‘A Concert Won’t Do It’

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Bob Geldof

Bob Geldof spoke to Dave Fanning this morning on RTÉ Radio One, ahead of his performance with the Boomtown Rats at Electric Picnic this weekend.

After discussing music, the conversation turned towards refugees.

Dave Fanning: “Back in the Eighties, obviously everybody knows you saw [BBC’s] Michael Buerk on the television, you realised something had to be done, you jumped out of your seat and said, ‘we gotta do something’ and you did Band Aid, Live Aid, and the history is all there. And I’m reading from the headlines in just this morning’s paper, I got two here, the Irish Independent, a drowned toddler, ‘the harrowing symbol of a migrant crisis’ and The Guardian, ‘the shocking cruel reality of Europe’s refugee crisis’. Like I mean in terms of just, do you just look upon that as a dad or look upon that as maybe something you could do or something you’ve done before that you can do again or what way do you see it?”

Bob Geldof: “I look at it with profound shame and a monstrous betrayal of who we are and what we wish to be. That’s how I look at it. We are in the moment, currently now, a moment that will be discussed and impacted upon in 300 years time, a fundamental shift in the way the world has worked for the last say 600 years. Power has been sucked out of the West and moved East; technology, once it met money, was multiplied by human greed, collapsed the world economy. If there’s a new economy there needs to be a new politics, there isn’t and it’s a failure of that new politics that led to this fucking…sorry…this disgrace, this absolute sickening disgrace. And late last night, you know, I couldn’t get my head around this so, at about 12.30am I started banging out this piece and I said, ‘ok, let’s take on now, let’s put our money where our mouth is’, so I am prepared. I’m lucky, I’ve got a place in Kent, I’ve got a flat in London. Me and Jan would be prepared to take three families immediately in our place in Kent and a family in our flat in London immediately and put them up until such time that they can get going and they can get a perch on the future. I cannot stand what’s happening. I can’t stand what it does to us. I’ve known and you’ve known and everyone listening knows the bollix we talk about our values are complete nonsense. You know, once it comes home to roost you know, we deny those values, betray ourselves but those values are correct and it happens time and time and time again. So we are better than this, we genuinely are I don’t want to drag you back to the [Boomtown] Rats but, you know, that night on the Late Late where Bono and Gavin Friday were looking at the show and went, ‘what’s this’ and you know Joe O’Connor and various others were going, ‘yes, yes’. You know the point about Ireland at that point, I say to Gay Byrne, is that I always viewed Ireland as a sort of deep-diving whale that every Friday night it was allowed to come up and vent for two hours and then go back down again, get pushed back down again and in those two hours you saw an elegance, an intellectualism, a humanity, a maturity, that wasn’t allowed by the powers-that-be then and eventually of course it made itself known and felt. The same is true now. You know I do understand, of course I understand, the economics and the politics, ‘ah yeah but if we let some more in, we’ll…’ All right. All right. I do understand when [British Prime Minister David] Cameron says the root cause of this must be addressed. Yes it must but we are in a period of fundamental shift.”

“Twelve years ago, I was in Lampadusa, the island where first, you know the people were arriving from North Africa and I was with the Mayor and we went to a refugee camp because he told me every morning he woke up to the sight of men, women and children dead on the rocks around Lampadusa. So I started talking about this. Of course the Daily Mail, you know, were scathing and derogatory and saying, ‘Geldof, you know, doesn’t know what he’s talking about’.

They rang the mayor of Lampadusa and he denied he ever met me but it was happening then because when people are poor, they move. I am an economic migrant, Britain accepted me and let me got on with it. I couldn’t do it in Ireland which made me very bitter about Ireland but made me eternally grateful to the British people for saying, ‘Get on with it, dude’. And I did. The same thing is true of thousands of Irish, millions, in America, Australia, Britain, everywhere else, this is happening again except it’s people fleeing war not famine and economic hardship, that will increase as the environment decays. The environment makes people move from one area of a resource to another. It’s happening and has happened all over Africa. For 40 years, Dave, 30 years I’ve been dealing with refugees. Last year I was in the board of Somalia and Ethiopia like with the refugees from the Somalian war – all of this is happening now. We must have the politics and the humanity to deal with it. It makes me sick and a concert won’t do it.”

Listen back in full here.

Boomtown Rats at Electric Picnic

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86 thoughts on “‘A Concert Won’t Do It’

  1. Jonotti

    Please I dont want to hear anything from this prat. He is so far up the arse of the British toff establishment that he was actually campaigning against Scottish independance last year.

    And I’m sorry, you do not get to offer somebody a place in your room and then the rest of us have to pick up the bill for that persons food, health, schooling and all the rest.

