Bono effortlessly worked the crowd. Half a globe away, Bjork strutted the stage. Bill Gates was cheered like a rock star. And on the continent that inspired the unprecedented Live 8 extravaganza, Nelson Mandela outshone them all. Live 8’s long, winding road around the globe on Saturday has been an eclectic marathon.
From the top of the Hooiberg hill you can see all of the tiny island of Aruba, which is little more than a sliver of white sand set in the sparkling blue of the Caribbean. But Jim Greene, perched half-way up, is not here as a sun-seeking tourist. He is looking for a body.
A campaign of ”hacktivism” aimed at improving the quality of local television news has left reporters fearing on-air ambushes from a giant tiger or a cheese-flinging martial arts expert. Shock tactics have been employed by a New York-based group that says it has had enough of TV stations feeding viewers an insipid diet of minor car accidents, petty crime and house fires in which nobody gets hurt.
Africa will take centre stage at this week’s G8 summit in Scotland where debate is likely to reflect differing notions of who is primarily responsible for eradicating poverty — those who have or those who have not. The outcome of that debate could well determine the success or failure of the gathering and of British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spirited campaign to prick the world’s conscience.
United Kingdom university student Eleanor de Kanter gave up seeing pop singers U2 and Madonna to visit a South African township and be part of the Africa Standing Tall Against Poverty concert in conjunction with Live8 in Newtown, Johannesburg, on Saturday.
Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity but an act of justice, former president and freedom icon Nelson Mandela said.
”I was walking down Via Guerzoni with my little girl and I saw a man with a long beard and a djellaba being stopped by two westerners. They were asking him, in Italian, for his documents, the way the police do,” the witness said. ”At the junction with Via Croce Viola there was a pale-coloured van on the pavement,” she continued. ”Then, all I heard was a loud noise like a thud.”
The African National Congress (ANC) has reaffirmed its character as a national liberation movement, it emerged on Saturday from the party’s national general council (NGC) meeting in Pretoria. ”As the ANC, we remain a national liberation movement,” deputy secretary-general Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele told reporters.
Construction of the high-speed train connecting Johannesburg, Pretoria and Johannesburg International airport will begin ”today”, Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa said on Saturday. He also announced Bombela, a French-Canadian-South African consortium, as the preferred bidder for the Gautrain Rapid Rail Link Project (Gautrain).
Flyhalf Daniel Carter scored two tries among 33 individual points to lead the All Blacks to a 48-18 win over the British and Irish Lions in the second rugby Test Saturday and a 2-0 victory in the three-Test series. Carter produced his most potent performance in the number 10 jersey for New Zealand, outshining his famous opposite Jonny Wilkinson who contributed only eight points before leaving the match with an injured shoulder.