It might be pop music’s most high profile decennial charity push but Damon Albarn, a man from that world who more than most has spent time immersed in Africa’s culture, believes it is a simplistic and patronising way of dealing with problems which parts of the continent are affected by.
Speaking on Channel 4 News after Bob Geldof, Midge Ure, Bono and the latest round of pop’s leading lights resurrected Band Aid for a fourth time, Albarn said: “Our perspective and our idea of what helps and our idea what’s wrong and right are not necessarily shared by other cultures. There are problems with our idea of charity, especially these things that suddenly balloon out of nothing and then create a media frenzy where some of that essential communication is lost and it starts to feel like it’s a process where if you give money you solve the problem, and really sometimes giving money creates another problem.”
“All those people who are making that, taking that afternoon out of their schedules, go to Africa, experience it, feel that sense of magic and maybe have a different attitude to life when you come back,” he continued.
Band Aid 30 is available to download from today (November 17th) after its video was debuted on X Factor yesterday evening.