Page 16 | I never look for offense, but "Do They Know its Christmas Tume" lyrics...

Tacotortoise · 25/12/2023 10:38

Circularargument · 25/12/2023 02:11

Much if it ended up in the hands of warlords. Sorry.

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Do you want to expand on that a bit (it was quite a complex political situation I recall) or are you just parroting what you read?

NonPlayerCharacter · 25/12/2023 10:39

There are always dissenters but the success of the song makes it clear it was generally socially acceptable, lauded even...which, in a way, was kind of progressive at a time when racist jokes were still largely acceptable even if not everyone found them funny.

Progress isn't always a straight and perfect, problem-free line.

payens · 25/12/2023 11:05

SecondUsername4me · 23/12/2023 20:41

I mean, it's a bit iffy right?

And there won't be snow in Africa this Christmas time,The greatest gift they'll get this year is life

The whole of Africa?

Where the only water flowing, Is the bitter sting of tears

On the whole continent?

Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you

Err.....

There are so many pompous people on here. This song is 40 years old and was responding to the famine in Ethiopia where people were dieing and the rivers had run dry.
They raised a lot of money despite the armchair critics then and now!

GoonieGang · 25/12/2023 12:40

cakeorwine · 24/12/2023 18:30

I am sure that some people back then realised that the drought was in Ethiopia and that there would be Christmas in Africa, that the waters would flow etc.

We didn't just rely on TV for our knowledge.

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Good for you.
No I wasn’t aware what was happening in Africa until I saw it on tv and no I didn’t have a clue who celebrated Xmas and who didn’t.
So for some of us it was an eye opener

askmenow · 25/12/2023 16:01

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This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

Hear hear!! Well put 👏👏

Businessflake · 25/12/2023 16:14

Lacyy · 24/12/2023 22:21

Always thought it's such a patronising song - 49% of the population are Christians, of course they know it's Christmas!

You’ve completely missed the point.

RedHelenB · 25/12/2023 16:57

It was a quickly penned song to encourage British people to donate to a famine appeal. Don't see the pint in picking apart the kyrics, it got the job done.

NonPlayerCharacter · 25/12/2023 17:37

We've heard plenty of criticism. OK. So it's 1984 and there's a famine happening in Ethiopia. What should people have done, and how were they to know they should have done it?

Merida46 · 26/12/2023 01:12

Great song and it raised loads of money for a good cause. If you don’t like it then tough shit, build a Time Machine and go back to wipe it out. If you can’t do that then why not just get with your fucking life! 🙄

Circularargument · 26/12/2023 01:26

Merida46 · 26/12/2023 01:12

Great song and it raised loads of money for a good cause. If you don’t like it then tough shit, build a Time Machine and go back to wipe it out. If you can’t do that then why not just get with your fucking life! 🙄

Leave off the sherry, love. It was a trite mess creatively and a lot of the money went astray, fact. But hey, let's not bother thinking, let's all just be pummelled into silence by the ignorant majority who don't want to let go of their smug white saviour narrative.🙄

Merida46 · 26/12/2023 01:37

Circularargument · 26/12/2023 01:26

Leave off the sherry, love. It was a trite mess creatively and a lot of the money went astray, fact. But hey, let's not bother thinking, let's all just be pummelled into silence by the ignorant majority who don't want to let go of their smug white saviour narrative.🙄

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I much prefer single malt Scotch, sherry is for old farts and I think you should stick to soy/oat milk and some avocado toast along with the rest of the snowflakes. 😴

SandraTeaspoon · 26/12/2023 02:18

bjs2310 · 23/12/2023 20:45

I'm from Africa and was living there when this song first came out. I hate it as a lot of patronising bollocks! Show me where the money raised from this song was spent and whose lives it changed and I might change my mind, but until then I cringe every time it is played

Where did it go then? Genuine question

blondiepigtails · 26/12/2023 06:58

On a visit to New Zealand a few years ago we visited a cousin of MIL. He and his whole young family spent 2 years in Ethiopia in the 80s. Bob’s fund sent them there to teach the locals how to mend and maintain the simple tractors they were given so that they could farm more effectively. I didn’t get chance to ask more details etc but I was impressed to actually meet someone who had seen the fund used on the ground. The cousins weren’t there in a luxury lifestyle btw. They’re just an ordinary family who worked on agricultural machinery and returned to NZ afterwards

Marchitectmummy · 26/12/2023 08:29

Are you also offended by the money it raised to help Ethiopia?

