...and bad music breeds bad music. Couldn't Osbourne, John, Collins etc. just donate some of their ridiculous fortunes to the appeal? And spare us what will doubtless be a sack of unpleasant cack?

I'm all for helping the needy (and lord knows there are few needier people in the world right now than the tsunami victims), but not by creating further badness when it's not necessary. 'ere - you can donate too:

http://www.redcross.org.uk/standard.asp?id=40287

i agree.
why dont they just donate the vast amounts of money they'll doubtless spend on limos to and from the studio.
why dont they just give all they can, or actually create some good music and then donate proceeds?

surely this is just going to piss people off.

just a thought.

Phil Collins...

Oh dear god no.

Mike D - you're pretty damn fast on these news stories, you seem to be belting them out lately.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - all this clamour about the tsunami is SICK and HYPOCRITICAL when 5 million people every year die of waterborne diseases because they lack any sanitation, and 6 million under 5s die worldwide every year OF STARVATION. That's 16,500 children A DAY dying of a lack of food. Also, a million people a year die of malaria, a disease that is both treatable and preventable, but because it doesn't affect anyone in rich countries nobody gives a fuck. And most developing countries spend more money on paying interest on their debts to rich countries than they do on healthcare. Not to mention the reason farmers in developing countries are starving is because both European and American farmers are paid subsidies to grow too much food, which is then dumped on world markets at a price people in developing countries can't afford to match.

DO SOMETHING. Give one or more of these organisations your support, maybe a couple of quid a month (less than the price of a pint) or even just sign their bloody petitions:
www.oxfam.org.uk
www.maketradefair.org.uk
www.redcross.org.uk
www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk

Sorry for shouting but I'm very frustrated. Of course the tsunami was an awful thing, but it pales into insignificance compared the number of people who die every year for no other reason than to make the rest of us a bit richer and more comfortable. And I wonder what coverage it would have had if it wasn't in countries where rich tourists go on holiday? Probably about as much as people dying of malnutrition does...

I agree with you completely stupidcat, although in a years time, will people still care about the tsunami? Western countries only care about themselves, in ten years time we will still be going on about 9/11 and "liberating" various countries, when really we could spending all the money on canceling 3rd world debt and AIDS drugs.

Another site to go on btw,

http://www.makepovertyhistory.org

Wow Phil "I used to be in a band once, Genesis but all those bastards did was hold me back, hold me back" Collins? Well shit the bed indeed! At least its for a good cause, but Guthrie is right why dont they give out some of their massive fortunes to the tsunami appeal?

Personally I'm all charitied out.

I know we have to help African countries, but it has become very fashionable for people to shout about debt relief. The fact is these countries owe us money. If we cancel their debts, they will just fall into the same trap again. Gordon Brown is promising to suspend debt repayments for a couple of years, but what will do that in reality? The developing countries will still have to pay the full amount.

What really has to happen, and this where I agree with stupidcat is that farm subsidies have to stop. In New Zealand (a heavily agricultural country still) they pulled the plug on farm subsidies overnight. There was a big outcry over this, but the efficient farmers survived and the inefficient ones didn't. NZ now produces as much food as it did before and more efficiently, and is helping world trade.

Good point started by stupidcat, because it's partly a matter of obvious, current suffering versus wider statistical poverty across the whole world. However, at least the Tsunami has persuaded a lot of people to open their wallets to the third world at all, not that another meaningless single will actually help here...

Just one thing, stupidcat. You refer to subsidies for European farmers to overproduce, but it's generally been the other way round - subsidies have actually been paid to farmers (since the introducation of the CAP) to make sure farmers _don't_ produce anything that would flood the market with produce, hence 'set-aside' funding for farmers to get rich running golf courses on their otherwise-arable lands.