White Saviour

The Charity Commission site, which someone linked to earlier, shows the Band Aid Charitable Trust income was £2,398,136 in the 12 months to 30th November 2023. £110k plus was from legacies and donations and £2.22m from trading activities. Expenditure shows £2.45m in charitable activities. That's still a significant amount going to charitable activities.

Re-releasing it keeps Geldoff a bit relevant; I doubt it raises a great deal any more. Hopefully it will stop coming back before too much longer.

It's not the sentiment of the original record that people are criticising. It is the fact it hasn't moved with the time and 40 years on still pushes the same tired old sterotypes. Africans aren't all emaciated and unable to do anything for themselves anymore. Times have changed, the stereotypes associated with it are no longer helpful and that is the point people who were not even born then are making. I was born well before the original record.

I always think the people who rushed out to buy the record are very like the people who now rush to jump on the "it is so awful/patronising/generally all round bad. A sort of collective think.

I excuse kids from criticism but I do remember having a discussion with some people who were horrified that VAT was being charged on the record. I suggested they did without the record and just sent the money and they couldn't see why that would be a good idea, all of the money going to the charity rather than the cost of making/distributing/selling the record/VAT.

At the end of the day people wanted to help in their own way whatever it was, maybe groups like Farm Africa have genuinely benefitted from the grants they've received, I do hope so, but even if they didn't at least people tried.

Even if you hate Geldoff and Ure they motivated people, they raised awareness and surely that has to be a good thing.

MumblesParty
I agree. As a nation, British people are incredibly generous. Every major fundraiser, we dig deep and donate. Even people with very little themselves. And now we’re being told that’s somehow wrong.

I was a teenager when the whole Band Aid and Live Aid stuff happened. It was revolutionary. A vast amount of money was generated overnight, often from young people like me, who’d never considered donating to charity before, spending our pocket money on a charity record. We did it in good faith, and we truly believed we were helping. Yes the lyrics were clumsy, but it was thrown together at speed, and I think the end justified the means. A whole generation of people became acutely aware of the suffering thousands of miles away, and wanted to help.

It makes me angry when people who weren’t even born then, and don’t understand how different life was, start criticising us for apparently doing it wrong.

I wonder how many starving children the rapper Fuse ODG has fed.

Well said, and I agree. People who weren't even born at the time thinking they know everything and standing back criticising people who were trying to do something good.

///

Excellent original post and agree with second poster too.

As an aside, I would happily donate money for ES to stop churning out his formulaic material but understand I'm in the minority

I need to block these threads every year - I think I've been arguing about this for at least 4 years now! The annual Band Aid bashing thread is as much a part of Christmas as turkey .

I was 10 when it came out and I loved it and thought everyone was coming together to help with all good intentions. Hate the holier than thou sneerathon

and this song would be at the top of the dozen

My sentiments also.

The record was revolutionary. No one quite expected it to be as successful as it was and no-one had done anything like it before.

As a fifty year plus person, I reckon it’s probably one of the most important and significant records , and moments, in my lifetime, and a record that is dear to my heart.

I'm really not sure Do they know it's Christmas with a hip hop beat is working.

I could turn the radio on any day this week and find you a dozen songs with a rubbish tune and painful lyrics.

Well said, and I agree. People who weren't even born at the time thinking they know everything and standing back criticising people who were trying to do something good.

As a pp said, no-one needs more Ed Sheeran, who cares if he participates or not.

You’ve misunderstood this lyric, that’s not what it’s saying, like a PP said it’s more the sentiment of “by the grace of god I go”, ie. It could easily have been you but you were lucky enough to be born in the UK.

the more problematic lyric is the title; do they know it’s Christmas?!

I'm often annoyed at the lack of a Time Machine.
People make decisions on the information available at the time.
The past is not somewhere we live now and we are different from who we were then.
This reflection is unhelpful. We go forward.

Except that these people are spending the money, not the orgphanage, and they're NOT going to just send the money.

That says it all doesn't it?

They are going for the experience, for a bit of a jolly, not to genuinely help a community.

this very important post didn’t get enough attention imo.

A church I used to go to sent a group out to "build a school" it was generally a pretty affluent area and mostly people that worked in banks/law/finance that were going, they probably employed the local handyman to put up a shelf or plumb in the dishwasher at home, I'm not sure how helpful they or their teen kids were going to be.

I often wonder what would happen if all the teens going on world challenge, half way round the world to build a well/toilet block/school, turned up at a building site to offer their services somewhere in the UK....

I think it's really worthwhile having a conversation about charity and whether or not the current model is working but the problem is some people hear the chat about 'white saviours' and get their knickers in a twist about white people can't do anything right and the whole conversation is derailed.

I'm coming from this from a slightly biased point of view because I really can't stand live aid/comic relief/children in need and a load of mega wealthy, tax dodging entertainers trying to persuade people with far less cash than them to try and part with it, however I'll try to be objective.

• I wish people had a better understanding of why we give aid to some other countries.
• IMO the current model isn't fit for purpose and lines the pockets of the wrong people. I actually like the idea of micro loans better.
• I've worked in a developing country before (apologies I know that's not the correct term anymore but I can't remember it) and there's a lot people in the U.K. don't realise about how much people there are taken advantage of - I mainly saw by British and American companies though I have no doubt that that other countries are doing it too.
• I really hope we're past the days of celebs boosting their own profile by flying off to some orphanage in Malawi to film themselves crying amongst the kids for a comic relief segment. I do think these types of videos have contributed to the idea of poor starving lazy Africans doing nothing to help themselves.

I always thought “thank God its them instead of you” meant that we should consider ourselves lucky to not be suffering a famine. And “do they know it’s Christmas?” meant that if you’re struggling for food then you might not even think about Christmas that year.

But anyway, it is a bit cringy and probably best left in the past now. I was definitely affected by the song, the images and the whole movement. I remember seeing footage of Addis Ababa as a young child and being surprised that there were normal roads, buildings and people that seemed well nourished. It would be good to get a more balanced view of campaigns these days.

Have a look at the companies arranging these 'volunteering' breaks on companies house. A massive amount are private businesses making money for themselves and selling it to youngsters as altruistic endeavours.

Also in an area with limited resources eg rural Africa, do they really need another 6 UK teens to feed. Also remember the UK is not the only Country with youngsters doing the same. It's a holiday industry.

My kids and GC have never done it but from GS has told me about friends they pay a lot for the experience and I'm sure the money must be useful even if the teenagers aren't.

Yes, this! I always think of the rough sleepers on these cold, winter nights and say ‘Thank God’ for my clean warm bed, I appreciate how very fortunate I am that I have a roof over my head…very much ‘there but for the grace of God’

The difference is your midwife is takin a skill over. 18 year old Julie and Jonathan just out of school with no skills whatsoever are off on a holiday. They are calling it volunteering to look good.

Surely the lyric is referencing their lack of means to 'celebrate' or mark the day rather than being unable to follow the Christian calendar?

Oh, and yes, the TB thing is a huge issue. But from memory, I believe that HIV often leads to significant deaths by diseases that are particularly problematic in those populations? I clearly need to update my understanding of HIV but I remember being taught that lots of people who die of AIDS, would technically be considered to have died from somethign else - TB etc. Isn't that why Thabo Mbeki got into trouble many years ago? He said something about HIV lowering the population's ability to manage/prevent/recover from other diseases but it sounded like he was denying that there was a problem?