Scotch College

Big concerts reinforce the ‘Make Poverty History’ message

Words: SIMON FORSYTH

Many people will recall the Make Poverty History concert held last year in the Sidney Myer Music Bowl on the eve of the G20 in Melbourne. With some of Australia’s biggest and best music acts, along with Bono and the Edge from U2, Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam, and with an estimated global audience of more than 20 million, that concert was a huge success.

This year marks the halfway point to achieving in 2015 the ‘Millennium Development Goals’ set out in the year 2000. World governments are falling short of achieving the goals, so to keep the pressure up, Make Poverty History organisers arranged six concerts around Australia, held on consecutive nights in Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Bendigo, Batemans Bay, Byron Bay and Sydney. With a huge digital projection onto the Sydney Opera House on the night of the Sydney concert, it was the largest and most successful youth-run music event in history.

The impact report for the campaign has just been completed, and I caught up with one of the organisers to discuss it – Old Boy Andrew Picken (’99), who was also the oldest in the group at just 26.

Simon Forsyth: Last year’s concert was very successful. Did that give impetus to the 2007 events?

Andrew Picken: We built on the success of 2006 to get where we’ve got to in the Make Poverty History Australian campaign. Last year was the brainchild of Dan Adams and Hugh Evans. I’ve known Hugh since we were kids and he roped me in, and it’s been an epic. It hasn’t all been plain sailing, but we did our best and overall we were pleased with what we achieved.

Our focus is on the one billion poorest people around the world caught in a poverty trap of physical isolation, disease, political instability, environmental stress, and lack of access to capital, technology, medicine and education.

The goal is to help these people reach the first rung on the ‘ladder of economic development’. What we’re asking for is more than is now provided, but within the bounds of what has been promised in the past. This shouldn’t be viewed as a handout but rather as an investment in global economic growth, stability and security. There’s a strong moral, economic, and political case for why we should battle poverty with the same zeal normally reserved for waging war.

SF: What support was given to make the whole thing happen?

AP: We were able to raise a lot of money prior to the events, and we were given a lot in kind. MTV was a partner, and for the production side the guys that put on the Big Day Out. Peter Pollard, who produces huge national tours such as the Rolling Stones and AC/DC, was our production manager. We pulled in as much advice and support from wherever we could get it – and the response from the community was phenomenal.

SF: What was the government’s response to the campaign?

AP: We met with countless politicians of all political parties all over Australia to discuss the importance of increasing foreign aid, and received overwhelming support for this issue from all areas of the community. The two single greatest political issues without question are poverty and climate change.

SF: What is Make Poverty History’s political stance?

AP: We’re non-partisan and non-political. But this issue should transcend all that. It’s not a Liberal idea, it’s not a Labor idea, and it’s not even an Australian idea. Nor is it unique to any one faith. Jesus, the Koran and the Jewish scriptures all talk about these issues as higher callings.

This is not even about charity in the end, is it? It’s about justice and equality. Too bad, because we’re good at charity; we like to give and we give a lot, even those of us who can’t afford it.

But Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice; it makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties, doubts our concern and questions our commitment. Six and a half thousand Africans are still dying every day of preventable treatable diseases, for lack of drugs we can buy in any pharmacy for a few dollars.

Look what happened in South-East Asia with the tsunami, where more than 200,000 lives were lost to the greatest misnomer of all misnomers. Well in Africa, 150,000 lives are lost every month. That’s almost a tsunami every month, and it’s a completely avoidable catastrophe.

SF: Were other Scotch Collegians or Old Boys involved or providing support to the campaign?

AP: Yes. Completely separate to what we were doing with the main campaign was the work of Scotch teacher Mark Williams and a group of boys at the School. This included the impressive aerial photography of the whole School forming the ‘’07’ motif on the Main Oval.

There has been a lot of very talented, world-class musicians from Scotch: for example, the boys from Symbiosis, Hamish Montgomery and Mika Etheridge (both ’97), who I’ve known since trekking through Nepal together at School: we got them to play the Byron Bay event. Jaime Reyne (’01) and his band played.

Felix Riebl (’99) is a great musician. I really wanted his band, The Cat Empire, on the bill but they were unfortunately on a world tour. I’m sure they’d have done it, had the band been in Australia. Felix has been doing some excellent work with Al Gore on climate change. In fact the extent of all the bands’ generosity and willingness when getting involved in these issues blows me away.

Pete Winneke (’82) in at the Myer Family Office was instrumental in getting the Sydney Opera House projection over the line with some eleventh-hour advice.

The Scotch Family has always been a very generous one: the Kapumfi School in Zambia is a case in point. In partnership with World Vision (which is also one of the main organisations which makes up MPH) the Scotch community aimed to raise $153,000 over three years, but that was raised in just a few months.

SF: What was the best part of the campaign for you?

AP: I think it must have been on the following night after the final Opera House concert at Live Earth in Sydney (the two events had a close relationship). I stood there with my girlfriend and the group, completely exhausted. We laughed, horsed around and reflected, having a beer. Wolfmother had just played and I was about to watch a relative of mine come on stage in his band – Crowded House – who were headlining (a sight I never expected to see again), with a sea of 80,000 people behind us cheering madly. It was a surreal feeling. Relief, really, at what we pulled off, mixed with hope for the future.

SF: What can people do if they would like more information or want to get involved?

AP: Get on the net, on the website. YouTube’s a great place to start, I have a lot of videos on the issues on my YouTube which people can watch: www.youtube.com/pickentv. ‘End of Poverty’ by the economist Jeffrey Sachs is an excellent book with a poignant foreword by Bono. I would be more than happy to talk with anyone about these issues and (if they like) help people to get involved.

The campaign wasn’t about raising money, although the team raised

$2 million prior to the campaign from corporate Australia and high net worth individuals, both financial and in kind to run the campaign. It was about raising awareness around the message that ending extreme poverty is possible.

More than 50,000 Australians attended concerts all over Australia; 30,000 Australians joined the ‘face up to poverty’ photograph petition, a Guinness world record. Over a million Australians are now wearing Make Poverty History white armbands, and 300,000 DVDs produced by MTV were distributed following the concerts in July. Since its launch in 2005, the campaign has united the voices of over 150 million people worldwide.

Through the work of the Make Poverty History team, the wider public has gained an appreciation of the importance of the issues. For the hundreds of millions of people living in extreme poverty, it’s been a chance at hope. For me, the power of the work is an epiphany.

The group can be contacted on (03) 9016 3500 or email ajp@picken.com.au, or visit www.makepovertyhistory.org. The Make Poverty History Zero Seven impact report can be downloaded from: http://www.picken.com.au/makepovertyhistory_ir.pdf. GS