By Craig P. Dixon, southcoast247.com correspondent Social Commentary 104
March 27, 2007
Everyone's heard about the RED campaign. I became acquainted with it whilst
watching Oprah on its inauguration day. Bono, in his trademark colored
goggles, and hipster hoody and suit-jacket combo, unveiled his campaign to
fight AIDS in Africa against the tear-jerking backdrop of people dying of
the disease.
Depressing the hell out of people isn't going to make them
want to do anything. We've got to have SOME optimism! So, Bono and Oprah go
on a very hopeful shopping trip to the Chicago GAP, where Oprah buys a ton
of product RED stuff. We're told a percentage of RED profits goes to
fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa.
The premise was all extremely simple. Gone is
the process of donating money on your own. Hell, gone is the very thought.
Just do what you do best. Buy. Everything else is done for you.
It all sounds very simple, doesn't it? You feel
great about buying that GAP tee because you're helping a cause. Getting
those good-feelings without having to find a charity. Who cares if you don't
know exactly where the money is going? You're doing a good thing by your
fellow man! And it was so EASY!
But, simplicity doesn't always equal
success. Many have called the experiment an utter failure. The RED campaign
has raised 18 million dollars. More than 100 million has been spent on
marketing the idea.
Failure? A 100 million dollar investment for an 18
million dollar return reads as such. And it begs the question. Why not just
give the 100 million directly to The Global Fund (the charity partnered with
RED)? Why all the pretty celebrities posing with products? Why all the
bullshit? Why not cut to brass tax?
Well, because that'd be way too fucking
easy. It makes too much sense.
But that wasn't the point. The proponents of
RED would have you believe the whole idea was generated to make Americans
more aware of the AIDS problem in Africa.
Really? I didn't know Africa was
bathed in an AIDS epidemic. That's news to me.
Fighting AIDS in Africa is
Bono's greatest cause. In fact, he declares it The World's greatest crisis
in the latest issue of TIME.
Why has
RED been such a dismal failure? Do people have their minds on other causes?
Is it because Americans don't care about AIDS? Or Africans? Maybe, as some
would have us believe, it's an issue of racism?
I disagree. Personally, I
think of Africa's AIDS problem as just that: Africa's. The fact that, after
years and billions of dollars in foreign aid and education, the population
continues to pass along the disease due to a) antipathetic attitudes toward
protection, b) promiscuity, or c) simply not giving a shit, doesn't make me
too eager to throw money at Africa's or any other foreign AIDS epidemic.
I'll keep the AIDS aid in the US, where I can see what's being done with my
donations. Contrary
to the lack of media exposure, people DO still have the disease in the
States.
Africa is a country heavily educated in the AIDS rhetoric. These
aren't innocents tossed to the HIV wolves. Yet, in places like Swaziland,
where the HIV rate may be as high as 34 percent of the adult population and
The Global Fund does most of it's work, people are still having unprotected,
promiscuous sex. Literally rolling the dice.
Furthermore, HIV/AIDS isn't
curable. We treat the disease. These individuals live longer, carrying the
virus. No matter the information disseminated to those treated, people are
only human. They'll continue having sex, and possibly spread the
illness.
The outbreak of any disease, treatable or otherwise, is only good
news for the tremendously overpopulated planet as a whole. Diseases are
Mother Nature's way of keeping humanity in check.
Obviously, Nature's been
off her job as of late. I see a tremendous, sweeping, untreatable, quickly
fatal illness in the near future, to make up for lost time.
As for Bono...
everybody thinks he's a great guy. It's rather admirable that, when not
producing shitty pop music, he dedicates his time and face to charitable
causes.
But have you seen the photos of the guy? He's a smug-looking
motherfucker. Every time he's photographed, there's this uppity, better than
thou smile plastered on his pasty face.
Why? Because he's the great
humanitarian, second only to Jesus Bono. You're not. He's a better person
than you are or ever will be. And he knows it.
Bono gets a real hard-on
from all this humanitarian work. Which brings a philosophical lesson to
mind. One doesn't do something for nothing. Mother Theresa helped the poor
because it'd help her become Jesus' wifey in Heaven. Religious
charities help the less fortunate... whilst trying to sway converts. Bono
takes up a cause for pleasure. For the feel-goodness you and I get when
doing something charitable.
Not such a bad thing? Maybe not. But, doing
something because it feels good is exactly what got us here in the first
place.
Everyone's heard about the RED campaign. I became acquainted with it whilst
watching Oprah on its inauguration day. Bono, in his trademark colored
goggles, and hipster hoody and suit-jacket combo, unveiled his campaign to
fight AIDS in Africa against the tear-jerking backdrop of people dying of
the disease.
