"'We are very critical of what Bob Geldof did during the G8 Summit,' Demba Moussa Dembele of the African Forum on Alternatives tells me. 'He did it for his self-promotion. This is why he marginalised African singers, putting the limelight on himself and Bono, rather than on the issues. The objectives of the whole Live 8 campaign had little to do with poverty reduction in Africa. It was a scheme intended to project Geldof and Blair as humanitarian figures coming to the rescue of 'poor and helpless' Africans.'
"Bob Geldof is beginning to look like Mother Teresa or Joy Adamson. To the corporate press, and therefore to most of the public, he is a saint. Among those who know something about the issues, he is detested. Those other tabloid saints appeared to recognise that if they rattled the cages of the powerful, the newspapers upon which their public regard depended would turn against them. When there was a conflict between their public image and their cause, the image won. It seems to me that Geldof has played the same game."
George Monbiot, The Guardian, September 6 2005
The Australian media was equally in thrall to the Geldof myth. Today, there is silence.
"Bob Geldof is beginning to look like Mother Teresa or Joy Adamson. To the corporate press, and therefore to most of the public, he is a saint. Among those who know something about the issues, he is detested. Those other tabloid saints appeared to recognise that if they rattled the cages of the powerful, the newspapers upon which their public regard depended would turn against them. When there was a conflict between their public image and their cause, the image won. It seems to me that Geldof has played the same game."
George Monbiot, The Guardian, September 6 2005
The Australian media was equally in thrall to the Geldof myth. Today, there is silence.
Oh, come on. The collectivists were positively wetting themselves with enthusiasm when this was all taking place, and you know it. Remember all those soft-lefty types walking around with wristbands?
ReplyDeleteCheck out just a few Samizdata.net criticisms (there are plenty more) here,
here,
here
and here of the debauched, hypocritical spectacle * before and at the time it was taking place*, not however many months later it's taken for the penny to drop around these parts.
Sigh. I unfairly left this
ReplyDeletemost devastating article out of the above list. It was written on December 12th, 2004.