Just before Bono joined the G8 media circus, he visited the annual TED Global (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference on "Africa: The Next Chapter" in Arusha, Tanzania (4-7 June 2007). On his weblog "My heart's in Accra", Ethan Zuckerman has some interesting comments on the topic of Western aid to Africa and Bono's appearance on the conference.

"The interesting question is what the long-term effects of that aid are. Until folks like Bono and Jeffrey Sachs are willing to engage with questions from thinkers like Shikwati rather than dismissing these questions as oversimplifications, there’s going to be a camp that resents, resists and critiques aid. If George Ayittey’s contention “the begging bowl leaks” is true - and it is - projects like Jeff Sachs’s Millenium Villages are going to lose an enormous amount of money, line the pockets of numerous politicians and potentially, have dramatic unintended consequences."

http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=1502

In a more recent blog entry Zuckerman cites the analysis of Professor Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, who argues that the G8 does not correspond to real power in the world. The G20, which will meet in South Africa this year, is much more in line with new global power structures.

http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=1506