I never used to like Sarah McLachlan particularly -- she was too artsy and feministy for my taste and I remember when she got the Order of Canada I was all "boo!" But this blew me away. It is one of the most laudable things I've ever seen. The song's good too.

Confession: the first time I saw this, when the screen pops up saying "don't worry, we are not asking for money", I realized that I had been worrying they were going to ask for money. And I felt like a schmuck.

Careful when it comes to pure monetary donations. They don't work. There has been an aid influx of around 1 trillion dollars to Africa and GDP levels there are worse then before. They need help not just a handout. You know the whole proverb about giving a fish or teaching how to fish.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

yes, how does that proverb go? Teach a man to build a fire, and he'll be warm for the night. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

Sorry, morbid and uncouth - I'm code wrangling. FTR I like Sarah a lot.

So guache.

I love it when people vilify charity.
People should be backhanded with a copy of Atlas Shrugged
for wanting to help people in need.
Thanks for setting all us bleeding hearts straight, farhad.

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Well, Farhad does have a point. The records for charity and aid in Africa do speak loudly. However, you can donate to causes that do work on the "teach a man to fish" idea. My favourite is OxFam (non-missionary).

The Iraq war is estimated to cost the U.S. a trillion dollars before it's over - which makes farhad's point a little less pointy.

While a trillion dollars can go a long way (as the video illustrates), it's peanuts in the effort to lift the entire world out of poverty.

I look forward to the day where security isn't an issue and market forces can sustain people. Until then, people need food NOW. They need education NOW. They need help NOW.

Feed, clothe, shelter a man first. Then you can teach him how to fish.

I'm sure all these artists and production crews felt very good about themselves. So good in fact that they can go about the rest of their lives and not think another thing about these people except when they brag about the time they've made a difference.

Good points.

Theo, please stop acting like Quantum mushroom, every time this discussion arises you start Ad Hominem attacks on me and bringing in points that are totally irrelevant (the cost of the Iraq war). Please let's stop beating around the bush and make a few points clear. I lived in Africa and I have seen these NGOs come and go like the goddamn wind and nothing changed, things only go worse, people didn't want to help themselves everything became "Let's wait for an NGO to come do it for us", maybe people who don't know what they are talking about should really find out the ground truth and not call shots from their PC terminal.

I totally agree it's peanuts to lift the world out of poverty and depression but you need to be a tad realistic here, most first world nations do not really give a damn about the plight of the developing world (see protectionism policies against agrarian development, see unfair trade balances between 1st and 3rd world). There is just no political incentive to get involved with Africa properly, the problem was handled via monetary endowments that only saw the rise of large public governments and corrupt regimes. See Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Somalia, and every recent African civil war and how much the west was involved. You know with mostly with the selling of the arms to fuel civil conflicts.

No amount of guilt accusation works anymore, the only way is to seek a realistic way for the developing world to lift itself out of poverty and the best way to do that is consider what the Asian Tigers did to lift themselves out via education, sound goverment policies and development of infrastructure. See http://www.videosift.com/video/Africa-Open-For-Business-DVD-Trailer

Telling me that just simply sending money in the same way we have done for the last 30 years is going to solve the problem is about as logical as Bush's surge plan.

Both the video and this discussion should be on the front page. Upvote.

The cost of Iraq War is completely relevant, as you were the one who brought up the trillion dollar figure. It shows where our priorities lie and just how quickly that amount of money can be wasted. Personally, I'd rather that money went toward an attempt to alleviate poverty than another intractable war in the Middle East.

At least it's an *attempt*. I did not say that all of it is used properly or intelligently, any more than the funds poured into Iraq are. But to tell people NOT to contribute something somewhere is irresponsible and uncaring. If it means one man, woman, or child is fed, clothed, sheltered, and/or educated, it's worth it.

I repeat my assertion that where poverty and starvation are concerned, security and infrastructure are secondary, long-term goals. You stop the bleeding first, then treat the wound. I realize you're really proud of yourself that you think being there first hand makes you an expert and eliminates your internal biases. It doesn't. I could take John McCain down mainstreet Baghdad and he wouldn't be able to see reality, either.

I'm just frankly fed up with capitalists without conscience and libertarian armchair quarterbacks who have been wrong, wrong, wrong on everything from global warming to the Iraq War.

You may be sick of capitalists without conscience and libertarian armchair quarterbacks but that doesn't mean you should drown out what is obviously is not simply noise.

We can be idealistic as much as we want, and America is the greatest Christian nation (kidding) in the world and what not, but that doesn't mean it would be kind enough to simply do such an act. That is simply unrealistic. Will it end foreign policy incursions overnight? Join the international court on crimes? Start switching taxes into actual R&D for the benefit of society instead of business? End the military industrialized complex? Admit to crimes in Vietnam?

This is not a simple political issue you can simply spout out let's try this and let's try that, and this party is wrong and what not.

The Right is morally corrupt when it comes to these issues, but the Left at the same time is too idealistic to actually carry it out efficiently. You need people who know what their doing for an aim. Not simply out of idealogical standpoint, I mean to someone who is not politically aware signing up to the Iraq war is a great concept. Fight for you president. Your nation. Against Terrorism. But in the wider context of the world that is probably not beneficial.

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