I admire Sir Bob Geldof.
He's done a lot for the poor in Africa. I believe that the benefits he accrued personally along the way were incidental to him. I'm even ambiguous about whether or not he got Ultravox bumped down the running order at Live Aid so he could perform in front of the Royals rather than Midge Ure.
I also thoroughly believe that Midge Ure's role in the whole thing has been totally unappreciated, but that's another matter. It is, though, time that he was knighted too. Just because he's not a loud-mouthed, bullying egotist (not my description, but from many who know him and quoted from the recent BBC documentary about Live Aid) doesn't mean that he's not actually done more for the cause than Sir Bob.
However, for all my admiration of the man I have to say that his reaction to people selling Live8 tickets on eBay is pure hypocrisy. Why? Several reasons.
I understand his disdain for people trying to make money on these tickets. What Bob fails to take into account is the number of those selling these tickets who may actually be rather short of the readys themselves. In some areas of the UK 1 in 4 children presenting at A&E departments are suffering from symptoms of malnutrition. Many people live on or below the poverty line here. Who knows how many of them saw this as a way to get some money of the type of wealthy charity-plonker who supports causes only because they are trendy and who would not for one second actually consider doing something to help a real person? You know, the ones eBaying the charity wristbands for hundreds of pounds and wearing them without the slightest clue what they mean or concern for those they're ostensibly supporting.
Worse, though, is the fact that Sir Bob made no complaints about the multi-national telecoms giants who made a real fortune out of all those who appplied to his text lottery at full price. Even when asked directly about this he just shrugged & evaded the question. If he'd gone onto the news and slagged off O2 et al who made a profit on the back of his lottery you can bet that they'd soon have donated at least a fraction of those profits to Africa. A few ordinary people taking advantage of charity-plonkers with more money than sense, however, raises his ire to a white-hot level previously only turned on the BBC for not getting enough money in during the original concert and the journos who followed him to Ethiopia and and tried to make him pick up dying children for photo' op's.
Sir Bob, you don't know who these people are or why they are selling their tickets. You don't know how many texts they sent or how much their tickets cost them. You refused to either impose or advise a cap on the number of texts sent, taking advantage of parents whose children may well have run up large bills trying to get tickets they almost certainly wouldn't be able to use. For all you know some of these "scum" are genuine people who spent a lot of money trying to win these tickets and can now not make it to a concert. Hell, they may even be genuine enough to have been planning to donate the proceeds of the sale to your charity.
Doubtless there are profiteers out there with no legitimate reason for re-selling their tickets.
O2, Vodaphone & Orange spring to mind.
What makes it all right for the phone companies to profiteer on your charity and not for ordinary people?
Target your righteous anger at those with real power and money. The multi-national corporations who helped to engender the situation in Africa in the first place.
No comments:
Post a Comment