    1. Lordblessusandsaveus

      Me taxpayers money… Me taxpayers money… Me taxpayers money… Me taxpayers money… Me taxpayers money… Me taxpayers money… Me taxpayers money… Me taxpayers money… Me taxpayers money… Me taxpayers money… Me taxpayers money… Me taxpayers money… Me taxpayers money… Me taxpayers money… Me taxpayers money… Me taxpayers money… Me taxpayers money… Me taxpayers money… Me taxpayers money… Me taxpayers money… Me taxpayers money… Me taxpayers money… Me taxpayers money…

      1. classter

        It is a fair point.

        This Tory-supporting scumbag is worth over 40m euro. He has contributed precisely zero to Ireland in income tax & has the cheek to talk about a ‘monstrous betrayal of who we are and what we wish to be’.

        And, please, ‘an economic migrant’. You don’t get to talk about ‘I couldn;t do ti in Ireland’ because you wanted to be a rock-star, luvvie, African hedge-funder & property developer.

    2. Formerly known as @ireland.com

      Jonotti

      +1
      This is the first time I am agreeing with you. I am a bit concerned.

      Bob might recognise this:
      “Don’t flatter yourself, nobody’s listening.”

    3. Ming

      I cannot stress how much I hate this man.

      And I do not believe his ‘caring’ sthick.

      In fact, I believe he is into the dark arts..

  2. ahjayzis

    Jaysus that Geldof fella would sicken yer hole.

    He’s on the right track though. If the reactionary right like Jonotti and Identity Ireland are against it we can be sure it’s the humane and decent thing to do. Let them in!

    1. Owen C

      How many? Serious question. Any limit? No limit? Or should we approach it from the perspective of how many CAN we let in, house, fund, manage/process etc?

      1. ahjayzis

        Hang on there Owen and I’ll calculate a number.

        Of course the number has to be a number we can sustain, I’m not suggesting we can take all four million Syrians. We need a plan and we need to draw down the funds the EU provides to take people in, but none of it is beyond our abilities as a country.

        1. Owen C

          Current asylum system has people stuck in it for over 10 years. I’d suggest crisis management is not something we do well. Govt has suggested an increase to ~2k, and i reckon it ends up more like 4-5k. But people say we should take 50k (Elaine Byrne). Do u see the problem here between ideas and reality? There is 2-3mn refugees over the next 18-24 months. I reckon Europe can process no more than one third of that, max.

          1. classter

            You are being disingenuous or naive, Owen C.

            The long wait in the current asylum system has nothing to do with how well ‘we do’ crisis management but about discouraging future asylum seekers.

            Sh!tty but true & it is a common tactic across Europe. Most administrations are terrified (politically as much as anything else) of being seen to be a ‘soft touch’ in terms of asylum seekers (for which most read suspected economic migrants from outside the first world).

          2. Owen C

            Not do nothing. But come up with something a bit more thought out than “let them in”. Figure out what resources are there, what is available, and what can be made available in the time frame required. It’s not just a money issue – you are looking at housing, medical and educational infrastructure (people and buildings) that currently doesn’t exist and will require a not inconsiderable lead time to put in place, as well as the administrational supports necessary to ensure it doesn’t go horribly wrong. You then need to think out the social and political impact this may create (if we stick 1k refugees in a rural town, I reckon we’ll encounter some problems at some stage). The main thrust of the debate so far has been “we are rich enough to let them in”. There has been horrifically little thought as to whether we are competent or prepared enough to let them in.

      2. ReproBertie

        According to a guy interviewed on Prime Time last night (I know all the anti-RTÉ fupp the licence people will have missed it) Germany needs 200K people a year to maintain their population. They need young people in manual labour to replace the older people and to help pay for their pensions. The refugees they are allowing in (800K this year) will help provide the numbers and the workforce and keep the economy moving.

        I mention the German situation because that is the one I heard about. I do not know the numbers for Ireland. The (political policiing blueshirt) Frances Fitzgerald is quoted as saying that Ireland can take 1,800 refugees. I believe she is selling us short. Crisitunity people, crisitunity.

    2. Formerly known as @ireland.com

      I am all for looking after refugees and asylum seekers. I am not part of anything on the right side of politics.

      I am over Sir Bob the Gob telling how us his views. He is part of the establishment, with a self serving view of the World.

    3. Original Cynic

      Virtually guaranteed that one or more of the Government’s “friends” will be generously remunerated for providing the accommodation/food etc. required.

      1. dereviled

        Thank you for that.
        Syria was the first entry on Wiki, I could easily post a link for communist aggression when apt, though.
        It was mainly for people waffling about ‘trouble regions’ given the last hundred years in Europe!

