The Rhymes and Routes Christmas Message, 2024

 

After some consideration, I have agreed that Bashar al-Assad, ex-president of Syria, can deliver our Christmas message this year.  I am only too well aware of this man's dismal human rights record while Syrian president, but (as he has reminded me) this is a free speech blog and he cannot get his voice heard anywhere else. I stress, however, Mr Assad's views in no way reflect mine. My comments to this effect are shown in brackets.

I write today as a private citizen , living in my holiday home in Moscow (One of many! - B). As readers will know, I was forced to make a sudden departure from my homeland, following a fanatics uprising. As I have said elsewhere, I had no intention of leaving Syria, but was rushed away by President Putin's troops when my own soldiers - ungrateful swine! - stopped fighting. I don't know what was wrong with them. Did they really need help from the Russians and the Iranians? (Looks like it - B). Still, I am forced to admit that I was disappointed at the lack of military help from Iran and Russia. Previously, we squashed the rebels like flies and we could have dome it again. I blame the Ukrainians and the Israelis really. So many Russian troops are tied up in Ukraine and Iran/Hezbollah are suffering from Israeli military aggression. Still, I thank my old pal, VP for getting my family and I to a safe place.

Now, I notice that the Blogmeister is a supporter of Amnesty International, one of a number of so-called human rights organisations that have blackened my name over the years. In 2017, they published a report called "Human Slaughterhouse", packed with lies and fabrications. They alleged that my security force had carried out killings, torture, enforced disappearance, mass hangings and extermination of detainees in the Saydnaya military prison. How did they know this? If Amnesty International had sent a delegation to Syria in my time, I would have had them shot -so how do they know about these things? (You can't stop news spreading, Mr Assad - B). From 2011 onwards, they attacked me for the way my Syrian government forces - with Russian help - repeatedly attacked areas controlled by armed opposition groups, carrying out indiscriminate attacks on civilian homes, hospitals and medical facilities, including artillery bombardments and airstrikes, often using weapons such as barrel bombs and incendiary weapons. Well, what was wrong with that? After all, we were only following the example of the Americans and British in Iraq and Afghanistan!

Another current calumny is the so-called exposure of prison conditions in Syria when I was leader. Has the world forgotten how US troops treated Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison? And we, like them, were holding Al-Qaeda prisoners. What is the saying you English have about how pots should not call kettles black? And these prisoners being released are exaggerating grossly! (Difficult to exaggerate torture and judicial murder, Mr Assad - B). And my prison building programme provided work for many unemployed Syrian people, who are now, like my family and myself, having to flee Syria (Torturers, interrogators, guards, makers of manacles - that's quite a job creation programme - B).

But what of the future? Well, until my people see sense and beg me to return (Words fail me! - B) , I have to ponder the future for my family and myself. I have to say, that Moscow is a wonderful place in the summer, but, oh dear, the Russian winter! So, my wife and I are contemplating moving further afield. As my wife, Asma, has a British passport, we are seriously contemplating a move to the United Kingdom. It should be no problem for us to settle there. Asma is a Londoner by birth and worked as an investment banker at JP Morgan until she moved to Syria in 2000, so I'm sure she could get employment in the finance sector. As for me, I am sure that I could return to my old profession as an ophthalmologist for the NHS. After all, they need all the specialists they can get.

So, at this time of goodwill to all people, whatever their colour, creed or past history, I send Christmas Greetings to the people of Britain: 

"Eid milad majid" - Merry Christmas!

As Blogmeister, I invite readers to reply directly to ex-President Assad. His postal address is: Mr B. Assad, The Kremlin, Moscow, Russia. I have no further comments to make; this man's track record speaks for itself. And I hope he never finds work in my local hospital.

Thanks to Sir Bob: Band Aid Defended

 

I would like to begin by sending a message of thanks to Sir Bob Geldof. I know that sounds pretentious and a tad arrogant, but it is meant with deep respect. The Band Aid and Live Aid projects that he spearheaded in the 1980s gave me inspiration in the 1990s when I was living in my hometown of Southport. I was a regular attender at the Bothy Folk Song Club where, on Singers' Nights, I would perform my own poems (I still do, at Twickfolk). Some of my compositions were suitable as song lyrics, and, with encouragement from friends (one of whom was Neville Grundy, my fellow blogger) in the club and the generosity of a friend with access to recording equipment, we recorded our first album - "Mercy on Dale Street". Now, I had no intention of selling the album for private gain (unlikely to have been much), so I decided to follow Sir Bob's example and we sold it for charity - in this case Oxfam. Since then, we have recorded a total of eleven albums which have raised funds for various charities, including Amnesty International and the Southport Kidney Fund. I can only thank Sir Bob for his outstanding and inspirational example.

