Sunday July 3
Thunderstruck @ G8
Through some wild and fortuitous circumstances I am en route to the JFK Airport in New York City to catch a plane to Edinburgh, Scotland, for the gathering of the Group of Eight, known by those who love and loathe them as the G8. Meeting at the ultra-swanky (golf and falconry) Gleneagles Hotel, the Daddy Warbucks of the globe represent the eight wealthiest nations -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United States.

Yesterday, 225,000 activists peacefully took to the streets of Edinburgh to call on the G-8 leaders to erase the debts of the poorest nations, contribute more to help ensure the health and welfare of children in African nations, and work to make trade fair for African farmers and other enterprises.

I am meeting up with the One campaign people and fellow journalists at the Virgin Atlantic lounge at the airport. The One campaign is attempting to fight global AIDS and extreme poverty. It is an alliance of Bread for the World, CARE, DATA, International Medical Corps, International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps, Oxfam America, Plan USA, Save the Children US, World Concern, and World Vision.

To learn more, here is a great piece from my friend Owen Leimbach at MTV on the One campaign. And another one on Live 8.

DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) was co-founded by Bono. For my generation, he is the one that has put this issue on the map. Everywhere I turn there are people who are modestly aware of the travesty of African AIDS and impoverishment because of his efforts. Bono is the guy who continues to winsomely keep it front and center – whether he is on Bill O’Reilly’s TV show, lobbying Sen. Jesse Helms, lunching with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, or mugging with the President (much to the chagrin of his bandmates).

He is able to use his currency of cool to educate, harass, and hound those who would not be normally thinking about a two-year-old child in Mozambique. God bless him.

I am supposed to be traveling with a few dozen media types and more than 100 activists associated with One. Most of them were in Philadelphia for the Live 8 concert hosted by Will Smith, with performances by the Black Eyed Peas, Linkin Park, Kayne West, Jars of Clay, Toby Keith, Jay-Z, the Dave Matthews Band, Destiny’s Child, Keith Urban, and Stevie Wonder.

It was one of ten concerts around the world that took place yesterday. Icelandic singer Bjork gave her first live performance in two years in Tokyo. Duran Duran rocked Rome. The Cure was in Paris. Green Day ripped it up in Berlin. The Pet Shop Boys played Moscow. Neil Young did ‘em right in Barrie, Ontario. I probably forgot one or two but you get the point.

“This is our moment, this is our time, this is our chance to stand up for what is right,” Bono told the massive crowd at Hyde Park in London. “We are not looking for charity, we are looking for justice.”

“We cannot fix everything but the ones we can we must. Three thousand Africans, mostly children, die everyday of a mosquito bite. We can fix that,” he said. “Nine thousand people dying everyday of a preventable, treatable disease like AIDS. We have got the drugs. We can help them. Dirty water, death by dirty water. Well we can dig wells.”

He went on to say: “You want to join us. Get out on the streets of Edinburgh and everywhere else...Eight of the most powerful men on earth are meeting in Gleneagles in Scotland. We have a message for them. This is your moment too. Make history by making poverty history.”

Say what you will about whether or not rock 'n' roll can really change the world (after he became president of the Czech Republic, dissident Vaclav Havel testified it made a difference in the quest for freedom against Communism), the logistical administration of pulling off Live 8 is nothing short of miraculous. Something like 5.5 billion people were able to watch or listen on the Internet or on the 180 TV stations and 2,000 radio stations. Broadcast in more than 140 nations, 85 percent of the world was apparently able to watch the shows.

“To die of want in a world of surplus is intellectually absurd and morally repulsive,” Bob Geldof told USA Today. Of course, Geldof was the grand pooh-bah of Live Aid twenty years ago. He was attempting to raise millions for famine relief in Africa. He is no Johnny-come-lately to cause-inspired rock. He and Midge Ure of Ultravox wrote “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” and got the Band Aid crew to sing the anthem way back in the day. The former lead singer of the Boomtown Rats has spent the last twenty years doing the work of a saint by attempting to ease African poverty and suffering.

