Africa Tells Bono It "Just Needs A Little Space"

Rock concerts aimed at fighting African poverty usually don't make popular targets for critics, but the chorus is starting to grow a little bit louder among those who have come to see Live 8 as little more than a music-based multi-continental orgy of patronizing moral superiority and self-congratulation. More specifically, many see it as a chronically misguided way of approaching the continent's problems, trying to fill a hole by enthusiastically plunging a shovel into its bottom. (hint: if the problem is oppressive dictators hoarding resources, the solution probably isn't shaming Western dignitaries into sending more resources to said dictators)

A must-read is Jean-Claude Shanda Tonme's stunningly sharp piece in today's Times: "All Rock, No Action." From the closing:

...the truth is that it was not for us, for Africa, that the musicians at Live 8 were singing; it was to amuse the crowds and to clear their own consciences, and whether they realized it or not, to reinforce dictatorships.

National Review editor Jonah Goldberg was on the case last week.