Qvid est, Catulle? quid moraris emori?

Read neither the link nor my commentary if you feel chipper and want to stay that way.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/live8/story/0,16066,1513359,00.html

So, according to this, the monies contributed by Live Aid efforts saved many lives - and contributed to a governmental agenda that may have killed just as many. I didn't know most of the agencies kept quiet about the Ethiopian government's forced relocation of much of the population. I didn't know that the Red Cross kept quiet about the concentration camps in the second world war. I feel sick.

What do you do, if you want to get the aid to people who need it? Do you shut up and comply so that their government will allow you to fulfil your aim and feed the hungry, even though your compliance will benefit said government in acts inimical to basic human rights? Or do you refuse to keep quiet about what they are doing and find yourself in the situation of Medicin Sans Frontiers, banned and unable to give any help at all?

I can understand the need to keep this apolitical; people may survive relocation, they will not survive starvation. So yes, you feed them and keep your fingers crossed. Supping with the devil, long spoon and all that; you can't afford to think too hard about what else your cash may be funding, can't be too nice. I can understand it; I just don't know if I can accept it.

The more one gets to know of men, the more one values dogs. --Toussenel