The following is a revised
version of a column that first appeared in the Dec. 3, 2004 edition of The Citizen:
"It's Christmas time
There's no need to be afraid
At Christmas time, we let in light and we banish shade"
So begins the song that helped changed my life 30 years ago.
When you're 16 and you've just got your driver's licence and it's 1984 and Bruce Springsteen and Prince and David Bowie and U2 are the only redeeming characters in an otherwise dismal collection of music you'll hate yourself for liking when you grow up, a song that talks about a bigger world where people are hurting and need your help hits home.
I ran out and immediately purchased Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas? because it was important and being a small part of its success (five weeks on top of the pop charts, millions raised to aid the catastrophic famine in Ethiopia) made me feel a little important, too.
I remember my excitement the following summer - July 13, 1985, to be precise - when Bob Geldof, fresh from the success of organizing Band Aid, put together Live Aid. The two concerts, in London and Philadelphia, would raise even more millions to help feed starving Africans.
I couldn't watch the concert live because I was working for the summer with my dad in Tuktoyaktuk (honest) but it was on in the lunchroom of the work camp via satellite. I watched a few minutes and prayed my younger sister had hit the 'record' button on the VCR. I felt at once so big and so small to be sitting in one of the remotest communities in the world, tuned into a concert being viewed by more than a billion people across the planet.
There is a new Band Aid 30 being put together this week, with proceeds from the single going towards the effort to combat Ebola. While that effort should be praised, there is some cynicism three decades later about wealthy musical acts promoting themselves and their careers to help out a region hit hard by a horrible virus. The sentiment is nice, some would say, but why not just cut a cheque, rather than needing to be seen to care.
Part of the problem is that the lyrics could do with some tweaking. Heard three decades later, there are a lot of embarrassing First-World stereotypes about Africa (it does snow in parts of Africa and rain and rivers flow across much of the continent to support the 1.1 billion people who live there).
So much else has changed, for good and bad, in the 30 years since the Ethiopian tragedy and the first Band Aid/Live Aid benefits. Apartheid ended, Nelson Mandela was set free and became South Africa's president. The entire world mourned his passing. Except for a few pockets, polio is a thing of the past in Africa. Meanwhile, the continent endured the horrific tragedies of Rwanda and Somalia. Conflict, pain and hunger continue to wrack numerous regions of Africa. While there has been so much progress, few Africans enjoy the luxurious lifestyle of the average Canadian.
While the world has changed plenty since Do They Know It's Christmas? first appeared on airwaves 30 years ago, in some respects nothing has changed at all. We still live in a world of suffering but we should be more thankful for what we do have.
It's Bono that hits me every time in the original Band Aid single, when that rich Irish baritone booms out, "Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you."
It's so easy to feel stressed, unhappy, stretched too thin during the Christmas season, alone in a festive crowd, mourning past losses.
Yet we are so blessed and we all have much to be thankful for. We only need to look first at the need in our city and then in our world to fully appreciate our bounty.
Instead of feeling depressed or overwhelmed at the huge need, spend a little less on yourself and your loved ones this holiday and treat yourself to the warm feeling that comes from making the world hurt and hunger a little less.
