The setting felt a little off for an address on the subject of poverty from Bob Geldof. That is, enjoying a two-course meal and plenty of wine in the main conference space of Sydney’s casino with an overstuffed, bright pink goodybag at our feet.
Geldof, in front of a series of light bulbs spelling out his own name (or at least the ‘Sir Bob’ part of it), was there to deliver a no-bullshit, no stopping, no notes, no questions, sixty or so minute speech on the current state of the world today — and the fact that every challenge of our time, as in previous times, is underpinned by poverty. “To die of want in a world of surplus strikes me as absurd,” he said.
He told stories of his childhood in Dublin, in poverty. His teenage years and his many encounters of people, in poverty. And of course the absolute depths of poverty — famine in Africa — which he has personally moved to do something about for the last 30 years. He said we’re still living according to the rules of the last century, “the most murderous century in history.” Our technology and ideas have moved on, but our politics remain stuck in the past.
“We need this century to begin. It is determined by new ideas and new technologies, but it is being controlled by old ideas and politics that don’t work,” he said.
And yet somehow, he managed to connect it all to the connections we make through shared interests and hobbies. He also connected it to the networking group Business Chicks that hosted him to appear at the luncheon, thirty years since he saw a BBC news report on a major famine in Ethiopia and was inspired to record a single with Band Aid to raise much needed funds, selling millions of copies in its first few weeks.
Geldof used his own community to create change (albeit a community of well-known rock stars that already had a significant platform for getting heard). The community and its influence grew as he later created the concert series Live Aid.
Geldof said communities can be powerful in initiating the change that politics have failed on. Groups like Business Chicks ultimately bring together the people who are running society. While it’s great for networking, the networking has a broader purpose. You can share in the talent that’s required to run a business and marry it with an intention to initiate positive chance. A community offers much more potential than a single person alone. It can be a lobby group.
“You’re not just capable people. You also have lovers, intellectual ideas and hobbies,” he told the crowd. “If you can combine that what you do with that what you are, then great things can happen. And if you can somehow collectively do it, then you have great influence.”
He spoke about the invention of the internet and the telephone, both of which are now available in our back pockets. We’ve seen incredible technological advances, but our politics and economics are still rooted in a previous era. As for Australian politics, he said our key political parties are looking more like football clubs than serious government.
He said he’s currently afraid for our future, for the first time in his life. “While I don’t want to spoil your lunch… It’s on my mind, not because of my age, but because when you get into a state of confusion, when it’s all too much, we seem to arrive at the same point you would in the school yard, the ‘let’s have it out’ point”
He shared his anger of the “grotesque criminal fraud by the banks” that have wrought havoc on the economy, destroyed countries and brought the planet to its knees. “The ruin of families, businesses, homes and lives,” he said. “A country is not a credit rating no more than a man is a credit card … A growing economy is of no value if it has no social values.’
He added that the rise of extreme political parties all over the world comes in reaction to uncertainty. Our political system has not yet caught up with our changing economic and technological environments and people are looking elsewhere for certaintly. “We saw it in 1814. We saw it in 1914 and again in 1936. We need to be careful.”
And again, it comes back to poverty. “You should have a piece of bread but you don’t so what do you do? You pick up a stone. If there’s a sword, you pick up a sword. If there’s an AK47, you pick up an AK47. Is it right? No, but you do it anyway … Terrorism is the byproduct of poverty. Nuclear proliferation is the byproduct of poverty.
“What’s going to be our Sarajevo?” he asked, referring to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, commonly considered the final catalyst in tensions that sparked WW1. “Is it the Ukraine, is it Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan India? Which one will set it off?”
But communities, no matter what they’re originally built for, can help — just as they helped thirty years ago with Band Aid. He said Band Aid and later LIve Aid ultimately gave him access to the corridors of power, a chance to talk openly and neutrally. Talk can lead to trade, and trade is one of the fastest ways to pull people out of poverty.
Geldof also mentioned his aunty who recently passed away aged 106. A few years ago, he sat down and asked her about the First World War. Did she remember a feeling that something was coming? Was there any tension in the Geldof family at the time? Was there this sense that something big was happening?
She told him, “Nobody had any idea what was coming down the track.”
Geldof wondered if he’d be able to tell his grandchildren the same thing when they ask, “Did you see it coming?”