Word: geldof
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...Britain and raised some $18 million. We Are the World, an even schmaltzier American effort, and the accompanying Live Aid rock concert, which was screened to 1.5 billion people around the globe, raised millions more. Band Aid, the brainchild of scruffy Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof and electropop pioneer Midge Ure, eventually pulled in more than $144 million, most of which bought emergency food for Ethiopia. "I once said that we would be more powerful in memory than in reality," Geldof remarked in 1992 when the original Band Aid Trust was laid to rest. "Now we are that memory...
This Christmas we can hear it all again. The season marks the 20th anniversary of the original release of Do They Know It's Christmas?, and Geldof's resurrection of the song--featuring contemporary stars like Robbie Williams and Chris Martin from Coldplay--came out in Europe last week and is a hit again (it's available in the U.S. as an import at music chain stores and as a download from bandaid20.com) Proceeds will again help starving Africans, especially those in Sudan's Darfur region, where fighting between rebels and government-backed militias has left 70,000 dead...
...food as a weapon against their enemies. And there's no reference to the reasons behind the poverty: lack of infrastructure and investment, kleptocratic leaders and barriers to growth like European and American farm subsidies that price African produce out of the market. The truth is, 20 years after Geldof & Co. set out to feed Africa, Africa still needs feeding. But more aid--and a simplistic song that perpetuates stereotypes--is probably not the answer...
...Geldof and other Africa activists, like U2 front man Bono, are wonderful advocates for the push to cancel the continent's debt and open up Western markets to Africa's farmers. But I suggest they change their tune and come up with a hit demanding that the West drop its agricultural subsidies, cancel more debt and urge Africa's worst leaders to go. How about something like...
...went straight to No. 1 in Britain and raised some $18 million. We Are the World, an even schmaltzier American effort, and the accompanying Live Aid rock concert, screened to 1.5 billion people around the globe, raised millions more. Band Aid, the brainchild of scruffy Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof and electropop pioneer Midge Ure, eventually pulled in more than $144 million, most of which bought emergency food for Ethiopia. "I once said that we would be more powerful in memory than in reality," Geldof remarked in 1992 when the original Band Aid Trust was laid to rest...