Seeing Red
A few months ago when I read that Bono had launched a new fashion label called RED, to which many of big fashion houses had signed up to, I was disgusted. Just another in a growing number of fashion fads selling itself on what might generously be described as Ethics Chic. Not only are you wearing the latest fashion in clothes, you can also proclaim your adherence to the latest fashion in mindsets – ethical consumerism. Be fashionable, help the poor…oh and salve your consumer conscience by buying into all things RED.
And while im in the middle of contemplating Bono and his henchmen’s forays into Africa, I have quite a surreal experience: My former worker calls up to ask my forgiveness. Again!
Patrick was, to use the local parlance, my houseboy, employed to guard the house and perform odd jobs like clothes washing, house cleaning and shopping. For this he gained a place to stay and the equivalent of USD$30 a month. I was “willed” Patrick by the French guy who lived in the house before me. Apparently the French guy had been “willed” Patrick by the Kenyan who had lived in the house before him. Both had been satisfied with his work and I took him on. He had already worked in the house for over 2 years and everything went well for about a year and a half. During that time he had gotten married and his wife was living in a different area of the country with the baby. Then one day he mysteriously disappeared, taking USD$100 with him. By rights, I should have reported him to the police, but the hope that he would come back, coupled with a certain laziness on my part resulted in my non-reporting him.
For some months I heard nothing, then I got a strange phonecall from him asking to come to the house. I agreed to this but he never showed up and ever since then, I receive calls from him every few months asking for forgiveness…for stealing the money I assume! I know that he was a quite a fervent 7th Day Adventist, I’m wondering if he is being told to seek forgiveness from church elements.
I wonder what Bono and his band of celebrity development tourists might think of employing someone and paying them less than a good shirt from Red might cost per month, and having thought about reporting to the police for stealing the price of a fashionable pair of shoes?
I read some of the articles which were written about Bono’s visit to Africa. In one, after visiting a hospital he is quoted as saying “We come from a place where Rock stars are seen as heros – these are the real heros” (meaning the doctors and nurses). Is this trite tripe really necessary? I found it not a little ironic that his next stop was in Ghana, looking at the shortage of medical personal in rural areas. The irony is that Ghana’s education plan went so well that yesterday’s medical students are servicing the health sector…not in Ghana or Togo or Nigeria but in the UK. For most young educated Africans, this is what development means: the chance for a better life and a chance to get out.
In another article he talks about his maturing views on aid, “To think when we started Live Aid, it was the first kind of aid, the response to famine in Ethiopia. Look how a whole generation has educated itself off the back of that to move from charity to justice and then to move from justice to debt and trade. It’s quite an arc and I think I’ve gone through that. That is the arc of my whole involvement.”
Finally a move towards a libertarian model of development. That’s real progress, and in only 20 years too.
Although there may be a few holes left in his thinking:
“For what was once called foreign assistance, we now need two names: one you can call mercy and response to pandemic-type aid and you can’t hold people ransom to their governments on that. Then there is other aid called investment.”
I’m not sure about not holding governments to ransom on emergency aid. Often emergency aid is profoundly disturbing to economic ecosystem of a country or region. And besides which, didn’t humanitarian aid aggravate tensions in Southern Sudan and practically cause all the mess in Somalia? As much as it is hard hearted to watch people die, there is a question of greater good. What use is it to save someone today, if in doing so you contribute to a situation which will blight their children and grandchildren.
Elsewhere in the article he states “The problems are much more complex than we thought they were and I think Africans must have been smiling and cringing at times when they saw us just thinking that money could solve their problems.”
Well Amen to that Brother Bono. Good Man. But this also applies the Holy Grail of African intervention – Emergency Aid.
But I think the point about complex problems has been slightly lost on the masses in the Make Poverty History campaign. Those without deeper involvement in Africa or African issues, are still labouring under the delusion that think can save the world by wearing plastic bangles of many colours. It’s very easy to get people excited about helping Africa and the possibilities for easing collective guilt about our relative comfort. It’s less easy to hold people’s attention for the painfully slow pace of progress, assuming progress is even made! And this is where I worry about Make Poverty History and Red, they make development a fad, a headline, a fashion. And we all know how long fashions last.
