My first call to come to Edinburgh, Scottland was with the knowledge of how the summit that took place in Seattle, Washington 8 years or so ago now, was the first major protest organized by a large group of people, predominantly through the Internet; revealing how much information can be passed by the people, to one another, to organize like they've never been able to before. This has subsequently been happening with success all over the world.

Having been an American living in Spain during the last months with very little contact with any news sources, mainstream or independent media via the Internet, I only just reminded myself again that the G8 Summit
was about to happen through visiting the indymedia website. I've been in my own little world; a state of being or lack of worldly awareness that can come from just being involved in ones' own preoccupations, distractions or plainly the human condition of not being able to attend to everything at the same time.

I hadn't been aware of the the "Make Poverty History" campaign either, having had no television, no ads, having just made a move to a foreign country in which I had enough information overload to deal with. I hadn't realized that this had been in organizational stages for the last year, with more and more different groups joining, so that in the last four months the number had grown to around 400 or so organizations that have been directly involved.

Here in Edinburgh, among the many different people whom I've met and groups whose banners I've seen or somehow come to meet, I also hadn't realized that it was ironically when Bob Geldof kinduv took over - giving it its' twist of star hype - that it was brought into the
mainstream awareness.

Yes, I've been in a bubble outside of the media recently, but what I'm discovering here among the various people who have come to Edinburgh, Scottland to make a statement to /or/ stance against the G8 Summit, is that there are all of these different factions who are openly criticizing the other groups that are here for basically the
same purpose. I'm ironically reminded the high school phenomenon, except that it's in the bigger arena called life. There are those who have been working with
their own groups towards the "Make Poverty History" campaign who criticize Geldof for having highjacked their cause and efforts. There are those who came to protest the G8 Summit first in Edinburgh with the full intention of going on to Gleneagles, Scottland who also criticize Geldof for having mislead the masses with all of the noise and glam of the stars; believing that most are lured more with the
idea that this is another rock concert - with a cause - which they most likely will embrace for a day,feel a part of for a fleeting moment, and then go home to forget about it. In contrast to these objections, I actually found that
the events that Geldof and the other organizers pulled off with their multimedia explosion of information and huge amount of funds to work with, have actually turn the "Make Poverty History" into the largest Civil Obedient movement in history, along with a huge rock concert taking place among several continents simulatneously. They managed to bring these issues to the attention of the masses, who all like to have their heros. And with the snaps of the fingers of all of these modern pop icons who are alternatively adored or worshipped, the publics attention has been captured with precision.

The "Make Poverty History" rally following the march on July 2nd was a multimedia explosion. The various speakers and musicians who were brought to the stages along with the various independent videos (first hand witnessing of how the "Free Trade" laws have been so very unfair to local farmers) and text that rippled across the huge screen spilling out the raw statistics of just how much extreme inequity there is in the world, introduced so much information that well,
almost no one could have left without having at least
gotten a clue about why they were there in the first place.

Sure, there will always be people who prefer not to be sober or aware, with no desire to really look beyond to a bigger picture. And there are those who came to Edinburgh with the full intent to go on to protest the G8 Summit in Gleneagles at its' inception, to make a populace stand against these wealthy leaders of the most wealthy nations, who prior have typically gotten away with holding their meetings and
making their decisions surrepticiously, with none of their voters having a clue of what they're up to, what they've been legislating. I heard comments of some groups of people annoyed that Geldof managed to hold his big concert event in Edinburgh the very night of that main protest, manipulating the situation just as the media tend to do, by delivering
other news simultaneously, that rivals and distracts peoples attention from the the main focus.

There actually was a huge effort along with a lot of money and organization behind the "Final Push" concert of the "Make Poverty History" at Murray stadium in Edinburgh on the beginning day of the G8 Summit; more potent footage loaded with images drawing on compassion and raw statistics spewing out text that had to at least jar a few to a startled awareness of the discrepencies of wealth and on how much we needlessly spend, in our 'developed' world. One video methodically showed images of Africans with barely anything,
photographed with one little prop, such as a scale, with accompanying text appearing relaying how many billions of dollars are spent each year among the Western populace on say 'weight loss schemes'. One after another, statistics of irony but scary truths were displayed across the screen revealing with a final statement that with just a little
prioritizing on our whimsical spending, we could put say 50 billion aside, and collectively save 50,000 lives of people dying for nothing other than the lack of money to acquire fresh water to deter disease.

I'm not saying that Bob Geldof is without ego or vanity, or that the people who went through all sorts of obstacles to make their way despite closed roads and cold, rainy weather to make their statements that voters should have a say as well - to these eight wealthy men making decisions that affect the livelihoods of the whole world - are heroes.

I guess what I'm saying is that I'm seeing a lot of people
tenaciously grabbing onto their own cause with a lot of sarcastic criticism of the other groups who are gathered to make the same statements. None seem to be able to see the commonalities between each. The organizers, the protesters, the concert goers each in their own way have something to express. Some maybe have a very timid voice or have never had an opinion on anything, and are just grasping feigntly that there are injustices happening in the world outside of their familiar territory. And yea, there are some that just want to throw their fistthrough any authority, because of how they've been brought into the worldknowing only of fists held against them.

It is just so easy to find fault and compress to sticking tight and aligning to one's own familiar group and labeling the other. Maybe we have to relax these tendencies, and try to acknowledge the common pull to make a statement that each voice must count, that each human should have the dignity of living and breathing from an earth that isn't polluted and
maimed with hatred. Each is trying to find a way ofcommunicating their perspective, even if they don't know exactly what they believe in. The fact that all of these different individuals and groups are attempting to acknowledge that problems do exist, that there are
injustices, is a start. Maybe some barely knew why they were here, but the Make Poverty History organizers and participants sure were doing their best to try to remind the people in their wide audiences continuously, through speech, text, storytelling, song and video, that these human beings in poorer countries, with particularly Africa as a focal point, all have a right to life. Life is full of different people aligning to their various social, musical, religious and political comfort zones, with only certain messages or shocks to jolt them to a new plateau. I dunno, if we already are splintering off into factions of disgust, annoyance or resentment of these other groups that are here to make
their own points in their own way towards the proclamation of rights for the individual and acknowledgement of the need to protect the health of the planet, then how are we able to build bridges towards a fresh new platform of caring about these issues?