I love it when...

[vraiblonde]

...a writer says what I'm thinking:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/4637801.stm

These people will not solve the problem. They are the problem.

It annoys me when all these self-important entertainers try to make a buck and get some publicity on the backs of starving children. The problems in Africa and these other Godforsaken places are much bigger than some vapid singer can even fathom, let alone fix or even make a dent in. The only reason they do it is because their manager told them it would look good from a PR perspective.

 

[Pete]

...a writer says what I'm thinking:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/4637801.stm



It annoys me when all these self-important entertainers try to make a buck and get some publicity on the backs of starving children. The problems in Africa and these other Godforsaken places are much bigger than some vapid singer can even fathom, let alone fix or even make a dent in. The only reason they do it is because their manager told them it would look good from a PR perspective.

Looks like there is not that much interest. The opening concert in Japan only drew 10,000 people to an areana that holds twice that many

 

[Triggerfish]

The only reason they do it is because their manager told them it would look good from a PR perspective.

Some of them probably but not all of them. Bono for example has been doing this kind of stuff for a very long time.

 

[Triggerfish]

Looks like there is not that much interest. The opening concert in Japan only drew 10,000 people to an areana that holds twice that many

The Tokyo concert didn't have any real popular performers. The most famous being Bjork. We'll probably see a huge turn out in London and Philadelphia which will have Madonna, Mariah Carey, Elton John, Joss Stone, Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd, REM, U2, Bon Jovi, Def Leopard, Destiny's Child, Linkin Park, P Diddy, and many others.


Also Tokyo was added almost last minute so they didn't have the time to plan it very well.

List for Tokyo
Bjork
Def Tech
Dreams Come True
Good Charlotte
McFly
Rize

 

[willie]

Seeing Madonna lead that "poster child of the poor" by the hand around the stage was about as patronizing as you can get. I was channel surfing and didn't know what the show was about but my first thought was, how humiliating for that girl.

 

[ylexot]

Seeing Madonna lead that "poster child of the poor" by the hand around the stage was about as patronizing as you can get. I was channel surfing and didn't know what the show was about but my first thought was, how humiliating for that girl.

Maybe she should have taken her girl (aka "poster child of the rich") with her to highlight the difference. Oh the hypocrisy....

 

[willie]

Maybe she should have taken her girl (aka "poster child of the rich") with her to highlight the difference. Oh the hypocrisy....

I don't believe you would have seen much difference. The only way I knew was from this mornings paper.

 

[vraiblonde]

Maybe she should have taken her girl (aka "poster child of the rich") with her to highlight the difference. Oh the hypocrisy....

I was reading some entertainment mag and there was a picture of Madonna and her young spawn, carrying a slew of shopping bags, saying that she had just dropped $10,000 or some ridiculous amount on little Lourdes' summer wardrobe. And then she has the nerve to paint herself as a "champion of the poor".

 

[Steve]

I have never placed much faith in these "voices" of the poor and disenfranchised. They organize, they get the sponsors and the media attention, but no one more so than they could quietly drop a couple of million dollars on the problem and have a greater impact. But no, they want all the fame and publicity with it ("See what I'm doing for the world's poor?") They crave the attention, and they exploit the world's poor to catapult themselves back into media attention. Bob Geldoff? Wasn't he last famous for LiveAid 1986?!? Bono, champion for the downtrodden, "but cut me my check". All of these folks could easily organize and disseminate their wealth to the poor; but they would rather take our money via benefit concerts and donate that. That tells you something, doesn't it?

 

[ylexot]

You'll love this vrai...

We'll keep the cash, say Razorlight

 

[SamSpade]

I've read now, about a half-dozen articles mentioning that for the past 30 some years, nearly a *TRILLION* dollars has been pumped into Africa for aid - and Africans are far more desperately poor than ever. One column mentioned that, as poor as Ethiopia is, it still has enough money to continue to wage war with Eritrea. Most of the LiveAid money given 20 years ago was squandered, stolen, wasted, grabbed by the corrupt leaders. The problems in Africa go far deeper and simply throwing money at the problem won't change a damned thing - not today, not twenty years ago.