Ironlights · 26/12/2023 09:45

Theinnocenteyeballsinthesky · 23/12/2023 21:27

I think one of the reasons us ‘old’ people still like it is because it was the first time we saw people suffering thousands of miles away and did something about it. We felt we were part of making the world a better place. OK, we were naive, as were the pop stars involved but it changed how international aid was perceived by the general public.

thats such a good point. As a 14 year old I didn’t know or understand how international aid worked or much about charities. Buying a record was an easy way to try & do something rather than just hand wringing about how terrible it all was

Agree, Michael Burke's report and The Cars song Drive had a massive impact. I was nearly 20 and I'm nearly 60 now. It honestly was immense what they did to pull that record together and Band Aid that followed.

Startingagainandagain · 26/12/2023 09:55

This was written and released years ago. We have moved on since and of course can see issues with it, but I think it is completely pointless to ruminate on it. What is that going to achieve?

You will find questionable content everywhere: old TV series, songs, books, artworks...where do you stop?

Better to focus on the now and learning from previous mistakes rather than trying to reframe/scrutinise everything...

MrsJellybee · 26/12/2023 10:02

Haven’t read the whole thread so apologies if it’s already been mentioned, but didn’t Geldof literally write the lyrics in the back of a cab on the way to the studio. I mean, it’s proper back of an envelope stuff.

Meowandthen · 26/12/2023 10:25

MrsJellybee · 26/12/2023 10:02

Haven’t read the whole thread so apologies if it’s already been mentioned, but didn’t Geldof literally write the lyrics in the back of a cab on the way to the studio. I mean, it’s proper back of an envelope stuff.

You won’t get any “worthy points” with a sensible comment like that.

MrsJellybee · 26/12/2023 10:28

For those upset by the ‘Bono line’, it’s a paraphrase of ‘There but for the grace of God go I’. It’s the most powerful line in the song. I’m sorry you don’t get it.

ScremeEggs · 26/12/2023 10:35

So it's 1984 and there's a famine happening in Ethiopia. What should people have done, and how were they to know they should have done it?
Yes, good point
Social media was non existent, a concert and a song raised swareness

StragglyTinsel · 26/12/2023 10:44

My personal favourite WTF line is ‘where nothing ever grows’. It’s so ridiculous. It’s a huge continent with actual rainforest in parts of it. But nothing ever grows. Really well thought through lyric.

There is a good Radi-Aid: Africa for Norway parody on tik tok. People sending heaters to warm up the freezing children of Norway.

StragglyTinsel · 26/12/2023 10:51

ScremeEggs · 26/12/2023 10:35

So it's 1984 and there's a famine happening in Ethiopia. What should people have done, and how were they to know they should have done it?
Yes, good point
Social media was non existent, a concert and a song raised swareness

No social media is actually no excuse for people not knowing that Africa is a bloody huge and diverse continent. It’s pretty shameful that we all just lapped this up and didn’t think at all.

Yes. There was a famine in Ethiopia - but that’s not the whole continent. The famine was largely a result of political and economic bullshit, exacerbated by drought - indeed a significant part of the money raised by the song was diverted into buying weapons.

Meowandthen · 26/12/2023 10:53

StragglyTinsel · 26/12/2023 10:44

My personal favourite WTF line is ‘where nothing ever grows’. It’s so ridiculous. It’s a huge continent with actual rainforest in parts of it. But nothing ever grows. Really well thought through lyric.

There is a good Radi-Aid: Africa for Norway parody on tik tok. People sending heaters to warm up the freezing children of Norway.

Are you deliberately missing the point? There was a terrible famine in Ethiopia. Nothing was growing there.

It was horrific and no one who saw Michael Buerk’s report is in any doubt of the severity.

We all know that the whole of Africa is not the same but it was a bloody song, not a history or geography lecture.

I really do wonder about people these days. So many that do nothing but criticise. So tiresome.

lanthanum · 26/12/2023 10:54

I haven't read the whole thread, so forgive me if it's already been mentioned, but Radio 4's "The reunion" this week was about Band Aid. Apparently Bono initially said he wouldn't sing that line. Worth a listen, perhaps.

x2boys · 26/12/2023 11:00

StragglyTinsel · 26/12/2023 10:51

No social media is actually no excuse for people not knowing that Africa is a bloody huge and diverse continent. It’s pretty shameful that we all just lapped this up and didn’t think at all.

Yes. There was a famine in Ethiopia - but that’s not the whole continent. The famine was largely a result of political and economic bullshit, exacerbated by drought - indeed a significant part of the money raised by the song was diverted into buying weapons.

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People were not thick in the 80,s they did realise that Africa was. A huge continent ,
But the parts of Africa we were seeing on tv ,had their population dying in their bucket loads
So a group of famous pop stars sang a song cobbled together in minutes with questionable lyrics to raise money for those starving
It probably didn't occur to then that fourty years later future generations would ,whinge and whine,about ,those said lyrics