Commission report: Our Common Interest

The Commission for Africa launched its report in the historic Africa Hall in Addis today. According to the BBC the jury is out. The challenge will be corruption (endemic in many African countries) on one hand and the closed attitude of the west such as:

...subsidising Western farmers to compete against African ones; selling arms
into war zones; demanding repayment of dubious mega-debts and warehousing
stolen state funds in Western banks. And calls for an extra $25bn a year in
aid to Africa by 2010, more so at calls for a further $25bn a year by 2015.

Bob Geldoff believes the onus is now on Blair and Brown to sell the report to the richest nation on earth:

Tony and Gordon have to prepare to ring up George [Bush] and say 'do this, George, do this one thing for me, it’s going to cost you f***-all, do it for me'. Hopefully with the relationship that exists between Blair and Bush he will be able to go to the president and ask for this to bo done.