There are lots of articles about Africa in the news, prompted by the G8 meetings starting today, and the Live8 concerts.

Salon has three pieces on Africa today, which, unfortunately, you may not be able to read if you are not a paid premium member.

Getting real on Africa lists ten things President Bush should do if he is truly serious about helping Africans. He's made some good promises so the first item is to make good on them. Push for vaccine availability, stop lumping all of Africa together, address each stage of development, create a governance aid program, channel more aid through NGOs, take action in Darfur, help Zimbabwean opposition groups, explore AFTA (an African free trade agreement), and develop aid partnerships.

An "African success story" gone sour says the real test of Bush's tough talk (demanding democracy and good governance around the world) will be Ugandan president Museveni, who is a US ally on major issues -- and proving to be corrupt. (He has been in power for 20 years and the Ugandan parliament is expected to amend the constitution and lift term limits soon.)

Is aid the problem, not the solution? asks if all this aid is just creating an aid-based economy, not nations who can stand on their own two feet, and says that too much aid winds up in the accounts of corrupt leaders.

"Isn't it better to do something rather than give in to cynicism and do nothing?" asks David Rieff in the Guardian (Cruel to be kind?) Maybe not, he answers his own question.

Ethan Zuckerman has two related pieces. First, a criticism of the Live8 concerts (“Bono and Brad Pitt Need Your Help!”). He questions celebrity involvement and criticizes Live8 for not involving more Africans.

His friend Brian write a critical response to that on his own blog ( Development issues and celebrities):

Yet it's tricky. The main reason I care about third world development issues is because I lived in Africa. My concern was only vague and theoretical before then. Most people don't have the good fortune to live abroad. And you aren't going to learn anything much about development issues by reading the mainstream US media ... Yes, it's unfortunate that many people won't learn much about important issues of international development unless a princess or a rock star picks up the mantle. But it's reality.

Ethan responds thoughtfully and at length (Africa’s a continent. Not a crisis).

All that said, I’m having trouble sharing Brian’s view that the attention generated by Live 8 is neccesarily a good thing. Yes, millions of people are paying attention to “Africa” today… but I’m having some trouble recognizing the “Africa” they’re talking about.

In several of the interviews I watched on CNN and MTV, concert performers and fans referenced “the issue of Africa”, “the African cause”, or “the problem of Africa.”

Africa’s not an issue. It’s not a cause or a problem. It’s a continent - a complicated, confusing, beautiful continent, with wealth and poverty, peace and strife, success and tragedy. When Africa becomes a cause, we tend to see only one side of the continent - a helpless, dependent, starving side that “needs our help.”

To actually accomplish the goal of Live 8 - the elimination of poverty in Africa - Americans and Europeans have to get a great deal smarter about this other Africa. This Africa needs investment and trade, rather than just aid and debt forgiveness.

Aid dollars don’t eliminate poverty - integration into a global economy does.

Meanwhile, Andrew Heavens interviewed a couple of university students in Addis Ababa about the concerts, both Live Aid and Live8.

"There are people they can help in their own countries before they come to Addis. I mean we've seen images of Americans in the streets begging."

On a personal note, I never thought much about that original Live Aid song until I actually visited Africa -- and then I began to loathe it. This article pretty well sums up my complaints:

Whether the crooning helps the cause may depend on how the lyrics resonate with 21st century audiences. So far, the words have drawn fire for being tactless ("Tonight thank God it's them instead of you"), misleading, and in parts either meaningless or wrong - or both ("And there won't be snow in Africa this Christmas"). Many Africans will not recognize the song's description of a land where "nothing ever grows, no rain or river flows." Ethiopia, the focus in 1984, happens to be the source of the Nile.
- When saving the world with song, mind the lyrics in the Christian Science Monitor

And to end on a happy (if bizarre) note: Lions free kidnapped girl in Ethiopia.

Police say three lions rescued a 12-year-old girl kidnapped by men who wanted to force her into marriage, chasing off her abductors and guarding her until police and relatives tracked her down in a remote corner of Ethiopia. The men had held the girl for seven days, repeatedly beating her, before the lions chased them away and guarded her for half a day before her family and police found her ... "A young girl whimpering could be mistaken for the mewing sound from a lion cub, which in turn could explain why they (the lions) didn't eat her," [a wildlife expert] said. "Otherwise they probably would have done."

The article also notes that "in Ethiopia, kidnapping has long been part of the marriage custom, a tradition of sorrow and violence whose origins are murky ... The United Nations estimates that more than 70 percent of marriages in Ethiopia are by abduction."

OK, I lied, that's not a happy note ...