BEING A pop singer must be boring. Nothing to do but make hideous music, count the takings and fend off screaming teenage females; no wonder some of the pop tribe try to alleviate spiritual dissatisfaction and search for profundity.

In the case of Bob Geldof, however, the search has led to a profound shallowness. On the eve of the G8 summit, Geldof intends to hold a Live 8 concert. He would like his young followers to believe that the West is to blame for all of Africa’s difficulties: if we would stop encouraging Africa to participate in global trade and content ourselves with providing enough aid, solving the continent’s plight would be as easy as wailing into a microphone.

If aid were the answer, the problem would have been solved long ago. Over the past few decades aid donors have spent hundreds of billions on Africa — to what end?

Since 1980, over the whole world, the number of those living on less than a dollar a day has halved. In sub-Saharan Africa, it has doubled. This is not because of too little aid. The explanation lies in too much corruption, theft and oppression. Africa suffers from systematic misgovernment that condemns at least 100 million people to misery, in the midst of natural resources that could make them prosperous. Africans would have no difficulty in coping with free trade, if only they were governed properly.

There is one respect in which the West could be blamed. We did give Africa independence before it was ready. The best foreign aid programme was a governor-general and a team of district commissioners. But Geldof is not, presumably, a nostalgic imperialist. So instead of demanding “trade justice” and more aid, he should be urging Africans to take their destiny in their own hands, including their sexual destiny. Live 8 will not prevent deaths from Aids; only Africans can do that.

The new Live 8 initiative is good news for Parisian couturiers, German carmakers and Swiss bankers. For Africans, it is a delusion and a deception. Geldof and his friends are using that benighted continent as a catwalk.

P. J. O’Rourke said that American actresses’ political views fall into three categories: silly, very silly and Shirley MacLaine. For pop stars, it is silly, very silly and Bob Geldof. He must be disappointed that some other group has already taken the name Simple Minds.