Your Voice Against Poverty

YOUR VOICE AGAINST POVERTY is a joint campaign run by VENRO, as the umbrella association of more
than 100 German development non-governmental organisations, artist Herbert Groenemeyer and experts
and friends within the PR and media industry. They are calling on the Federal Government to show more
commitment to achieving the UN Millennium Goals.
The campaign sees itself as part of the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP), a civil society alliance
in more than 112 countries. Everywhere, the White Band stands as a symbol for the world-wide campaign.


Well, last Thursday, we've been at the big concert. 80,000 people listened to a full 6 hour programme of 15 national and international bands (Herbert Groenemeyer, Bono Vox (U2), Bob Geldof, Die Fantastischen Vier, Die
Toten Hosen, Seeed, Silbermond, 2Raumwohnung, Sportfreunde Stiller and Beatsteaks are to meet Mo’Some Big Noise from Mozambique, Peter Miles from Uganda, Leo Muntu from Zambia, Bassekou Kouyate from Mali, Bangla from Bangladesh and Perrozompopo from Nicaragua).

In between authentic films describing life in the P8 (poorest 8 countries of the world = Mali, Uganda,
Mozambique, Zambia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nicaragua and Bolivia) were shown and committed people like Indian women’s rights campaigner Vandana Shiva and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Mohammed Yunus from Bangladesh made speaches.

It was soooo great. The people there were listening not only to the well-known bands and artists, they were really interested in what goes on in Africa. I mean, everybody knows thousands are dying there from hunger and violence but seeing it on the big screen touched me deeply.

When Bono from U2 and Bob Geldof sang with Groenemeyer I had full body goose bumbs - their voices together like that were very impressive.

I still have the refrains in my head: 80,000 voices singing the Beatles song "Boy, you gonna carry the weight, carry the weight a long time" 7 times for each president and then one time "girl, you gonna carry the weight, carry the weight a long time" for our president Angela Merkel.

The big finish was screaming at the top of your lungs "Keep your promise! Keep your promise!" a thousand times, so they over in Heiligendamm (G8 summit) would hear us.

There were no problems with violent people. I was relieved to see that peaceful protest can be even more powerful than stupid, meaningless riots. I am sad the G8-week started off so badly but I'm glad after that one time everything stayed calm.

Anyway, I'm still disappointed by the outcome of the G8 summit. A non-binding pledge to cut the CO2 emission by at least half by 2050 - pfft.