Do they know it’s Christmas?
The original Band Aid single was tacky in the extreme, awful music, awful lyrics. But what do you expect when a large number of musicians get together and produce something of the lowest possible denominator, dumbed down rubbish? It spawned lots of clones. All we now get is dumbed down rubbish, for example X Factor, Britain (ain’t) Got Talent and other tacky music shows. Appropriate therefore Band Aid 30, a regurgitation of Band Aid with modified lyrics, was premièred on X Factor. But at least the original Band Aid raised money. But apart from being a tacky song, and raising money, short term fix, which yes saved people who would otherwise have died, it was simply that, a stacking plaster, holding together a broken system. And a distraction.
And Bob Geldof should not be slagged off for what he did thirty years ago, he saw the terrible famine in Ethiopia, as brought to us by Michael Buerk, and instead of simply going “how fuckin’ terrible” and moving on, he decided something must be, which is more than most people ever do or did.
The famine though was not a natural disaster, it was caused by civil war.
Live Aid raised money, and was in the main excellent musically.
Live 8, was simply a music festival.
Thirty years ago, Cliff Richard said, if asked, of course you say yes, who turns down global exposure.
Did it raise awareness? Did it force change?
Absolutely not. People tossed in a few pennies, pounds even, people had collecting tins, buckets even, on the streets in shops. As a fundraising exercise, an unqualified success, but did it raise awareness, did it cause people to demand change, demand the way the world works, how international trade works, absolutely not.
Now we have set in stone, unfair trade practices, international trade treaties, that are little about trade, more about transferring wealth to global corporations and granting them free reign to do exactly as they please.
And it is about to get worse. It is about to get far worse with TTIP. But where do we see this being discussed, where is the democratic debate, the involvement of society? Is Bob Geldof using the megaphone of social media to derail TTIP in its tracks?
But these are not Laws of Nature, what is written by the hand of man can be unwritten by the hand of man.
If the people who were motivated, mobilised, by Bob Geldof to “hand over your fuckin’ money”, had as well been mobilised to demand change and not rest until that change had been achieved, we would be living in an entirely different world to that in which we are living today, where we are seeing unprecedented transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich and the planet burns whilst the politicians fiddle.
Eighty five people, the richest on the planet, who could easily fit in a double-decker bus, have as much wealth as the poorest half of humanity.
The wealth of the richest 0.1% in America is about to exceed that of bottom 90%.
Throwing money at the problem, does nothing.
How could Band Aid/Live Aid have possibly been expected to solve entrenched internal and external problems for a whole country — or continent — which persist to this day? Unfair trade rules and a rigged economic playing field. Odious debt. Colonial legacies. Corruption in positions of power, in all countries.
No one is saying they could, but where are they fighting these insidious trade treaties, fighting for international treaties to safeguard farmers from marauding evil global corporations like Monsanto? Fighting for binding international treaties that cut global CO2 emissions by at least 80%?
West Africa is resource rich, why are there not the hospitals, why are the people so poor? Because the countries are being raped by Western mining companies.
Industrialised agriculture, dependency on Western inputs, not to feed Africans, to export cash crops to European markets. The classic Kenyan beans airfreighted to Europe, leaving water courses heavily polluted.
Russell Brand is quoted entirely out of context to support Band Aid 30.
I suggest read Revolution where Russell Brand slams these charity gigs, celebrity bean feasts, tells how he was told it was mandatory to appear in a Hollywood charity fundraiser as a good career move. Nothing more than a distraction to stop the masses focussing on the real issues.
And in Revolution, Russell Brand asks are we happy with money being transferred from the poor to the rich, with the planet being trashed, if not, then why are we not all on the street fighting to change the system?
The point of both Geldof and Brand’s efforts to seek the media spotlight is to create a megaphone through which millions of voices can be meshed and directed at decision makers, and to mobilise people precisely to bring about the deep systemic change that Band Aid/Live Aid is accused of not delivering.
Ok well done. Only I do not see that happening, where are people being mobilised to bring about the deep systemic change needed to kick out the corrupt politicians in the pocket of Big Business, to bring about real radical, revolutionary change? We need to change the system to one where we are the decision makers and they are our servants, not one in which our only participation is as mindless moronic consumers. Russell Brand is out there, where are the rest?
I do not see the crappy celebrity tax dodgers doing that, a start would be to pay their taxes.
Quite right to say the problem is the free market, the bankers, the speculators. Which begs the question: What are you doing about it?
Quite ironic to quote the amount of money Africa is losing through tax avoidance schemes.
Money received by Ethiopia may not have been used to buy arms. But to miss the point, if money can be used, aid money, it frees up money to buy arms.
No one is suggesting rich pop stars hand over all their money. How you use your money, how it was acquired, is more important.
Russell Brand has been subjected to the same criticism, Revolution sells, ergo it makes money, ergo it is hypocrisy.
A writer writes to be read, a musician plays to be heard.
The real criticism of Revolution is fear, that people are reading Revolution, it might give them ideas, ideas are dangerous, especially if those ideas are we should not accept the prevailing status quo, far better they keep on watching charity entertainment, even better not think.
Glitzy charity entertainment in New York, where Tony Blair is given a humanitarian award by Save the Children. How sickening can it get? A man who advises brutal dictators, for a a hefty multimillion dollar fee, how to whitewash their human rights records and killing of unarmed protesters.
Language used by Bob Geldof, an irrelevant red herring.
So therefore is the criticism of Band Aid 30 justified?
Yes, not because it is tacky, not because it is a bunch of tax-dodging celebrity hypocrites, it is justified because there was already a song released, a haunting beautiful song, produced by West African musicians, with a message to West Africa, a message that will do more to help than tossing money at the problem.
So what could Bob Geldof and his Band Aid circus have done?
He could have promoted Africa Stop Ebola. He could have told everyone on his contact list, he could have asked them to spread the message: Hey, there is this group of fuckin’ incredible West African musicians, tell everyone, spread the word, hand over your fuckin’ money.
But sadly he chose not to. Instead we had a regurgitation of Band Aid.
And do they know it’s Christmas?
Yes, they are Africans, they are Christians.
