There's nothing I can say to make this story any funnier.

Reuters' man in Johannesburg Ed Stoddard isn't breaking news, though the stuff in the article was certainly news to me. He points out that a majority of Ethiopians and a large percentage of the population of the rest of Africa is Christian. With that in mind, he postulates that the answer to the 20-year-old question, to be be resurrected this year, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" is most likely yes.

Ed also makes the point that the beneficiaries of this year's Band Aid release, the mainly Muslim victims of the violence in Darfur, probably don't care too much about Christmas either way, what with all the genocide and everything.

I find the image of a bunch of British rock stars, especially Geldof, earnestly writing a song about the starving mud people woefully ignorant the delight of Christmas really hilarious. It's very Kipling, "White Man's Burden." Add to that the tragicomic twist that the starving Africans are quite devout, and that the answer to their prayers for deliverance from their foodless hell comes in the oblivious form of Band Aid.

Analogcabin @ 9:11 AM
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