I haven't been very productive recently with this blog as I've been caught up in other things. The Live8 concerts stirred up plenty of attention and debate over the G8 meeting, the G8 plans to fight poverty, what the intended strategy should be, the protests, and the concerts themselves.

This is an update on the situation in Afghanistan.

250,000 flock to Edinburgh for a largely peaceful protest for world poverty as the G8 leaders met to discuss issues including poverty itself. English Chancellor Gordon Brown made a speech about the "greatest moral crusade of our times" to a selected audience and doubtless other politicans including UK PM Tony Blair will speak out on the importance of ending poverty as well.
Of course, the Live8 concerts provided an optimistic backdrop to the G8 meetings that major action will be taken to help poor especially African countries but many are not convinced that the actions will be significant enough or that they will be mainly to benefit the G8 countries themselves.
George Monbiot of the UK's Guardian again expresses strong skepticism and criticism over the real agenda and effectiveness of the G8 talks and the results, in his latest article on the planned role of corporations to end poverty.