Talk is cheap

Pledges alone won't save Africa | Mindy Belz

At the G8 summit the glitterati were aglitter as President George Bush met with rocker and poverty relief gurus Bono and Bob Geldof. "Hanging out with good company, aren't I?" Bush said before retiring inside the Kempinski Grand Hotel at the start of the summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, June 6.

Back at the World Bank in Washington the glitter is gone and the bank's chief economist for Africa is worried. "The record so far indicates that apart from debt reduction, African countries haven't realized the benefits promised at the G8 summit three years ago," said economist John Page. Page knows the numbers behind the glitz of campaigns like Live8, the debt reduction and poverty relief concert tour spawned by Geldof and Bono ahead of the 2005 G8 summit in England.