      2. dereviled

        They have a deeply disfunctional court system there, women are jailed for miscarriages. The article says the Supreme Court is involved in this current intrigue.
        (An aside: I hadn’t read The Nation before, apparently the first editor was an Irishman, Edwin Lawrence Godkin.)

  3. Manta Rae

    He wants to put up refugees in homes he owns in London and Kent? Haven’t the poor souls suffered enough??

  4. Francis Almond

    A shocking and immediate crisis that needs swift action from all nations. Hundreds have been dieing almost every day and the world has turned a blind eye.
    However, what is not being said is why. Why are the fleeing? Is the west too terrified to say Islamic State / Boko Haram / the Taliban (whatever name you give them) has won the war. If these people are willing to risk not only their own desperate lives but that of their children the horror they are fleeing is clearly unimaginable. The UK and the US have created this dire situation yet Germany seems to be shouldering the burden.
    The media continually liken the crisis of the refuges as the worst since World War 2. Are we being prepared for something??

    1. ReproBertie

      I believe we’re being prepared for a massive increase in wacko conspiracy theories. Sure this is all Isis playing the long game and sneaking hardened refugee child terrorists into Europe.

      1. Francis Almond

        go back to sleep.
        I said they ‘are fleeing IS / Boko Haram’ etc.
        I did not say or suggest they were IS / Boko Haram’ etc.

        1. ReproBertie

          That’s because you’re too busy looking for a conspiracy of silence and forebodings of disasters to come to see the obvious.

          1. Francis Almond

            Explain what is so ‘obvious’ to you?
            If they are not fleeing Boko Haram / IS / jihadist islamic extreme terror group. Who are they fleeing from?

          2. ReproBertie

            What’s obvious is that you are completely missing my point.

            You said “The media continually liken the crisis of the refuges as the worst since World War 2. Are we being prepared for something??” rushing around Chicken Licken like with your forebodings of dark times to come. The truth is the media are calling it the worst refugee crisis since WWII because it IS the worst refugee crisis to hit Europe since WWII.

            It’s not the sky, it’s an acorn.

    2. Buzz

      Germany shouldering the burden, don’t make me laugh. The only burden the Germans are shouldering is figuring out how to ensure they have enough worker bees to fund their big fat pensions. Not African workers either, no siree, Syrians will do nicely.

      1. Dόn Pídgéόní

        Yup, no Africans, except for all those Eritreans. No burden, except for a possible emergency budget to cover the costs.

        Buzz – the sound of your last brain cell dying.

        1. mike

          hes got a point. lots of immigrants do sh1t jobs in the uk that white brits wouldnt do. uk govt relies on them

  5. Spaghetti Hoop

    I just can’t listen to that annoying snide git rambling on. Bob Geldof on the other hand…..he’s a true Brit but speaks some sense now and then.

  6. phil

    So we are still viewing Live Aid as a success? If you are not a fan of bob, have a look at the interview where he was presented with the evidence that Live aid money extended the Ethiopian war by 7 years ..

    http://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/apr/25/humanitarian-aid-war-linda-polman

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1255160/Ethiopian-Band-Aid-money-used-rebels-fight-government-buying-food.html

    The law of unintended consequences is a tricky one…

    The effort was noble though ….

  7. donkey_kong

    “I am an economic migrant, Britain accepted me and let me got on with it. I couldn’t do it in Ireland which made me very bitter about Ireland but made me eternally grateful to the British people for saying,”

    blow me bob….
    poor potato famine victim bob , forgetting his rich upbringing coupled with his private school education .
    He went for artist reasons and that’s it.
    only bitter cos he is a ladypart, he actually makes bono’s preaching palatable

  8. fluffybiscuits

    Now if only his music was as good as his opinions on this ! Irelands collective psyche only vented on the late late didnt it? What was the saying, thats it…”There was no sex in Ireland before the late late”

  9. Demon

    Why is everyone so angry? He’s offered to share his home with three families in crisis. Sure, he talks plop, but this is a decent thing to do.

    1. donkey_kong

      maybe but his bitter warbling about ireland – he left 40 years ago ffs! – is hard to stomach.
      He is a preachy so and so….decides to do something and then demands we do likewise.
      plus it’s easy for him to take 3 families , he is loaded with property galore..let him pay to build a shelter for them or rent a B&B for them….

      1. Dόn Pídgéόní

        Can we stop this “you better prove yourself before having a valid opinion” nonsense? Its pretty pathetic.

          1. Dόn Pídgéόní

            You really need to work on your insults, I mean what was the point of that? At least have the courtesy to try.

  10. shitferbrains

    Remarkable how all the Gaza trendiness evaporates as soon as there’s a call to do something rather than pontificate from a keyboard.

