MTV plays music!!!

I've just emerged from the world-youth-rock-media-cable frenzy of Live 8. I enjoyed it for the most part, but there were some cringe-inducing moments I'd like to share. Anybody that was around me during the past election knows my mind when it comes to meddling celebrities. Celebrities at this convention, on the arm of this candidate, telling me to do this, blah blah blah. My intial argument for loathing them was the fact that they´re celebrities, not political analysts, so let's keep the two camps divided, k? But they're Americans, they pay taxes, they claim they vote, so they should be allowed to use their voice.

So here I was this past weekend watching celebs, mostly musicians I respect, eloquently discussing the issues at hand. Chris Martin, in particular, is a hero. Then I saw the "finger snap" campaign. I've been spared the "finger snap" commercials while I've been in Chile so this is all pretty new to me. Susan Sarandon --not surprised. Tom Hanks --um, sure, whatever. Justin Timberlake--wha!? The same guy who pays about $200 for a trucker hat is now snapping for poverty. However, what sent me into a rage was Madonna. Snapping and preaching with huge diamond earrings and highlights (and some lowlights).

Now, I think the spirit and mission of Live 8 is great. Bobby Geldolf is using his celebrity to promote awareness. But there's still a blinding element of condescension in this whole scheme. Of the nine concert sites, only one was actually in Africa. Nevermind that Latin America was completely shut out. It seems as though the third world can't help itself or each other. That the concerts were almost exclusively in the province of the first world, the West, what have you, reflects how these issues are still kept at arms length. "Over there" they have problems...True, but what about the first world? What about our own destructive addiction to consumerism? Where are the concerts outlining what's wrong with us? I don't want to take anything away from the gravity of Africa's problems. But I think that recognizing our own faults would make giving and having others receive charity easier.

I agree that third world poverty is severe, but maybe it only appears as such because our wealth is so great. Which is why when I see Madonna snapping at me I wonder how such hypocrisy seems invisible to so many. In what universe can I take her attempts at charity seriously? She lectures me about children dying of hunger every three seconds yet can supply her own child with a credit card with a $10,000 spending limit in the same week. Many would say she's earned her money, she could spend it how she wishes. My dad would say that if people didn't buy a fifth yellow Porsche then all the people who work to build them would eventually lose their jobs. I get it, I'm not calling for anarchy. I just feel that if we showed "the unfortunate others" celeb-activists claim to help any tv footage from E! illustrating their ridiculously extravagant lifestlyes, they might not accept their charity.

This is the type of hypocrisy that loses elections. Celeb-activists, limousine liberals, what have you, should never forget that though people may be poor, uneducated, and/or uninformed they have integrity. In times of corruption and hypocrisy all we have left is our integrity. And if that is disrespected in any way, then you've screwed us all.

On a lighter note, Live 8 Canada heralded the glorious return of Bryan Adams. All of my repressed pre-teen emotions came out in a riot of giggles once he started an acoustic (and solo) version of "All for Love." All in all when the music speaks for itself, it's all good.