NextBillion.net - Development Through Enterprise - Report from the G8 Edinburgh - Comments

Live8 in Versailles

_manicplanet — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 15:44:08 -0400

Versailles, France the day after the June 2 Live8 concert there: The throngs of tourists heading from the train station to the chateau were all stopping to take pictures of small mountains of hundreds of baguettes, apparently uneaten and no longer useful, lying on the ground near the stage, itself still being broken down by a tech crew of hundreds of staff, who themselves were treated to fan-cooled tents proffering food and beverages. The average tourist stopped to take a snapshot of this excess, particularly the bread being scooped up for disposal by yellow construction vehicles, particularly symbolic in a country where national law sets the prices in the boulangerie. Not very impressive at all. http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/culturevulture/archives/2005/07/02/jon_henley_in_paris_watching_it_on_the_telly_.html

Report from the G8 Edinburgh

williamkramer — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 12:59:40 -0400

Having been in the UK for the past couple of days, and not reading the American press, I don't know how it is reporting on the events leading up to the G8 meeting scheduled to start July 6 a few miles from here, but I can tell you that it's big news here. A peaceful march of more than 250,000 followed a few days later by a rather (surprisingly to the authorities and the public) violent protest by several hundred avowed anarchists in the streets of Edinburgh -- right outside the hotel where a meeting on African development we're involved in is to convene tomorrow.

In fact, the G8 and its attendant issues -- African development, trade, aid, and debt -- are bigger news, if you can believe it, than the question of whether two participants in a British reality TV show did or did not have sex together. It's neck and neck, but the G8 is undoubtedly the winner. Like I said, big news.