Saturday, June 11, 2005

Live8

As part of our run up to the event I have transcribed part of Bob Geldof's interview that he gave on Jonathan Ross's chat show last night...an amazing and moving bit of rhetoric that stunned the audience and Jonathan himself...Mr Ross had just asked Bob Geldof the question "Why do we have to do this" (with relevance to the Live8 concert)...this was Bob's reply...

"Last week in Italy I was looking at the front page of 'la republica' and i asked a mate if the front page story meant what i thought it did...The mayor of Laupaduza (sp?) (near Scicily) had contacted the mainland to ask them to send out cargo ships to pick up the dead bodies of African children that washed up on the shores as he had no room to bury anymore, not just in the cemetary but on every piece of physical land on the small island. The mothers, fathers and children were washing up on the beaches daily after trying to find a new life away from Africa, thousands of them, and they were sending cargo ships to pick up all the bodies...

This can't go on, it just can't go on. It's a broken world and it's a political fracture, and Live8 and all you watching this, and these stupid text messages that we have to do, these stupid ideas about sending boats to pick up the French are wholly unnecessary. These 8 guys around a table should just do this thing and we shall make sure they do it because if 50,000 children died today in Bolton and 50,000 tomorrow in Cincinatti and another 50,000Turin and another 50,000 in Tolouse and 50,000 more on Friday in Ludwigshaven (sp?) then between the breakfast room and the meeting room those men would have stopped it...and then your question is correct 'Why don't they?'

Well it's a question we should ask as a country, together on that day, up in Edinburgh...and if they don't do it then it will be a triumphant and glorious failure for us but it WILL be a miserable defeat for them, and on election day they will know exactly how miserable they should feel...

(rapturous applause and ovation from the audience and jonathan ross)

all hail Sir Bob Geldof...

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