{"id":61913,"date":"2013-10-19T07:00:40","date_gmt":"2013-10-19T07:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=61913"},"modified":"2013-10-19T07:00:40","modified_gmt":"2013-10-19T07:00:40","slug":"geldof-africa-needs-aid-debt-cancellation-western-and-chinese-investment-and-mobile-phones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=61913","title":{"rendered":"Geldof: Africa needs aid, debt cancellation, Western and Chinese investment, and mobile phones"},"content":{"rendered":"

Days after declaring his own generation had “failed,” rock star philanthropist Bob Geldof has told Al Jazeera that the next generation will do so too.\u00a0 (Photo:\u00a0Haru Mutasa and Bob Geldof)<\/em><\/p>\n

Geldof had struck the previous pessimistic note at The One Young World Summit in South Africa, and has followed it up in an interview with Al Jazeera English’s South2North<\/i>\u00a0talk show.<\/p>\n

Geldof was nevertheless still brimming with ideas on what should happen in Africa.\u00a0The force behind Band Aid and Live Aid\u00a0told host Haru Mutasa in the interview to be aired tonight:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing is education. Out of that will come an economy, an economy of scale. You do need aid, you do need debt cancellation, all those things I\u2019ve banged on about for 30 years, You do need massive inward investment from the Chinese and the West. And you do need a social glue: in Africa\u2019s case, that\u2019s the mobile phone. There\u2019s very little infrastructure here; this became a virtual infrastructure. Once you had the money available to trade, they began trading through this and you got liftoff on the African continent, so that seven of the ten fastest-growing economies in the world today are on this continent.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says the youth are right to blame his generation for the problems in the world today. \u201cAll generations fail, but ours more spectacularly than most.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he\u2018s not optimistic that this generation will do vastly better. \u201cYour generation will fail as well,\u201d he tells Haru. \u201cYou just try and ameliorate the future and steer it in a way that you think will work out.\u00a0\u00a0But if you seriously think you will escape this century without horrendous wars, without awful plagues, without deadly famines, if you think you\u2019ll escape that, forget it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sir<\/a>

Sir Bob Geldof<\/p><\/div>\n

He warns that climate change has already happened. \u201cThere\u2019s no avoiding it now, so now you have to offset the effects. The poorest people, the most vulnerable, those who contributed the least to this, they will be affected the most. Some of the countries out there won\u2019t even be here in 20 years. Be very careful: wherever you look there\u2019s a sense of unease. Name one country where there isn\u2019t\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Haru Mutasa is standing in for Redi Tlhabi, who is on maternity leave. She also talks to\u00a0Bethlehem Alemu, the Ethiopian founder of global shoe brand SoleRebels; Nokia\u2019s\u00a0Yiwen Wu; and Jeremy Lamri, the French founder of Monkey Tie, an online recruitment platform.<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s episode of\u00a0South2North<\/i>\u00a0premieres at 19:30 GMT tonight and also screens on Saturday at 14h30, Sunday 04h30 and Monday 08h30. For more info, visit\u00a0www.aljazeera.com\/programmes\/south2north\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can also tweet your questions, comments and opinions to @AJSouth2North or find\u00a0South2North\u00a0<\/i>on Facebook:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/South-2-North\/255419671252120<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Catch up on last week\u2019s episode, where Haru discussed youth leadership, at\u00a0http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SCHpyO6L5Pw<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Watch the interview here (not available in some countries)<\/p>\n