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Live Aid money supplied weapons to rebels

G

gturner

Admiral
Fresh controversy over aid to Ethiopia erupted today after an investigation concluded that millions intended for victims of the 1984 famine was diverted to anti-government rebel leaders – including the current Ethiopian Prime Minister.

The allegations, made by former rebel compatriots of Meles Zenawi, are the first to detail how millions raised by Bob Geldof’s Live Aid were siphoned off to arm the rebels against the army of Mengistu Haile Mariam.

Although millions of people were saved by the Western aid that poured into Ethiopia after Live Aid, the evidence from the BBC investigation suggests that not all of it went to the most needy.

With much of Ethiopia in rebel hands, aid agencies had to bring in food and funds for those areas from Sudan, accompanied by rebel fighters.
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There's more at the Times Online story

So, what does this mean? We've been trying not to buy blood diamonds, which is easily done by avoiding diamond purchases. But now we find out that maybe the albums we bought were arming blood-thirsty genocidal maniacs.

I blame the evil record companies. Show me a record company executive and I'll show you a wannabe international arms merchant who traffics in African war, upheaval, genocide, and starvation, all to maintain cred with rappers on death row.

The only way to stay morally clean is to listen to nothing but Anne Murray albums.
 
I've been investigating further, Googling this Bob Geldof character.

He's a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. That's the Empire that carved up much of Africa. Just look at his uniform!

Geldof_wall.jpg


Sudanese terrorists, oil, Ethiopia, British Imperial officers, Fascists, record executives: There's more here than meets the eye!
 
Watching The Wall while tripping on acid was one of the best experiences I've ever had.. :)
 
gturner said:
The only way to stay morally clean is to listen to nothing but Anne Murray albums.
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Blood diamonds. Cruel treatment of livestock on factory farms. Substandard working conditions for migrant crop pickers. Sweatshops and child labor everywhere from mainland China to the Caribbean.

Face it, the only way to stay morally clean is to buy NOTHING AT ALL!
 
Hold on a minute. You can still buy some things. Stuff at Walmart, for instance. Their corporate big-wigs make sure that nothing morally questionable shows up on the shelves. Maybe some of it has a little higher than normal lead content, but that's about it.

In contrast, Apple just confessed that their iPods and iPhones were made with underage child labor. That's what happens when a company is founded by people a few years past being underage child labor.
 
Child labor builds character, unlike our spoiled American youth who squander their tax-paid public education.

Animals would exploit you if they got the chance. Just living in your house on what used to be "nature", means you're part of the exploitation just by existing.

Migrant crop workers arguably are living better than they would be in their own impoverished home countries. They didn't migrate because they wanted to "rough it', like some yuppie twits who go camping.

Only schmucks buy diamonds anyway, to spoil women and themselves. They needed to labor as children, that would've built them some character.

Okay, so I'm exagerrating.
 
gturner said:
Hold on a minute. You can still buy some things. Stuff at Walmart, for instance. Their corporate big-wigs make sure that nothing morally questionable shows up on the shelves. Maybe some of it has a little higher than normal lead content, but that's about it.
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Indeed most of the stuff you buy from Walmart manufactured in China by 12 year olds earning 30cents/day is made of mostly lead. Didn't investigations of Walmart reveal only 10% of it's product is made in the USA - despite their Made in the USA advert campaign? Let's all go to Walmart!
 
Hey, almost all the music sold in Walmart is still made in the USA... and provides weapons to African rebel groups!
 
^^Well there you have it. Walmart is evil. Music is evil. Africa is evil. Is that our conclusion today?
 
Well, you're over simplifying a little, but that's pretty much it.

Bob Geldof should've paid more attention to Pink Floyd's "Money", but that song wasn't on The Wall. Or maybe Bob Geldof did pay attention to it, realizing that what Africa needed was freer trade in AK-47s.

Anyway, one of the reasons that Walmart sells so much stuff from China, a noted violator of human rights, is that the Chinese don't have the overhead of destabilizing Africa like the record companies do.
 
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