01-01-2018, 20:31
(01-01-2018, 18:04)talkSAFT Wrote:(01-01-2018, 17:55)Ska\dForLife-WBA Wrote: Bob Geldof's a very different case. Even aside from the egotism (and I certainly think there's a lot more of that with him than with Lenny Henry, though that's just personal opinion), the bloke knowingly gave millions in Live Aid cash to a brutal dictator who spent it all on weaponry to kill his own starving people, despite Medecin Sans Frontieres warning him in advance what would happen if he did it. You can make the genuine argument that Geldof is morally complicit in war crimes as a result of that. I'm pretty sure that Comic Relief have always been as scrupulous as possible in their dispensation of funds, in contrast.
Blimey! Didn't know that (about the Live Aid cash). Is that really true? Why was he given the cheque book?
I think Geldof's words at the time were "I'll shake hands with the devil to get to the people we need to help." Unfortunately for all concerned, what that actually meant was embracing Mengistu on stage at Live Aid and joking about with his cronies in Addis Ababa while their troops carried out a worse genocide than either Idi Amin or Saddam Hussein ever managed.
The original expose from 1986 is here: https://www.spin.com/featured/live-aid-t...f-feature/
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