Surely, instead of Live8 it should have been called masterb8

The sight of largely superannuated, mostly astonishingly wealthy, self indulgent corporate sock puppets ("rock stars") partying to end poverty, and the attendant media hoo ha (like when was the last time the corporate media gave a sh*t about poverty) has to be without doubt one of the more infuriating loads of BS seen on the planet in many years.

Patronizing, grandiosely hubristic, and frankly part of the problem, not part of its solution, the audience, "stars" and opportunistic politicians pledging some paltry, ineffectual, hypocritical "relief" from poverty and debt can all go home happy now, safe in the knowledge that we are all good guys.

There are genuine, profoundly entrenched, structural inequalities in the world. Going to rock concerts and giving a bit of money won't fix them. In fact, they will make them worse, allowing these conditions to last a little longer. Afterall, in the 20 years since Live Aid how much better off is sub saharan Africa (we'll see in a moment).

AIDS, increasingly devastating some of the least developed parts of the planet will only further impoverish these regions. And the world's answer (via the Vatican and the White House)? Abstinence, misinformation, "morality" driven solutions (like the death of millions, the impoverishment of countless more, tens of millions of orphans isn't immoral but sex is.)
Or how about the real story about third world debt. Much of it handed over to corrupt governments 20 or even 30 years ago in the form of armaments, and now the victims of those repressive regimes the west supported, are forced to pay it back, with interest.

Between 1980 and 2000, Sub-Saharan African countries had paid more than $240 billion as debt service, that is, about four times the amount of their debt in 1980. Yet, despite this financial hemorrhage, SSA still owes almost four times what its owed more than twenty years ago! One of the most striking illustrations of this apparent paradox is the case of the Nigerian debt. In 1978, the country had borrowed $5 billion. By 2000, it had reimbursed $16 billion, but still owed $31 billion, according to President Obasanjo

Choike.org

In the context of this, what value is the paltry few billions that G8 nations are so generously "forgiving"? Or the sales of some tickets to rock concerts?
Imagine if your father borrowed money to buy alcohol all his life, then beat you and your mother when he was drunk. Does it seem fair that when he died, you owed the bank the money he borrowed? That's largely what we are asking of these nations.

We have to keep in mind that the world changes from the bottom up (hey Mr. Bono, that means hobnobbing like the court Jester at the "World Economic Forum" at Davos won't address these problems).
And that's hard. It's not done with a signature and a press conference. Its not done in a day or a week or a year. And its not done without sacrifice.

But there are individuals and small groups whose actions have had a profound effect, both small and large. One of the most astonishing stories barely told is that of the Grameen Bank (because it breaks the stereotype of "impoverished developing world needs our moneyamd help, and pity").
Take a look at this story from the Independent, because I won't remotely do it justice here.

And I'll have another, rather different story about something one person can do to make the lives of many others a lot better. But I'll save it for a little later.