And while im in the middle of contemplating Bono and his henchmen’s forays into Africa, I have quite a surreal experience: My former worker calls up to ask my forgiveness. Again!
Patrick was, to use the local parlance, my houseboy, employed to guard the house and perform odd jobs like clothes washing, house cleaning and shopping. For this he gained a place to stay and the equivalent of USD$30 a month. I was “willed” Patrick by the French guy who lived in the house before me. Apparently the French guy had been “willed” Patrick by the Kenyan who had lived in the house before him. Both had been satisfied with his work and I took him on. He had already worked in the house for over 2 years and everything went well for about a year and a half. During that time he had gotten married and his wife was living in a different area of the country with the baby. Then one day he mysteriously disappeared, taking USD$100 with him. By rights, I should have reported him to the police, but the hope that he would come back, coupled with a certain laziness on my part resulted in my non-reporting him.
For some months I heard nothing, then I got a strange phonecall from him asking to come to the house. I agreed to this but he never showed up and ever since then, I receive calls from him every few months asking for forgiveness…for stealing the money I assume! I know that he was a quite a fervent 7th Day Adventist, I’m wondering if he is being told to seek forgiveness from church elements.
I wonder what Bono and his band of celebrity development tourists might think of employing someone and paying them less than a good shirt from Red might cost per month, and having thought about reporting to the police for stealing the price of a fashionable pair of shoes?
I read some of the articles which were written about Bono’s visit to Africa. In one, after visiting a hospital he is quoted as saying “We come from a place where Rock stars are seen as heros – these are the real heros” (meaning the doctors and nurses). Is this trite tripe really necessary? I found it not a little ironic that his next stop was in Ghana, looking at the shortage of medical personal in rural areas. The irony is that Ghana’s education plan went so well that yesterday’s medical students are servicing the health sector…not in Ghana or Togo or Nigeria but in the UK. For most young educated Africans, this is what development means: the chance for a better life and a chance to get out.
In another article he talks about his maturing views on aid, “To think when we started Live Aid, it was the first kind of aid, the response to famine in Ethiopia. Look how a whole generation has educated itself off the back of that to move from charity to justice and then to move from justice to debt and trade. It’s quite an arc and I think I’ve gone through that. That is the arc of my whole involvement.”
Finally a move towards a libertarian model of development. That’s real progress, and in only 20 years too.
Although there may be a few holes left in his thinking:
“For what was once called foreign assistance, we now need two names: one you can call mercy and response to pandemic-type aid and you can’t hold people ransom to their governments on that. Then there is other aid called investment.”
I’m not sure about not holding governments to ransom on emergency aid. Often emergency aid is profoundly disturbing to economic ecosystem of a country or region. And besides which, didn’t humanitarian aid aggravate tensions in Southern Sudan and practically cause all the mess in Somalia? As much as it is hard hearted to watch people die, there is a question of greater good. What use is it to save someone today, if in doing so you contribute to a situation which will blight their children and grandchildren.
Elsewhere in the article he states “The problems are much more complex than we thought they were and I think Africans must have been smiling and cringing at times when they saw us just thinking that money could solve their problems.”
Well Amen to that Brother Bono. Good Man. But this also applies the Holy Grail of African intervention – Emergency Aid.
But I think the point about complex problems has been slightly lost on the masses in the Make Poverty History campaign. Those without deeper involvement in Africa or African issues, are still labouring under the delusion that think can save the world by wearing plastic bangles of many colours. It’s very easy to get people excited about helping Africa and the possibilities for easing collective guilt about our relative comfort. It’s less easy to hold people’s attention for the painfully slow pace of progress, assuming progress is even made! And this is where I worry about Make Poverty History and Red, they make development a fad, a headline, a fashion. And we all know how long fashions last.
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