structural:expansion
Live Aid was a multi-venue benefit concert and music-based fundraising initiative held on Saturday, 13 July 1985. The original event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia, a movement that started with the release of the successful charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in December 1984. Billed as the "global jukebox", Live Aid was held simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London, and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. On the same day, concerts inspired by the initiative were held in other countries, such as the Soviet Union, Canada, Japan, Yugoslavia, Austria, Australia, and West Germany. It was one of the largest satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time; an estimated audience of 1.9 billion, in 150 nations watched the live broadcast, nearly 40 per cent of the world population. The impact of Live Aid on famine relief has been debated for years. One aid relief worker stated that following the publicity generated by the concert, "humanitarian concern is now at the centre of foreign policy" for Western governments. Geldof has said, "We took an issue that was nowhere on the political agenda and, through the lingua franca of the planet – which is not English but rock 'n' roll – we were able to address the intellectual absurdity and the moral repulsion of people dying of want in a world of surplus." In another interview he stated that Live Aid "created something permanent and self-sustaining" but also asked why Africa is getting poorer. The organisers of Live Aid tried to run aid efforts directly, channelling millions of pounds to NGOs in Ethiopia. It has been alleged that much of this went to the Ethiopian government of Mengistu Haile Mariam – a regime the UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opposed – and it is also alleged some funds were spent on guns. Although the BBC World Service programme Assignment reported in March 2010 that the funds had been diverted, the BBC Editorial Complaints Unit later found "that there was no evidence to support such statements". Brian Barder, British Ambassador to Ethiopia from 1982 to 1986, wrote on his website that "the diversion of aid related only to the tiny proportion that was supplied by some NGOs to rebel-held areas".