important part of the power of capitalism, however, it needs to be fair and just and we must protect those that are less fortunate.

The trade system must be made fairer so that Africa can unleash the dynamism that undoubtedly exists there.

We must though in our own societies allow those with talent as much as possible to succeed and benefit from the system but we should always protect the weak......So perhaps naively I feel that we need more of a commitment to our local societies and to our global societies, perhaps one part of me feels we need to attack this on two fronts, one that Bob is facing which is trying to attack the most shocking disturbing things that are happening in Africa and our world. In terms of poverty and also unfairness.

The other side is to build, on a local level, the feeling that we are part of a community that begins in our own neighborhoods, our own towns, our countries and stretches globally. We also should not forget poverty exists in many places in this world, and we need to start looking after our own, humanity, in many areas of the world, not just Africa, but wherever poverty exists including in our own societies.