David Rieff raises the question as to whether Live Aid did more harm than good in the mid 1980s in an article in today's Guardian. Rieff argues that Live Aid (along with many aid agencies and foreign governments) did help feed people during the Ethiopian famine 20 years ago, but it also helped the Ethiopian government implement a forced resettlement program during which as many as 100,000 people may have died. Rieff argues that the Ethiopian famine was as natural a disaster as the Ukrainian famine under Stalin.
Rieff presents a balanced picture of both the good and bad of aid money's use at the time. Médecins Sans Frontières's Claude Malhuret described the assistance the aid agencies (including Live Aid) provided for the resettlement program as "an exercise in deadly compassion", but MSF decided to pull out of Ethiopia and they may have felt the need to justify that decision.
Hard to know who's right, but I think it's good to question whether aid agencies can be too useful for repressive regimes.
