Howl with the wolves and lie down with the dogs

This entry was posted on
Tuesday, June 21st, 2005 at
12:24 pm and is filed
under Consume!.

Telegraph – Leave Bush alone, Geldof warns stars: Bob Geldof has reportedly warned a top recording artist not to publicly criticise the White House during the worldwide television broadcast of the Live 8 concerts next month. The warning came after Geldof insisted that President George W Bush had done more for Africa than any other American leader. The manager of the singer was quoted as having been told: “Please remember, absolutely no ranting and raving about Bush or Blair and the Iraq war. We want to bring Bush in, not run him away.”

1. Yes. As Tony Blair has learned, appeasing the Bush administration pays big dividends.

2. Geldof lost me when he got into bed with Murdoch. For a ‘plain-speaking’ man, his criticism can be strategically selective at times.

Go on… lay into me for allowing Africans to starve because of my blinkered agenda and/or hatred of Murdoch and the Bush administration. Things really are that simple.

Murdoch’s agenda does nothing to contribute to global poverty and misery, and the Bush administration does *so* much for Africa. No strings attached.

We should stop worring about such things and dig deep for more pocket-change. All hail Saint Bob.

Footnote – Alan Parsons will be appearing at Live8, yes?

You lie down with dogs you fall in with thieves
You’re gonna catch something but you do as you please
You’re scratchin’ an itch that nothing can ease
You lie down with dogs you get up with fleas

UPDATE – George Monbiot – Bards of the powerful: I understand the game they’re playing. They believe that praising the world’s most powerful men is more persuasive than criticising them. The problem is that in doing so they turn the political campaign developed by the global justice movement into a philanthropic one. They urge the G8 leaders to do more to help the poor. But they say nothing about ceasing to do harm. It is true that Bono has criticised George Bush for failing to deliver the money he promised for Aids victims in Africa. But he has never, as far as I can discover, said a word about the capture of that funding by “faith-based groups”: the code Bush uses for fundamentalist Christian missions that preach against the use of condoms.

UPDATE – (comments broken) Yes, I know Live8 isn’t about raising money. But it sure as hell can’t be about raising awareness, now can it?