The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest
Vol: 46 Issue: 5 - Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Rich and Famous Unite Against Poverty
President Bush is in Europe meeting with the other members of the Group of Seven Leading Industrialized Democratic nations (plus Russia).
Russia, although a nominal member of the group, is excluded from what are now called G-8 sessions (without Russia), mainly sessions that discuss economic affairs, since Russian membership in the group is more figurative than literal.
Russia, by any G7 definition, is neither a 'democratic' nation or a 'leading industrialized nation' but it has enough nukes to make the world go away so the rest of the Group of Seven invite them to dinner after meetings to give Moscow a sense of involvement.
Even Russia's limited involvement is under fire, with Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman teaming up to have even Russia's limited involvement suspended unless and until democratic reforms and political freedoms are ensured by Moscow.
Generally, when the G7 (or G8, depending) hold their annual meetings, they become a magnet for anarchists, communists, Marxists and the rest of the usual suspects, especially America-haters.
The meeting, this time taking place in Scotland, was no different. Riot police in Edinburgh were bombarded with paving stones, bricks and park benches. Police said about 100 people were arrested Monday, including what officials called "key" anarchist suspects who had traveled to Scotland from across Europe.
More than 20 protesters and police officers were injured in over six hours of running clashes, baton charges and mounted surges. Edinburgh's city center ground to a standstill, with some businesses closing early and locking the staff inside for safety.
Members of Friends of the Earth Scotland and eco-pressure group People and Planet plan today to dress up as mermaids and beach goers to highlight their concerns about global warming.
Joining them were the First Couple of Useful Marxist Idiots, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, who were on hand for Live 8, an anti-poverty crusade organized by the world's richest social class; actors, musicians and entertainers and their fans.
The Live 8 concert was organized to demand that the world's leading finance ministers do something to 'help Africa' or else, ummm, Tim Robbins might once again give a press conference from Washington's National Press club, to be beamed live around the world to complain that his right to free speech is being suppressed.
(Or worse. He might make another movie)
More than 26 million people, evidently subscribers to the theory that being rich and famous makes one more politically astute than spending a lifetime in public service, sent in text messages of support on their cell phones.
"This is our moment. This is our time. This is our chance to stand up for what's right," U2 frontman Bono told a crowd of 200,000 in London's Hyde Park.
"We're not looking for charity, we're looking for justice," Bono said. "We cannot fix every problem, but the ones we can, we must."
In Philadelphia, on the Independence Day weekend, actor Will Smith called the festivities a worldwide "declaration of interdependence."
CNN hailed the Live 8 Concert as a "rock triumph" and expressing its belief that the world would be a better place to live if only the entertainment industry were given the keys to the kingdom.
Sighed CNN's Graham Jones in a story on CNN's website; "We know now it is up to the politicians whether they heed Geldof's demands for debt forgiveness, trade concessions and $25 billion in aid for Africa."
(Wow! What an earth-shattering admission! It is up to the POLITICIANS and not Bob Geldorf and the rest of drug-sodden stars that shine so brightly in the rock and roll universe? Who'da thunk it!)
Having made that discovery, Jones went on to explain why letting politicians run the world is such a stupid idea, given the choices available:
"Geldof's serious message to the G8 leaders to act now on Africa was hammered home with giant graphics carrying messages like "8 men in one room can change the world" and "this is the week when poverty can be beaten." Similarly in a brilliant set by The Who. As they played "Who are you?" the faces of the eight G8 leaders flashed on the giant screens -- in a chilling gray caused by fast-interchanging black and white images."
Jones ended by expressing his gratitude to the entertainment industry for showing the world community how best to run the planet, saying, "Thank you, Sir Bob. We were listening. We must wait and see now whether the G8 leaders will have done a little listening too."
It left me with a mental image of the leaders of the world's leading industrialized nations kneeling before their stereos, seeking divine guidance from Madonna.
Assessment:
It wasn't merely rich and famous entertainers that wowed the crowd with their compassion for Africa's poor.
Rich and famous thieves like UN Secretary General Kofi Annan joined rich and famously ruthless corporate executives like Bill Gates also put their celebrity to work at advancing the social revolution first advocated by Karl Marx.
"We can do this, and when we do it will be the best thing that humanity has ever done," Gates said. (Gates personal fortune, estimated at somewhere around $40 billion, is enough to pay off Canada's National Debt.)
