British Concert for Africa Looking a Little Whitish

Sir Bob Geldof, the creator of the original LiveAid concerts back in the 80's, has another event coming soon and it's not getting the rave reviews he was looking for:

Anarchists from around the world are planning to cause chaos at next month's G8 summit in Gleneagles as a row broke out last night between Bob Geldof and DJ Andy Kershaw over the absence of black musicians at events staged to benefit Africans.

With police fears mounting over Geldof's call for one million people to protest at the summit, Kershaw last night condemned the almost exclusively white line-up for the pop concerts to coincide with the summit. "If we are going to change the West's perception of Africa, events like this are the perfect opportunity to do something for Africa's self-esteem," he said. "But the choice of artists for the Live8 concerts will simply reinforce the global perception of Africa's inferiority."

Bob Geldof last week called on one million people to descend on Edinburgh on 6 July - a move branded irresponsible by city leaders and local police. Geldof's fellow campaigner, Midge Ure, later claimed the one million figure was "symbolic" and talks between the campaign groups and police appear to have resolved any potential problems for the march.

Another report carries a particularly damaging quote:

Black muso and creator of BBC drama 'Babyfather' Patrick Augustus, fumes that Afro-Caribbean artists have been "totally excluded."

He rants, "It seems like the great white man has come to rescue us while the freedom fighters never get a mention.

"Where are the reggae artists that have been campaigning for truth and justice over all these years?"

Sounds like Sir Bob is guilty of a little political incorrectness. As they say, you're only as good as your last multi-million dollar benefit concert. Given Sir Bob's stupid call for a million protesters to disrupt the Economic Summit in Scotland next month, I'm not feeling too sorry for him.

I've got an idea, Bob. Instead of trying to keep the world's most prosperous nations from meeting, how about trying to find a way to use your celebrity to meet with those leaders and push your plans to help the folks in Africa. Who can better provide the resources needed than the world's richest countries? Disrupting their meeting will not win you any fans among the very crowd that could provide the most help...if they wanted to.