Categories: uncategorized
Date: 02 July 2005 17:40:50
I've been surfing the net, flicking through some blogs that I don't usually read, and watching the Live8 concert from Hyde Park. Currently watching Saint Bob himself singing "I don't like Mondays" (which I saw him do about 10 years ago at the Fleadh - fantastic stuff!). And I came across Yorkshireman Displaced, who asks (very sensibly, in my opinion) about the perhaps somewhat simplistic approach of the Make Poverty History campaign, seeking to crystallise goodness knows how many millions of complex and complicated strands of politics, economics, trade, environment, health, all the rest of it, into a catchy slogan. I have a lot of sympathy with this view - after all, why should I get behind a simple slogan when I have a Masters degree in Development? And yet ... and yet ... since when have I, with my Masters degree in Development, with my supposedly sophisticated understanding of some of the wider issues, had any hope at all of catching the attention of the G8 leaders, who have it in their power to do so much? Yet this simple little slogan has, by catching the imagination of so many, done just that.
The other thing I think, despite being occasionally irritated and snobby myself about the simplistic approach, is that you have to start somewhere. Yes, people need to think for example about the links between brand names and sweatshops (to use David's example, linked to above). But for many, these issues won't be even thought of without an initial prompt, and for me that's the beauty of Make Poverty History. If peoples' awareness doesn't go beyond a catchy slogan, then the simplicity will have backfired. But the huge impact of the MPH campaign means that surely it will have started at least some of the people at the concerts, or at today's Edinburgh rally, thinking beyond the slogan and starting to think about changing their own lives in order to change others' for the better.