Help Africa! 80s Style

Do you remember back in the 1980s when the Anglo world minus Australia recorded those Christmas Africa songs? At the time I was a teenager and thought it was just another great gathering of stars who got together to show they cared. Altogether now: Aw! Ironic it was to have Live Aid during a greedy decade.

Now that I am older and somewhat less naive, all I can say is bah! That's right 22 years after hearing Tears are not Enough by The Northern Lights (the Canadian derivative of the British and American versions) that about sums up my tinkings. In fact, tears are definitely not enough to describe just how painful that song is. No wonder; David Foster had something to do with it.

Let's delve for a moment into the lyrics.

As every day goes by
How can we close our eyes
Until we open up our hearts

Not at our tax rates. The government already has my heart and soul. Nationalists can argue all they want that out "taxes are not that high." High enough for me.

Seems like overnight
We see the world in a different light
Somehow our innocence is lost

Huh? It suddenly felt that way because a bunch of Canadian hosers got together to try and save Africa literally overnight. Here's some advice: deal with Canada's Native population first.

How can we look away
’cause every single day
We’ve got to help at any cost

I wonder if they still help at any cost.

We can bridge the distance
Only we can make the difference
Don’t ya know that tears are not enough

Not if the province of Quebec is building the bridges. And don't ya know Canadians can't make a difference?

C’est l’amour qui nous rassemble
D’ici ? l’autre bout du monde
Let’s show them canada still cares
You know that we’ll be there

I thought Latin was dead.

If we should try together you and I
Maybe we could understand the reasons why
If we take a stand every woman, child and man
We can make it work for god’s sake lend a hand

So what are the reasons? Try corruption, no rule of law, transparency or accountability, political instability, perpetual tribal and civil wars. That much is obvious to anyone who cares to pay attention carefully. Ever hear of you can't help those who refuse to help themselves?

If the Canadian version was typically Canadian in its pathetic niceness, the British one was downright condescending. I never found out if Africans knew it was X-Mas but Do they know it's Christmas completely ignored the fact that there are 480 million fricken Muslims in Africa (915 million total population). I'll go out on a limb and say half of them didn't give a shit if it was.

And what about USA for Africa? The song was called We are the World. I guess that captured the era pretty much. I know America represents 5% of the world population and 35% of total power as well as a ridiculous fascination with celebrity but it was supposed to be a song about Africa.

Given this trio of bad songs rooted in Western guilt complexes, it's not surprising to find out that Africa is in worse shape than it was in the 1980s. Live Aid notwithstanding.

Bono can use his vox all he wants in Canadian parliament but the cold, hard truth is that throwing money at Africa is just part of the solution. Remember when your parents gave you 20 bucks to open your first bank account in an effort to teach the value of saving and responsibility? Yeah, well hello. It works for countries too. Though the exercise went right over my sister's head.

There has been a renewed commitment to helping Africa. From what I noticed about Bush's Millennium plan one of the conditions is to hold recipients of funds to be accountable. As for Bob Geldoff, the man behind Live Aid, he at least has the integrity to remain committed to the plight of Africa. He deserves to be listened to on matters of Africa.

All this is good. Just spare me the bad music. And the day I see meaningful changes on the Dark Continent is the day I'll consider giving. For now, you're better off buying a cup of coffee for a homeless person. If that's not enough for you may want to consider this.