Millennium Promise

I am listening to Pink Floyd's Money this morning.

Money, get back.
I'm all right jack keep your hands off of my stack.
Money, its a hit.
Don't give me that do goody good bullshit.
I'm in the high-fidelity first class traveling set
And I think I need a lear jet.

I got the Dark Side Of The Moon CD in the goody bag at the Millennium Promise fundraiser last night.

It was the high fidelity first class traveling set for sure and we were doing our "goody good bullshit". Roger Waters entertained us with Wish You Were Here, Flickering Flame, and Another Brick In The Wall. We saw an amazing guitarist named Raul Midon. And John Legend ended the night with a song called "Show Me" which he is donating all the proceeds from to Millennium Promise. It was that kind of night.

But the cause, as usual, was a good one. This one is more compelling (and audacious) than most.

Millennium promise was formed by economist Jeffrey Sachs and philanthropist Ray Chambers. They want to end extreme poverty and hunger in the entire world by 2015. And they are attempting to do that by investing $1.5mm in each of 70 african villages over three years to create models of how this can be done. Although they focus on things like malaria and hunger, they also focus on infrastructure and education. It's about doing everything that's required to get these people out of the cycle of poverty and famine that seems never ending.

I took my daughter Jessica and it was her first big time fundraiser. She enjoyed seeing the beautiful people, dresses, and hearing great music. But most of all, she was moved by the cause. Me too.

Comments

[carl rahn griffith]

if you like your guitar heroes, fred, check out the best guitarist of the 'axe victim' concept/era - bill nelson - and the eponymous as such album by 'be bop deluxe' - i have recently set up a facebook group for them/bill, in fact - all are welcome to join:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2232616550

check bill nelson's history out at wikipedia - a stunningly subtle guitarist and a fascinating innovator, to this day ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Nelson_(musician)

oh, and guess what - he's from yorkshire!

;-)

[Jim Marshall]

Glad you were able to see Raul Midon last night. He's been one of my favorites for years since first seeing him open for Jason Mraz at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA. Incredibly talented with a very unique guitar stroke-even more amazing is that he can't see.

[Reuben]

Fred,
I hope you have been reading Ethan Zuckerman's updates from TED Africa (I was there too). The conference marked a clear break in the thinking about Africa, where a bunch of Africans stood up and challenged Jeff Sachs, Bono etc on their approach to development, and to be honest, these guys simply did not have an answer to the central questions being posed: the efficacy of aid (it's pathetic) and the ability of all these social engineering projects to scale up.

Bottom line is that the biggest poverty reduction exercise in world history is being undertaken as we speak in India and China, namely the economic growth in both countries. 450 million people being lifted out of absolute poverty in 15 years. There is no reason to believe Africa is any different. And that is exactly the point the Africans were making at TED.

I urge you to consider the opinions of Africans, who ought to know better about what's best for them, than a bunch of well-meaning people in New York, London etc.

[Majorcrud]

I think Millenium Promise is a joke. 6 months ago the Calgary Science School donated $11,000.00 to ChristmasFuture.org who then gave it to MP for a library to be built in Sauri Kenya. Six months later..no library no nothing. Jeffrey Sachs, Raymond Chambers, Jeff Flug and the whole bunch are a group of idiots. I think the kids should get their money back and I will never donate to this bunch of jerks who can't get it done. LIARS