July 2, 2005: Headlines: Directors - Shriver: Service: Music: Fund Raising: LA Times: Bobby Shriver helps organize Philadelphia Live 8 show
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July 2, 2005: Headlines: Directors - Shriver: Service: Music: Fund Raising: LA Times: Bobby Shriver helps organize Philadelphia Live 8 show
Bobby Shriver helps organize Philadelphia Live 8 show
"I think compassion is an old-fashioned idea," says Bobby Shriver, the Kennedy clan member who now sits on the Santa Monica City Council and is one of the organizers of the Philadelphia Live 8 show. He's also one of the driving forces behind the "Very Special Christmas" series of compilation albums that has raised money and awareness for the Special Olympics.
Bobby Shriver helps organize Philadelphia Live 8 show
Will Live 8 really matter?
# Pop stars' tenacious commitment to alleviating Third World poverty has become increasingly politically sophisticated.
By Randy Lewis and Geoff Boucher, Times Staff Writers
Paul McCartney and the Irish rock band U2 will have history on their minds today in London, where they plan to kick off a globe-spanning chain of concerts to combat Third World poverty by singing "It was 20 years ago today…."
That opening line from the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" is meant to invoke the memory of Live Aid in July 1985, when dozens of the world's top pop musicians rallied together to raise money and food for Africans dying of starvation.
An even bigger conglomeration of rock, pop and rap's biggest movers and shakers is now taking stages in nine world capitals for Live 8, urging world leaders who meet next week in Scotland for the annual G-8 summit to do more to end poverty and disease in Africa.
"They're not asking for a handout this time," says Jack Healey, architect of the Amnesty International concert tours in the 1980s that similarly aimed to effect change, not just collect it. "They are asking people to get the world's boot off the throat of Africa."
Specifically, Live 8 supporters want leaders of the Group of 8 nations — President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and heads of state from Russia, Japan, Germany, France, Canada and Italy — to cancel hundreds of millions of dollars in debt owed by Third World countries.
[Excerpt]
"I think compassion is an old-fashioned idea," says Bobby Shriver, the Kennedy clan member who now sits on the Santa Monica City Council and is one of the organizers of the Philadelphia Live 8 show. He's also one of the driving forces behind the "Very Special Christmas" series of compilation albums that has raised money and awareness for the Special Olympics.
"Pop music as a vehicle for compassion never worked for me," says Shriver, the son of Peace Corps founder R. Sargent Shriver and Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Following in the family tradition, he and Bono co-founded the nonprofit DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) organization in 2002 to address poverty and disease in Africa. "Pop music is a vehicle for self-expression, for self-discovery about the truth of your own life. That's what pop music is, and that leads you to justice in your own heart."
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Story Source: LA Times
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Directors - Shriver; Service; Music; Fund Raising
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