The Importance of Being Idle

Make Poverty History... Motherfuckers!

So we're about, what three quarters of the way through the UK portion of Live8, and I'm still fairly disappointed I didn't get tickets. Highlight so far has to be Snoop Dogg being broadcast live and unedited at 6pm on BBC One in all his motherfucking glory. Seriously, until he'd been on everybody had been really good language wise, but Snoop D O Double Gee comes on motherfucking here and niggering there for a solid fifteen minutes, and suddenly all bets are off, and Johnny Borrell is swearing, Madonna is swearing (and I thought she was a reformed character)... its a proud moment in British broadcasting history. The thing is, I will almost guarantee you, that somebody (probably lots of somebodies) will write in to complain! They should be offended by the fact that every three seconds a child starves to death in Africa, not by somebody saying "motherfucker" on tv, but then people are impossibly small minded fuckwits...
Still, for all that its impossible NOT to get caught up in Geldof's righteous fury, I still can't help but wonder whether this will really make any difference. I mean, I think that raising awareness of the issue is incredibly important, and I hope it DOES make a difference, but I honestly doubt that it will, at least not in the short term of actually affecting the G8 summit. I hope it'll bring about a new political conciousness though, and that people will start to see that they have genuine power. Remember, during the British general election there were NO issues of any kind, and the previous US Presidential election was equally vapid and bland... similarly both Blair and Bush are essentially lame ducks, they're on their way out and don't have the political clout they once did. Also, the Russians couldn't care less - they're getting more paranoid and isolationist almost by the minute, there is nothing in it for the Americans... the French, as the other former colonial power, aren't all that interested in debt cancellation either... I'd love to think that a popular groundswell of support could actually make something worthwhile happen here, and I'm really sorry to have ANY cynicism about something like this, but there it is. Also I think the vast majority of people think cancelling the debt and doubling aid is something that is without consequence, and its not gonna be that easy. We shouldn't be afraid to sacrifice a little of our quality of life to help others, but I'm afraid that when it comes down to it we're all just gonna bottle it and keep the status quo - I don't think people have ever, as a body, voted for what's best for everyone, they only vote for their own self-interest. Let us hope that I am wrong though, and that tomorrow the world is a better place.
Oh yeah, and backstage story wise, apparently Ricky Gervais (star of The Office) met Brad Pitt backstage, who went over to Gervais, held out his hand and said "Hi, I'm Brad" with exactly the sort of bizarre humility I'd always hoped he would. Gervais, naturally, said "I know who you are... Do you want to be in my new show?". Famous people eh? They're just like us (but richer, and in Brad's case, much better looking).

posted by BadMonkey @ 7:47 PM