Though G8 leaders discuss Africa every year, this time around they're under higher expectations, observes Daniel Kaiser in Hospodářské noviny July 7. Singer Bob Geldof has catapulted the topic into public attention, but not everything that has come under scrutiny can please Geldof or the humanitarian industry. The West has pumped $500 million in aid into Africa since 1960, yet according to all key indicators the continent as a whole has declined, and more subsidies seem unlikely to salvage it. When Geldof organized the Live Aid concert 20 years ago, he collected $100 million that arguably saved 100,000 people from famine in Ethiopia. However, the money naive rockers sent to that country's Marxist rulers also went to forced resettlement programs comparable to Stalin's experiments, which indirectly led to the death of at least an equal number of people. The only goal of this year's campaign that has come out unscathed is free trade and the ending of food dumping by the developed world — long the bane of Africa's farmers. A mere 1 percent increase would bring in $70 billion, more than G8 leaders now give in aid or write off in debt relief, writes Kaiser.

For the past 50 years, radio anchor Paul Harvey has been the authentic voice of the Republican America that twice elected George W. Bush president, notes Erazim Kohák in Právo July 7. Harvey told millions of listeners that the stalemate of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq was caused by the desire to be more moral and civilized than America's enemies. He praised the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and lamented that U.S. troops have equipped themselves with mere rifles. Harvey can afford to speak with the true voice of America, from the hearts and minds of Republican voters. America also speaks with other voices, such as the voices of freedom and human rights, from which Czechs have drawn inspiration in the past, but the government of today's global hegemony is elected by the majority that Harvey speaks for. A responsible decision cannot be based on what the United States stood for during the Cold War, but must take into account the voice it speaks with today. Hopefully, those who decide won't listen merely to Bush, but also to Paul Harvey.