White Saviour

That said, it is hard to walk past someone begging in the freezing cold and see them suffering, so I do give a bit of change occasionally. But it's not the long term solution.

It also implies no one in the U.K. could ever be in a position where they couldn’t afford a present for their child. Which sadly continues to be demonstrably untrue

1984 LiveAid was well intentioned, but we know better now, I think. Teaching a nation to be self sufficient and create its own wealth is a far better idea. Plus the aid doesn't get to those who need it most. I like the quote Oxfam used to use on their adverts about teaching a man to fish vs giving a man a fish. I feel the same about homelessness also. I much prefer to give to charities which can help give the person a place to sleep and meals and also help them gain skills to help them manage addiction and debt, also help finding benefits and work.

Well said OP, Ed Sheeran and Fuse ODG. Patronising bollocks for a mediocre, self righteous factually incorrect song that perpetuates damaging stereotypes and gets desperate signers on board looking to virtue signal.

In a world where artists, actor and celebs are happy to look back and admit they got it wrong with certain offensive things I think Bob Geldof should stop deluding himself about that God awful song and say sorry to every single one of us who has had to spend the last 40 odd years having our ears bleed as he gets a load of half wit singers to tell us we aren’t doing enough for the (non-specific) Africans and people outside of Africa couldn’t possibly know what poverty looks like. The ONLY good that ever came of that song was the scene in Gavin and Stacey.

No good deed goes unpunished, you can’t be white and do bloody anything anymore without being accused of negative behaviour, we are either culturally appropriating, being white saviours or being blamed for all the worlds ills, best white people become completely insular like so many other communities and look after only ourselves, but that would probably be wrong as well!

Lots of people seem to misunderstand this lyric. It's similar to "there but for the grace of god", I don't think its unpleasant at all. I think it makes it pretty clear that starvation isn't a personal moral failing and invites you to consider what it would be like if it was you rather than someone else.

I don't know. I'd like to think the purpose of any given aid was well thought out but maybe it isn't. Most developed nations seem to give out aid so we would be an outlier if it stopped, but I sort of assume US and China aid is a bit of empire building without being an empire?

We give aid to places other than countries in Africa, so is it just countries in Africa you are proposing against or just the concept of foreign aid at all.

Fosters dependency, kills local industries and barely gets to the people that could use it.

He’s right even as his explanation is wrapped in woke.

As we right-wingers often say, sometimes the woke ARE more correct. Here’s a relevant example.

When the single was first released in 1984, there were no easy ways for the average person, especially young people, to donate to charities. It would involve queuing in a bank or post office to pay money into a published account number; sending off a cheque/postal order in the mail, or happening on someone with a collection bucket or some other local fundraising initiative.

Buying a record was an easy way to give - singles were sold in many high street shops, including places you might be going for other things, such as Boots and Woolworths. It was a good idea to raise money. Everyone had seen footage of starving children on the TV news, and most people wanted to 'do something', so this was a way of doing it. The project was pulled together at very short notice, involving the music A-listers of the day, in an era when they couldn't contribute their performance remotely.

But - we live in a very different world now, where anyone can donate money to any cause at the touch of an app in their living room. The legacy of the original song will live on as it's established as a classic Christmas hit (rightly or wrongly). The lyrics, though well-meant, are now seen for what they are - hastily written and thoughtless in their lumping together the whole continent of Africa. So, I don't think there's a place for repeated iterations of the song - time to say, it did its job well in the 1980s, let it retire now.

I think anything that can prevent people dying of starvation and/or preventable disease in any country should be done. But most traditional aid work doesn't work. Corruption, planning by people from outside of the area you don't understand local systems and cultures.
I am a big advocate for direct giving. This has been challenged me very successful where you give people a small minimum income directly to households ideally to the woman. This means they can buy what they need when they need it and hugely boosts local economies.
The impact is immediate and long term. It cuts out a huge amount of bureaucracy. Areas in which it has been done has seen fast improvements. Infrastructure is also needed in some places for sanitation but this should be done by local government. Unfortunately often corrupt.

There is a new white saviour mentality now. It doesn’t revolve around giving charity to Africa, but race baiting all the time. Everyone and everything is racist and you must be an anti-racist virtue signaller to be a good person.

As for charity and aid. Where does it all go? In the pockets of corrupt dictators, politicians and their cronies. You’d have to be naive to think that ‘aid’ and charity actually ends up really changing anything.

The song lyrics are quite unpleasant really - “thank god it’s them instead of you” - that is not nice, I have never thanked god someone is going through terrible times so I am not. What an absurd lyric!

the song raised money, let’s not have it again.

As far as I am aware (and I am in no way an expert), we’ve been giving money to African countries for the best part of the last 100 years and my understanding is that the vast majority of that money disappears before reaching local projects due to corruption. A few wells may have been built here and there but, on a whole, I think we just financed local conflicts, drug trades and mansions for government officials. So something needs to change.

ETA: there are some really good books on this subject by both western and African authors.