{"id":16543,"date":"2025-07-13T20:46:55","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T03:46:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=16543"},"modified":"2025-11-15T22:55:32","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T06:55:32","slug":"issue-of-the-week-hunger-disease-human-rights-economic-opportunity-war-environment-population-personal-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=16543","title":{"rendered":"Issue of the Week: Hunger, Disease, Human Rights, Economic Opportunity, War, Environment, Population, Personal Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Back to News<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Planet Earth Foundation, World Campaign, Issue of the Week, July 13, 2015<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, 40 years ago, the most extraordinary global broadcast of the most extraordinary concert to raise funds to feed the hungry, reaching about 2 billion people, at the time close to half the population of the planet (by percentage the single largest broadcast venue of all times), was occurring in the UK and US simultaneously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Live Aid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyone alive and conscious at the time will have shivers up and down their spine thinking about it and will never forget it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone can see the story, and what followed in impact for many years, starting today, in the four-part documentary co-produced by the BBC and CNN, Live Aid: When Rock ‘n’ Roll Took On the World<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You will see on the site an article about the last day of USAID, with Presidents Obama and Bush and the artist and activist Bono–whose iconic performance at Live Aid launched him into superstardom, but more importantly began a lifetime of activism–being with employees of USAID, denouncing the incomprehensible barbarism of Trump in shuttering it and condemning countless millions to death, and thanking these extraordinary workers for humanity as the “best of us.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have focussed heavily on this issue as readers know, as it also is at the heart of our work from the start, and we left last week’s post up until now because of the importance of the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides urging you to watch the documentaries on CNN and the BBC, we urge you to watch the concert (you can find it in searching) and to read everything you can about this unparalleled moment about the best of humanity coming to the fore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also cannot urge you enough to read our post from ten years ago, on the thirtieth anniversary, reposted as the third installment of our series, The End Of Civilization As We Knew It, on July 13, 2018 filled with information, including about our role, and links to the concert and the story, especially the BBC documentary in full broadcast on the twentieth anniversary. There’s nothing like any of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, an interview in today’s New York Times of Bob Geldof, who is responsible for the creation of Live Aid. No words can meet the moment, then and since, of what a singularly great person he is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We end here for now quoting Bob Geldof at the end of the article below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re in a radically different world now. It\u2019s the argument between nationalism and internationalism.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is profoundly shocking is the cackling glee with which the Trump-Vance-Musk triumvirate went about declaring war on the weakest and most vulnerable people of our planet. America was always the most generous by far of all the countries.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why would great America do that, while the richest man on the planet cackles that we\u2019re going to feed U.S.A.I.D. into the wood chipper<\/a>? It is grotesque, it is a disgrace to the country<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk said that the great weakness of Western civilization is empathy<\/a>. You fool. Empathy is the glue of humanity. It is the basis of civilization<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“40 Years After Live Aid, It\u2019s Still Personal for Bob Geldof”<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rock star-turned-activist reflects on the 1985 benefit concert and why it could not happen now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The singer and activist Bob Geldof at home in London. The Live Aid shows were seen by about 1.5 billion people in more than 150 countries and would go on to raise more than $140 million.Credit…Chris Hoare for The New York Times<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Ravi Mattu<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reporting from London<\/p>\n\n\n\n