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What was this all about?
On Saturday 2nd July 2005 in 9 different countries there were concerts held which attracted all the famous popstars from the present day and from your parents' era! It was a great event but what was it all in aid of?
The concerts were staged to raise awareness of poverty in Africa. It was part of a wider campaign called Make Poverty History. This campaign aims to reduce world poverty by making world trade more fair, increasing aid to Africa and cancelling debt.
Many people feel that world trade in unfair as certain groups of countries (trading blocs) group together to protect their own trade and to stop other countries selling their produce in those countries (tariffs and quotas). Critics argue that this gives richer countries in these groups an 'unfair' advantage.
The UN agreed that every developed country should increase the amount of Aid (money, help, assistance etc.) it gives to the poorer countries. As yet countries have not yet increased it to the agreed levels.
Many poor countiries were lent money in the 1980s and 1990s for a range of projects (e.g. hydroelectric dams) to help them to develop. Unfortunately these poor countries cannot afford to pay back the loans and critics argue that this money is not needed by the rich lenders and should be used to help build schools and hospitals in poor coutries. A large proportion of poor countries' wealth is spent paying back just the interest on these loans.
Why now?
The latest round of G8 meetings are being held in Gleneagles, Scotland later this week. The G8 are the 8 richest counties and campaigners argue that these world leaders could make decisions that could end world poverty. Find out more about the G8 talks here.
What's this got to do with geography?
In geography we learn about how the world is interconnected. What you choose to do in Pencoed (e.g. which brand of banana, chocolate, coffee etc. you buy), can have an impact of people thousands of miles away. In GCSE and AS/A2 geography we learn about why the world contains rich and poor people and what can be done to help the poorest people.