Now, I am well aware that cynics will jibe that I am suffering from delusions of grandeur, but they are wrong. The amount of money raised by my projects is nowhere near the sum raised by Band Aid 1 and its successors. Some estimates put that total at about £150 million. My albums have achieved nothing like that sum, but - and this is what counts - they have all been received with gratitude by charity officials and beneficiaries. One lady, whose husband was helped by the Southport Kidney Fund, thanked me with deep emotion, "from the bottom of my heart". I was humbled, gratified and deeply moved. I hadn't raised the proverbial million dollars, but I felt like it. He'll never read this but thanks, Bob, for the original inspiration.

All of which leads into the main topic, which is the controversy about Band Aid 4 and the criticism it has received, notably from Ed Sheeran and Fuse ODG (real name Nana Richard Obiana).

Fuse ODG was forthright in his criticism, saying: 

‘Ten years ago, I refused to participate in Band Aid because I recognised the harm initiatives like it inflict on Africa,’ the Dangerous Love hitmaker said, "While they may generate sympathy and donations, they perpetuate damaging stereotypes that stifle Africa’s economic growth, tourism and investment, ultimately costing the continent trillions and destroying its dignity, pride and identity".

Personally, I know that negative stereotypes can be harmful, but I am puzzled at how they can stifle the economic growth of an entire continent. Fuse ODG seems - I say seems - to be saying that donations, especially in the form of buying the latest (or any) version of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" are in some way harmful. I can appreciate that people in flourishing African countries could be offended by the lyrics to the song, but I doubt that people living in Sudan would, given the civil war raging there at present. The fact is, conditions in many African countries are every bit as desperate now as they were in Ethiopia in the 1980s. Fuse ODG again: 

‘By showcasing dehumanising imagery, these initiatives fuel pity rather than partnership discouraging meaningful engagement.’

This is an apparently damning assessment, but is not as perceptive as it seems. Rather, it is an unsubstantiated opinion. I cannot prove him wrong, but Fuse ODG offers no compelling or conclusive evidence to prove his point. Still, he's entitled to his opinion. 

Ed Sheeran has little to add to that. Rather, he is a little piqued at lack of consultation. He said;

‘Had I had the choice I would have respectfully declined the use of my vocals...A decade on and my understanding of the narrative associated with this has changed, eloquently explained by Fuse ODG...This is just my personal stance. I’m hoping it’s a forward-looking one. Love to all.’

Responses to these critics have been varied -  Spandau Ballet front man Tony Hadley, who sang on the original single, told BBC Radio 2: "I think they [critics like Sheeran] should shut up, to be honest."

Midge Ure, who co-wrote the original lyrics to "Do They Know It's Christmas?", acknowledged that Sheeran should have been consulted, but, says the BBC:

"I understand the whole thing about the 'white saviour complex'," he told Radio 2's Jeremy Vine. "It's not new. We've had this thrown at us for 40 years." However, he said the song was not about portraying Africa in a negative light, but was trying to show the real-life consequences "of famine, of war, of conflict". And the result is children who need food, who need medication, who need education, and that's what we deal with."

Sir Bob himself says he has been "energised" by criticism. He says:

 ‘The debate rages around it. That’s fantastic, because then you can access the politics with the culture debate as sensitivities and sensibilities and opinions change and just absorb it all."

But perhaps the most effective refutation of the criticism of Band Aid comes from the poet and playwright, Lemn Sissay, in The Standard. He says: 

"There is a lot wrong with charity. But in this case they got it right. Let’s look at what we do know about that Christmas single and its recurrences... thousands of lives were saved by the funds raised in the 1985 Live Aid... The concerts have raised over £140 million for famine relief. There would have been no comic relief without Live Aid. The ripple effect revived charity as activism, revived the world".

In a direct reference to Fuse ODG, Sissay concludes: 

"Fuse said that “every human being deserves dignity in their suffering”. How many dignified deaths have you witnessed and when did dignity save a life?"

As Bob Geldof himself has said: "‘this little pop song has saved millions of lives.’

In a final salute to both Lemn Sissay and Sir Bob, I would like to say that the Live Aid "ripple effect" led to many activist charity ventures around the world, even, years later, bringing some help to kidney patients in Southport, Lancashire.

Thanks, Sir Bob.