Bono and Geldof have been making the pitch in such a way that you have Madonna and Pat Robertson, as well as Purpose Driven Life author Rick Warren and Snoop Dogg on the same page. “This has nothing to do with being liberal or evangelical – I’m neither,” Geldof is quoted as saying.

At one point, 160,000 people were simultaneously watching the live feeds on AOL – an internet record. A whopping 26 million people worldwide sent text messages yesterday in support of Live 8, setting a world record for a single event.

In South Africa, there was a sustained 5 minute ovation for Nelson Mandela. “History and the generations to come will judge our leaders by the decisions they make in the coming weeks,” he told the audience. “I say to all those leaders: Do not look the other way, do not hesitate ... It is within your power to prevent genocide.”

Unfortunately, I was unable to join the crowd in Philadelphia. But I would have loved to have been at the show in London: Sting, U2, Coldplay, The Who, Madonna, Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd, Elton John, The Killers, and Snoop Dogg. I would have loved to have seen the white doves released during U2's "Beautiful Day." To be quite honest, I don’t care one bit about what Snoop or Sir Elton thinks about U.S. foreign policy, but who in their right mind would want to miss a show like that?

All of the analysis pieces leading up to yesterday’s mega-concerts were asking if these kinds of endeavors make any difference. Great question. Nevertheless, I think it is impossible to argue with Annie Lennox’s assessment: “Up to the time when people like Bono and Bob (Geldof) started coming to the table, what was being done by the politicians? Absolutely nothing. What I feel we’re doing is giving focus and voice to those people who have nothing.” Politicians and those in the chattering classes can pooh pooh the bleeding hearts for railing on about Africa, but what kind of awareness of African poverty and suffering would we have without the scraggily rock stars with a heart?

“It would have been crap if nobody had shown up, I suppose,” Geldof said in London. “Mahatma Gandhi freed a continent, Martin Luther King freed a people, Nelson Mandela freed a country. It does work – they will listen. Everything that rock ‘n’ roll is ever meant to be is happening now.”

At the show in London, Geldof showed film footage of a starving little girl in Ethiopia from the 1980s. Dramatically, he brought this same girl -- now a beaming college student -- up on stage. "She had 10 minutes to live 20 years ago," Geldof said. "Don't let them tell you this stuff doesn't work."

There is a strange convergence going on when religious leaders and rock stars are lining up on the same side to squeeze politicians. “Pandemics, poverty, and ecological degradation are everyone’s business, and there is no escape-pod reserved for those who are comfortable and prosperous just at the moment,” Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said in London. “Suddenly, the question ‘Who is my neighbor?’ has a very clear answer: my neighbor is the person who lives next door, is the suffering stranger in Africa or south east Asia or wherever poverty, disease and disaster are found.”

You can read the statement from U.S. and U.K. evangelicals here.

Williams is joined by scads of evangelical leaders in the UK in supporting the One campaign. Even Pat Robertson, Billy Graham, Rick Warren and Rick Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals are supporting One in the States. Did anyone catch the "Nightline" episode with George Clooney and Pat Robertson making a pitch for these issues? You’ve got to love it. Sojourners, Evangelicals for Social Action, the United Methodist Council of Bishops, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and faith-based humanitarian groups such as Bread for the World, World Vision U.S., and Pat Robertson’s Operation Blessing are on board.

When Robertson was asked on "Nightline" if he would promote abstinence and the responsible use of condoms, he answered, “Absolutely.” He went on to say, “I just don’t think we can close our eyes to human nature.” In regard to the condom question, Robertson said, “you have to do that, given the magnitude.”

This week, rock and religion is going to make its plea for world relief and compassion. “The rock and hip hop stars can’t change anything, but the audience can,” Bono told the crowd in London. “They are the people who put the politicians in and out of office. Africa has got its own problems to deal with, but countries that are dealing with corruption, we should be right behind them. Nobody wants to redecorate presidential palaces here. Fifty billion is the purse for tackling poverty by the end of the week.”

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