Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Good Intentions + Gobs of Money = Disaster

Live Aid: The Terrible Truth

It was thirty years ago and, musically, was spectacular; the last roar of a musical trend begun twenty-five years before and, unfortunately, the high-water mark for that music, as well.
By this time we had all seen the pictures and TV footage of Bob Geldof, the figurehead of Live Aid, bear hugging and playfully punching Mengistu in the arm as he literally handed over the funding for this slaughter. It was on TV now alright, but as an endless, relentless reel of heroic Bob Geldof highlights. He drenched himself in the adulation and no one begrudged him it, until our investigation exposed the holocaust that Live Aid’s collected donations had help perpetrate on the Eritrean independence fighters.