on the first day of christmas

I have a love hate relationship with this song. On the one hand it raised 747s loads of money for African aid. On the other it doesn’t seem to have done any good. It raised awareness of African poverty. Most of us couldn’t spell Ethiopia let alone find it on a map. Yet, the continent cycles through famine and war at an alarming rate. The resilience of her people is astonishing. We in the West with our chipped nails, slow internet speeds and painfully long two minute long waits at the shops before driving home to air conditioned comfort and social media-ising the ordeal, ought to learn from them. Be thankful. Band Aid highlighted the astonishing advances in agriculture. Europe was found to be producing more food than it needed to feed itself. The image of bulldozers squashing tonnes of tomatoes because they were not needed by Europe is burned deep in my memory. Sure, Africa may have no need for tomatoes. But Live Aid highlighted how good we are at making stu...