Death Aid?

Writing in Prospect, David Rieff argues that Bob Geldof's Live Aid may have done more harm than good in its response to Ethiopian famine in 1985:

The truth is that the Dergue's resettlement policy -- of moving 600,000 people from the north while enforcing the "villagisation" of 3m others -- was at least in part a military campaign, masquerading as a humanitarian effort. And it was assisted by western aid money.

Whole thing here.

Comments

Jeff | June 24, 2005, 11:21am | #

This is the second benefit concert that turns out to have a skeleton in the closet (the Farm Aid/Mellencamp farms thingie being the first)

Meanwhile the for-profit gigs haven't systematically killed anyone.
(although I suspect that folks who follow Dave Matthews around die a little with each show.)

smacky | June 24, 2005, 12:23pm | #

(although I suspect that folks who follow Dave Matthews around die a little with each show.)

No, they're just already dead on the inside.

Jeff | June 24, 2005, 12:51pm | #

For dead people, they sure trash Hartford everytime they come here.

dhex | June 24, 2005, 12:52pm | #

the khaki keeps the holes in their souls from showing?

kwais | June 24, 2005, 1:01pm | #

Oh good, I see that the stupid aid concerts did serve some kind of purpose, even if it was an evil purpose. Good, becaus I thought it was a complete waste, it tuns out not so.

Ken Shultz | June 24, 2005, 1:03pm | #

Marge Simpson: "... and when I heard that it was for awareness, that sealed the deal!

Stevo Darkly | June 24, 2005, 6:11pm | #

This is almost enough to make me want to stop giving money to causes promoted by fatuous lefty dickhead musicians.

Akira MacKenzie | June 24, 2005, 7:52pm | #

Now I feel some sense of vidication for loathing that goddamn "We Are The World" song.

Stevo Darkly | June 24, 2005, 9:30pm | #

Took you long enough, Akira. P.J. O'Rourke did a pretty good job of deconstructing that song in Give War a Chance (1993):

We are the world (solipsism)
We are the children (average age near forty)
We are the ones who make a brighter day (unproven)
So let's start giving (logical inference supplied without argument)
There's a choice we're making (true as far as it goes)
We're saving our own lives (absurd)
It's true we'll make a better day (see line 3 above)
Just you and me (statistically unlikely)

"That's three palpable untruths, two dubious assertions, nine uses of a first person pronoun, not a single reference to trouble or anybody in it and no facts. The verse contains, literally, neither rhyme nor reason."

Stevo Darkly | June 24, 2005, 9:54pm | #

I've actually thought Bob Geldof was a dick since before "We Are the World," and here's why.

Sometime between the first appearance on MTV of videos by the band The Boomtown Rats (of which Geldof was a member) and "We Are the World," I read an article on then-upcoming (now deceased) comedian John Candy. I think it was in "TV Guide, but it might have been Rolling Stone. Basically a big long interview of Candy and his life and stuff.

One anecdote stuck with me, though some details are dim. At some point way back, John Candy worked for an organization (don't recall which one) that once provided The Boomtown Rats a place to stay while they were on tour or something. And the band robbed the place blind, stealing all kinds of stuff from it. And when they were confronted, Candy said, they just blithely denied it. I distinctly remember the article quotes Candy as doing an impression of the band members where he mugs and says in a slurred English accent, "Whot? Us? We dint steal nuffin!" The incident made Candy furious. He really ripped on them.

A few years later, when I found out Bob Geldof was involved in Band Aid, all I could think was, "That's the kleptomaniac that John Candy hates!" And that's all I've been able to think ever since, every time I read something about Geldof: "Humanitarian in public life, thief in private life."

Ken Shultz | June 24, 2005, 10:09pm | #

...Um...I'm with you Stevo...but...

...That a proto-Punk band on the road might steal stuff doesn't surprise me. The only thing about that story that would really surprise me is if John Candy got that upset about the band stealing anything other than food.

; )

joe | June 27, 2005, 2:44pm | #

Pearls before swine.

"Oh, Goody, now I can hate on Bob Geldoff!"

Umbriel | June 27, 2005, 4:55pm | #

Stevo --

Would the incident you mention have been before, during, or after the appearance of the Boomtown Rats on SCTV, in which Geldof played the problem student, Denholm, in "Teacher's Pet?

http://sctvguide.ca/episodes/sctv_s42.htm#Show_8