Word: geldof
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British rock impresario and Africa aid promoter Bob Geldof, a.k.a. "Saint Bob," was back in the headlines this past week after blowing his stack at the BBC for a story it aired alleging that Ethiopian rebels had diverted 95% of the $100 million in Ethiopian famine relief raised in the mid-1980s - much of it by Geldof's iconic Band Aid concert...
...Geldof's spirited denials (he called the BBC a "rotten old cherry" and said there was not a "shred" of evidence to support the claim) drew support from NGOs that worked in Ethiopia at the time, along with those who remember the miseries of the famine which killed hundreds of thousands of people, as well as the gumption Geldof showed by pulling together rock stars from the U.S and Britain to help feed the victims. In the days since, however, Geldof has raised eyebrows for his apparent refusal to acknowledge the possibility that money may have been skimmed...
...very much aware of how they could make use of that aid to advance their own interests," James Shikwati, director of the Inter Region Economic Network, a Nairobi-based think tank, and a longtime critic of foreign aid, tells TIME. "Instead of trying to defend themselves, I think Bob Geldof and his friends should be looking at this as part of the problem of the aid industry." Shikwati is a leading advocate in an emerging movement that wants to see foreign development assistance - and some emergency help - stopped entirely in Africa. He says foreign aid fosters corruption and a sense...
...seems ironic that in one of his ripostes, Geldof argued that current Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi - who was a rebel leader during the time of the famine - denied that any aid had been diverted in the 1980s. But Meles has been accused of doing the very same thing in recent years in Ethiopia's Ogaden region, which is also home to a rebel insurgency. Aid workers operating in the region in 2007 told TIME the government allowed them to distribute food in some places and not others. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of upsetting the government...
...lead the G8? Where is your credibility?” the former lead singer of the Boomtown Rats asked Berlusconi in a face-to-face exchange published in Sunday’s edition of Italian newspaper La Stampa (the issue was co-edited by Geldof). Like a chastised school boy, Berlusconi clenched his fists and apologized, promising to do better next time...