So for those of you who have me on Facebook, this post will resemble a rant that I posted earlier today. For this I apologise but the more I read the more I want to rant so I have decided to put it all in one place; that place being right here.
So let us begin with the article that first caught my attention as I was scrolling through my Facebook news feed:
This is such a cynical article and while I agree with most of the points she makes in it I couldn’t help thinking “Oh my god lighten up woman!” If these celebrities think they are making a difference by recording this song then there is no harm in that and I am pretty sure that behind closed doors some of them (not all of them) do donate to charity and do genuinely care about what is going on in the world. This preconceived idea that all celebs are heartless and only care about themselves really gets to me. They are human beings just like us. Lets think about it this way; a lot of young people would not think to donate to charity but they look up to these people. They see that one of their idols have made a cool christmas song with a bunch of other pretty cool people and they think “Hey, I’ll buy that”, by doing that they have donated money sometimes without even realising it. Its about reaching an audience in the best way you can to get the desired out come (in this case reaching teenagers and young people who do not get the chance to sign up for monthly donations). Yes the charities that are actually out there in the countries helping should get way more recognition for what they do and really Bob Geldof is just doing the same thing he does every year but when you put it into context like this then its a case of every little thing helps and celebrities should not be publicly shamed whether they are on the single or whether they refused to be on it for personal reasons, such as raising their new family.
To sum up my thoughts on this article, I do agree with quite a lot of what she is saying if someone would rather donate money than be on a single fair enough they should not be bullied for not taking part, if she feels she has enough on her plate with raising her family then that is her decision but at the same time I then disagree with how the article turns into the writer pretty much shaming the people who are on the single. Its like she doesn’t understand that what she is doing is exactly the same thing she started her article complaining about!
I then continued in my Facebook scrolling only to find this lovely little piece of work right here on wordpress, as a suggested link because I had clicked on the one above:
http://gbtravels.wordpress.com/2014/11/14/10-facts-for-bob-geldof/
My problem with this should be pretty obvious! The author of this post is analysing a song written in the 1980’s using data from 2014. When “Band Aid” was released Ethiopia was a country full of drought and failing crops, the lyrics in the song mirror this image. Geldof has himself said that he hates the song, he thinks “I am responsible for two of the worst songs in history,” said in 2010. “One is ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ and the other one is ‘We Are The World’.” To quote one of the commenters on this post “The phrase “Do they know its Christmas” was intended to highlight the contrast between the pictures and atmosphere in the UK at the time and the devastation in Ethiopia.” I do not understand why people feel the need to take this line so literally as this commenter points out the line is meant to show how these people were in such a desperate situation that the very thought of christmas and celebrating probably never even crossed their mind, of course, if they are christian, they know it is christmas! Also the line “Tonight thank God it’s them instead of you” is slated in this post, who actually believes that this is a literal statement, that Geldof genuinely thinks this? It is so obviously a statement on the minds of people as a whole, as long as it is not happening to you then it is not happening. He is trying to make you think about the way you see the world from your cosy little seat in front of your fire with your food and think wow I am an extremely lucky person.
Giving him a bunch of up to date facts about modern day Africa and saying “You are wrong” is utterly pointless and down right cynical, why don’t you get up and do something about the problem and see how well you do? Or maybe the reason you wrote the post in the first place is that you think there is no problem? At the time he wrote the song it was about raising awareness and money to help battle a major problem. Which is what he is trying to do with his reincarnation. I am not sticking up for him and saying that he is an angel and everyone needs to back off him (mainly because I recon he can take it). I am saying think about what he is trying to do and instead of shaming this man and all the other celebrities who have joined him ask yourself when was the last time you thought, I am going to donate some money to help cure Ebola. If you have then well great! Why do you assume that all of these celebrities have not donated? I am not saying they have or will or have not but who are we to shame them on an assumption based on absolutely no evidence.
Now as an end note I am not saying that these songs are the answer to the problems in Africa or any other country in the world but at the same time if you hate on this song then what is the point of charities such as Comic Relief and Children in Need who use celebrity endorsement to raise money, should we not have bought the album released in reaction to the Earthquake that happened in Japan a few years back? Where do we draw the line on Western help in developing countries or in fact any country that suffers a crisis?
This article has some interesting points:
Well Travelled Lass 