I echo the sentiments of many here, and elsewhere on the Web - aside from the fact that I'm annoyed that people worth 100 million bucks many years ago were asking us to empty our pockets, I'm annoyed that musicians, entertainers, actors think they can "raise awareness" and effect change. They take time off from their otherwise self-aggrandizing lives to promote themselves and bad-mouth the governments of the world who have BEEN engrossed in trying to solve Africa's problems for longer than any of them have been ALIVE.

I think the BEST parody of the situation was done years ago on "The Simpsons" when Bart perpetrated a hoax of a child named 'Timmy' stuck down a well, using a walkie-talkie device that he accidentally dropped into the well. Every entertainer managed to get a bit of publicity, they even sang an idiotic song of "Sending Our Love Down the Well" - until the hoax was revealed. Afterwards, when Bart *REALLY* fell down the well, they couldn't be tapped for it - even though this time, the danger was *real*.

Same thing here - if these guys gave a crap about Africa, they'd drop their pursuit of wealth - and some are worth more millions than they could ever spend - and devote their time to solving the problems. They'd do more than make a few photo ops, do more than spend a day or two with some children singing and clapping. They'd dedicate themselves to it.

Maybe when people like David Gilmour or Bob Geldof actually *gets* malaria themselves, I'll listen to them.

 

[Bruzilla]

I don't see guys like Geldoff or Bono doing these things for publicity or because their agent thinks it would be a good idea. I think they do it because they suffer from that same dreaded disease that Liberals in our country suffer from... the I Don't Get It disease, and it's quick and easy cure, the Feel Good pill. This form of illness and cure have plagued Liberals for centuries, and continues to blight them.

In this case, these guys "don't get" that you can't help people by raising a set amount of money (regardless of how much) and giving it to them. Contrary to popular belief, most of the Live Aid money and aid was not squandered or stolen, it was redirected to where it made the best sense to use it. In Ethiopia for example, the aid was given to the people of the major cities who were hungry, not the starving famine refugees in the desert, who it was originally intended for. The reason was that the Ethiopian government knew that feeding and strengthening tens of thousands of broke, sick, homeless, and uneducated nomads would not be a good thing for the country. If these people died, they died. If they lived and grew strong, they wouldn't be content to get fed for a short time and then go about their business. They would want more food, they would want shelter, education, jobs, healthcare, etc., which guys like Geldoff didn't bother to factor into the funding equation. So the money and food went to take care of the natives, and the refugees were left to die or move on. Like most Liberals, Geldoff and others let their emotions cloud their judgement, and they failed to recognize one of the longest-held truths of human society - that being the difference between giving a man a fish and teaching him to fish.

Like with so many other issues, Geldoff took the Feel Good pill, and was able to rock out on stage, generate a lot of money, feel really, really, good about what he had done, and then go home, his dutes to society complete. And like most of these efforts, the "feel the pain" outcome was far different than the "feel good" intent.

 

[Tonio]

I don't see guys like Geldoff or Bono doing these things for publicity or because their agent thinks it would be a good idea. I think they do it because they suffer from that same dreaded disease that Liberals in our country suffer from... the I Don't Get It disease, and it's quick and easy cure, the Feel Good pill.

Good point. I think they have a second disease, the Rich Entertainer Guilt disease. They seem to feel guilty for earning their millions from something as "trifling" as entertainment and not from "real work," especially if they came from poor backgrounds. They're so narcissitic that they don't realize how arrogant they seem when they try to assuage their guilt. Even Jerry Lewis does this--his Labor Day Telethons are not so much about muscular dystrophy as about Jerry Lewis.

I think the BEST parody of the situation was done years ago on "The Simpsons" when Bart perpetrated a hoax of a child named 'Timmy' stuck down a well.

Excellent!