The crowd joined in as REM sang "Man on the Moon," then heard U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan declare: "This is really the United Nations .. The whole world has come together in solidarity with the poor."
Kofi has plenty of reasons for preferring a 'United Nations' consisting mainly of stoned rockers and their equally stoned fans.
Not the least of which would be: it would be easier to steal milk money from African babies than it was from Iraqi babies if Kofi was forced to answer to Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney -- rather than a US Congressional investigating committee.
("Money? What money? Hey, are you gonna pass that joint or what?")
Before anybody jumps on me for being an American capitalist pig, the answer to Africa's problems isn't money. Africa has the richest reserves of national resources on the planet. It is also home to the most corrupt governments on the planet.
Sending money to Africa with the expectation that it will be used to improve the plight of poverty and disease-stricken African citizens would like sending money to Yasser Arafat with the expectation it would improve the plight of impoverished and war-weary Palestinians.
Or letting Kofi Annan manage the Iraqi Oil For Food program to ensure Iraqis impoverished by UN sanctions would get fresh food and medicine.
What a GREAT idea! (As long as people are having great ideas, let me offer one of my own.)
If the luminaries who assembled the Live 8 concert each donated 50% of their personal net worth to Africa, they could raise more money than the G-7 could appropriate without having to raise taxes in their home countries to pay for it. (Makes you wonder why none of THEM thought of it.)
While the world's richest entertainers, most ruthless corporate raiders and most conscienceless thieves demand a solution to the problem of African poverty, the world's most influential politicians think they should be focused on issues like global climate change.
Last month, a joint statement by the science academies of 11 countries, including all the G8 nations, warned: "It is vital that all nations identify cost-effective steps that they can take now to contribute to substantial and long-term reduction in net global greenhouse gas emissions."
The statistics, although hardly universally accepted, are sobering. Nineteen of the 20 warmest years of the past 150 years have occurred since 1980. NASA predicts 2005 will be the warmest year since records began.
According to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change "most of the warming observed over the past 50 years is attributable to human activity". Maybe that is true, and maybe not.
The 'human activity' part of it is more likely another thinly-disguised jab at the US for failing to ratify the Kyoto Treaty.
(Noted the IPCC, "The US, which produces 24 per cent of the world's carbon emissions, rejects Kyoto. Between 1990 and 2002, US CO2 emissions grew by 13 per cent." Hmmm.)
But whether or not the climate change is America's fault is irrelevant to the fact that climate change is real.
And it is a far more pressing issue than African poverty, from the perspective of global leaders who recognize that rich Africans won't weather a global climate meltdown any better than poor Africans.
Industrializing Africa will just increase the amount of greenhouse gases that the IPCC says is responsible for an impending global catastrophe. Which is why sane people elect politicians instead of entertainers to run countries. (Except in California)
There was a time, and not so long ago, when it took a whole week to compile enough examples of Bible prophecy coming together with current events to fill a half-hour television program. When I was writing the "This Week In Bible Prophecy" TV program, sometimes I had to stretch pretty far to make the point.
Ten years later, the problem is one of deciding which of the daily examples is the most relevant. Live 8 is a textbook example of the social picture painted by Scripture of society in the last days.
The Scriptures say that when the antichrist comes on the scene, through charisma, charm and deception, he will unite the world under a single banner convincing it that what the world really needs is a good, old-fashioned fascist dictatorship to solve the ever-increasing litany of existential threats facing us.
Paul's description of that society to Timothy (2nd Timothy 3:1-5) is a mirror image of the Marxist-Leftist worldview that all the world's evils could be cured by eliminating wealth.
Climate change, once a theory, is rapidly proving itself an undeniable fact. The only part that remains theory is the cause. It is assumed to be human activity because the changes began sometime around the mid-point of the last century.
The Bible ascribes a different cause. According to Jesus, climate change, together with the global panic it is engendering, is a sign of His soon return.
He said it would be the hot button topic in the generation that would see the restoration of Israel and would be part of the Divine countdown to the end of the Church Age.
"And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken." (Luke 21:26-27)
That process is already well underway. . . and we are eagerly expecting what comes next to be fulfilled with equal attention to detail.
"And THEN shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things BEGIN to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." (Luke 21:27-28)
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