Did They Know It Was Christmas? What has happened since Band Aid?

In 2014 it will be 30 years since those iconic news reports from Micheal Buerk were relayed into our homes from a famine-struck Ethiopia, which inspired Bob Geldof and others to release Do They Know It’s Christmas, and later led to Live Aid.

I’m thinking of this of course because it’s currently playing on a radio somewhere and it made me think about that time, and what has changed since.

For a start I can’t believe it’s 30 years ago, but for me it is so imbued with everything I remember about Christmas as a kid. I was nine years old when it came out, and my sister bought me the seven inch single, which still resides up in the loft somewhere.

I think that age between eight and ten is the zenith in the arc of Christmas meaning. It is the time when you are most aware of what seems like the endless consumerist possibilities that Christmas holds, while still being young enough to believe in the magic of it. That Christmas I believe I also got the 1984/85 season Southampton replica kit, which I wore 24/7, including shin pads, until going back to school.

I think the other thing Band Aid did, apart from raise lots of money for chariddee, was open our eyes to the world, and heralded a new age of global awareness. I admit I was only a kid at the time, but all I knew about Africa was what Mrs Reed taught us in primary school, which was a faintly rose-tinted colonial view of the continent, which featured drawing colourful pictures of abundant jungles, lions and funny looking tribes that bore little relation to reality. Nothing like the images of vast swathes of arid and unforgiving desert, offering no shelter to the millions of starving men women and children suffering in the heat, too weak even to bat the flies away from their faces.

On a subconscious level, as I was only nine, I’m sure it had a profound effect on me that led to becoming a journalist myself years later. Although there wasn’t much opportunity to shine a light on that kind of Biblical suffering while faithfully taking notes at Wincanton town council meetings.

The whole thing around Band Aid and Live Aid that followed is that for about six months everybody was acutely aware of what was happening in Africa, in the very place where humanity took its first steps where the very future of its people was in jeopardy, and doubtless for that time many lives were saved.

But in the 30 years since then human tragedies on an equal and at times far larger scale (Congo, Darfur, Rwanda, Zimbabwe etc) are ongoing yet nobody’s hiring out Wembley stadium and trying to effect the kind of change we saw in 1984/5. Okay, there was Live8, but, it’s almost as if since our eyes have been open wide to dire state of some parts of the world, they’ve actually glazed over because there really is only so much we as individuals can do.

And so it’s up to our great elected leaders to sort things out, rather than impassioned rock stars, and that’s a bit of a worry. Although, I have to say, while I’m no fan generally of what this current coalition stands for, fair play to Cameron for continuing to put money into overseas aid. After all, you could argue, had we not roamed half the world looking for countries to conquer and squeeze dry of all resources, places like Africa might not be in quite so much trouble now. I think we probably owe them a fair bit, especially at this time of year.

Now, there's a cheery message for Christmas!