On November 14, 2014 at the request of Sir Bob Geldof, One Direction joined Bono, Emelie Sande, Sam Smith, and many other caring celebrities to donate their time and talent to send aid to Ebola-stricken areas around the world.
The artists participating in BandAid30 recorded a newer version of the song, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” (originally recorded in 1984 and adapted several times since its first inception)
with added lyrics: “Where a kiss of love can kill you – and there’s death at every tear.”
It continues: “No peace and joy this Christmas in West Africa – the only hope they’ll have is being alive.
“Where to comfort is to fear – where to touch is to be scared.
“How can they know it’s Christmas time at all.”
You can watch the BandAid30 video here, **(warning: the beginning of this video is quite graphic and lends itself to the magnitude of the Ebola crisis)**
Band Aid 30 carries on the work of the charity supergroup Band Aid, created by Geldof in 1984. When this new group, which included One Direction, was announced on 10th November by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, Geldof stating that he took the step of creating BandAid30 after the United Nations had contacted him, expressing that help was urgently needed to prevent the 2014 Ebola crisis in Western Africa from spreading throughout the world. This was also U2’s Bono’s third time to participate in recording for the Band Aid Charity. The BandAid30 song was recorded just 17 days shy of the thirty year anniversary of the original Band Aid recording.
This excerpt shared below, (from http://www.bandaid30.com), explains more fully the necessity to continue the focus on Ebola until this disease is, hopefully, eradicated from the planet:(all logo and photo credits to http://www.bandaid30.com and their original owner):
EBOLA CRISIS: BEYOND THE MONEY, THIS FORCES OUR LEADERS TO TAKE ACTION
17TH DECEMBER 2014
Ebola crisis: Beyond the money, this forces our leaders to take actionThe fact that a Band Aid single is needed again – three decades on from the release of the original fund-raiser to fight famine in Ethiopia – is a testament to both success and to failure.
A recognition of that was, ironically enough, implicit from the outset in the very name Band Aid – though back in 1984 many members of the British public had to have explained to them that a Band-Aid was American for what we Brits called a sticking plaster.
It was not much of a response to the gaping wound of an African famine which killed a million people. Bob Geldof acknowledged that. But it was something.
In the event it was more than just something. It set a template for a new kind of campaigning. It raised money. But the scale of the public’s response also created a political mandate for change – and on a scale which politicians could not ignore.
It was a model which has become embedded in British charitable giving. Year after year charities like Comic Relief now provided the British people with an outlet for their profound impulse to help those in need. Every year more money is raised. But so is more awareness.
This – combined with activist movements like Jubilee 2000 and Make Poverty History, and celebrity events like Live Aid and Live 8 –created a constituency of generosity which forced a new cross-party consensus in British politics. The UK is now one of the few nations to have met the UN target of giving 7 pence out of every £100 we earn to the world’s poor.
That is not all. Live 8 pressured the G8 at Gleneagles to make big strides in fighting global poverty. Aid was increased, debt forgiven and the quality of African governance improved. More than 40 million extra children are in school. Six million people with HIV/Aids are on life-saving drugs. Malaria has been halved in eight countries. And much more.
But not all Gleneagles’ promises have been kept. The health services in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone were supposed to have been rebuilt. It did not happen. The countries remain the poorest in the world, with health budgets at a paltry $20 per person per year. That is why Ebola has taken a deadly grip there, unlike Nigeria and Uganda where health systems are more robust. Ebola, in the end, is a disease of poverty.
Failure to keep promises on aid leads to mistrust. That feeds the criticism of the sneering cynics who adopt morally and intellectually superior tones to suggest that aid is a waste of money. They also peddle out-dated clichés about corrupt African dictators who have been replaced, since the Cold War ended 30 years ago, with a renaissance in democracy and economic growth. Such arguments are sad attempts by naysayers to conjure an intellectually-respectable defence for their own inaction or meanness.
All the magisterial studies on aid show that it works – it saves lives, reduces poverty, increases foreign investment and promotes economic growth. You can always find cases where it doesn’t. And it is good to do that, because it helps us learn where aid is effective and where it isn’t. Knowing the difference, and applying, it was key to the success of the Gleneagles package – when the promises were kept.
The importance of Band Aid lies its two-fold focus. It raises money to be spent where there is direct need. Yet Geldof and his colleagues also know that even the most successful record will raise only a tiny fraction of what is needed to control Ebola. The bulk of that cash can only come from the world’s governments. Band Aid can help keep the media spotlight on that – and on those pledges politicians have failed to keep.
The more records Band Aid sells, the more pressure is piled on those political leaders. Live 8 showed that the louder the crowd roars, the more the politicians tremble. The more singles Band Aid 30 sells, the more seriously our political masters will fight Ebola.
So buy the record. And if you have already downloaded it buy it again in the CD version with Tracey Emin’s artwork. Go on. Make a difference.
(Paul Vallely was co-author of the report of the Commission for Africa)
Help can still be sent today by a donation to http://www.bandaid30.com/donations/
So buy the record. And if you have already downloaded it buy it again in the CD version with Tracey Emin’s artwork. Go on. Make a difference.
A Charitable Direction 