  11. Buzz

    What next, Denis O’Brien opening up his gaff on Wellington Road to a few families, the one in Portugal too. What about the pad in Malta… and go on so. There’s a few beds in the Beacon that haven’t been occupied for a while, let’s throw them in the pot.

  12. Owen

    I don’t like Bob. I think he is a self obsessed clown. No Bob, you are not going to open up your doors, so shut up.

    All that aside, this situation with migrants is being dealt with in the wrong way by European governments. They are looking down a river trying to build dams. They need to invest in the source. Those wishing to leave their country should be given the opportunity to stay – no forced to stay, but the opportunity to want to stay. Short / medium / and long term plans need to be developed as solutions, rather then this ‘how many can we take this year’ approach.

    1. Buzz

      “No Bob, you are not going to open up your doors, so shut up.” LOL! So true. This is a man who won’t even address airline crew when he’s travelling, all comments must be addressed to his PA, so yeah he’s really going to have randomers using his toothpaste of a morning.

      1. Anne

        How the hell does that work? Will you ask the bob if he wants the chicken or the beef there ?
        Will you ask him there if he wants tea, coffee or juice?
        Does he want anything from duty free there?
        Tell Bob thanks for flying with us today and have a pleasant stay.

  13. martco

    I find it hard to believe that anyone commenting on this thread (even Jonotty there) if were on the ground seeing and experiencing what’s going on at the moment there whatever the reasonings would actually have a problem coming to these people’s assistance. You wouldn’t stand there and start shiteing on about the economic impact this or they’ll steal our jobs and wimmin that. You’d help. So the only difference here is that you are in your workplace or at home or in school safely isolated from these happenings. Bob Geldof is a mouth, no doubt. But you can pick out some uncomfortable truths from what he said earlier. Frances Fitzgerald was on Morning Ireland earlier fupping about when being asked about potentially what numbers would the Irish Government agree to take in….preambling and shiteing on about how generous (FG innit Frances) they’ve been up to now….eventually leaked something out of her mouth that sounded like 1800. Eighteen Hundred? followed up by a blurted “but but that’s not an upper limit” or some other horsesht…you can be 110% sure that this will be FG’s position (I don’t even bother mentioning Lab as they are dead to me now) in whatever cosy isolated gold plated environment they choose to discuss this “issue” in 2 weeks time. TWO WEEKS TIME.

    I personally could and would be in a position to take a family of 4 into my household and support them and help them for as long as it takes to get up and running and integrated into the community I live in. I will do this by shifting some things about in my house to make another bedroom and Christmas won’t be as stuff-laden as usual. etcetera. And Jonotty before you pen your response I will pay. I will feed them. I will help find a school for the children (if so). I will help these people practically. Here’s what’s bugging me – SO if I can take 4 into an average joe household and I’m willing to give a little effort my Government can only manage 1800? you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure this stuff out…..although I reckon you’ll find plenty of them along with doctors, nurses, teachers, plumbers, electronic engineers down there in Hungary….people who can integrate into Irish life and make a positive contribution eventually in the immediate future and definitely in the longer term.

    Dear Oireachtas, mobilise a crisis cabinet and fix this now and do some good for once or be the dithering incompetents as you’ve shown to be on issues closer to home. start earning your salary. WE don’t have to do what everyone else does, charter some ferries get them down there and get those people out of there (Irish Ferries Ulysses will carry nominal 2000 alone). or outside the box why not set up a scheme to allow people like me to get in my car and drive to fupping Hungary at my own expense and rescue a family in need of our help and get them out of there.

    1. Jonotti

      I wouldn’t because I’m a thoughtful that values reason above emotion.

      I could go into the worst slum in India or a dozen other countries now and see unimaginable poverty. By your logic we should just pump all of our resources into them because we have witnessed this first hand.

  14. Serval

    Why can’t USA, UK and their allies just go into the countries the people are fleeing from and fix them up?

  15. tony

    Bob has Stockholm Syndrome. He loathes Ireland and never misses a chance to say so. Yet we never hear him talking about the country that invaded Iraq and created the instability that drove migrants out in the first place. A bitter sure settler.. And that fake shouty outrage…yeuch

    1. Buzz

      Yes, and not a word out of him when the Israelis were killing Palestinian children wholesale. He’s so full of sh*t.

      1. Neilo

        Ding! Ding! Ding! Jew Panic in the house! Only a matter of time ’til we find out the IDF sank all the migrant boats with torpedoes provided by the New World Order.

      1. Buzz

        Akin to asking if the weather is so terrible in Ireland, why do potatoes also grow in Hungary, ie, nonsensical.

          1. Buzz

            Because, unlike you, they appear to be able to separate the deleterious effect of UK government meddling in the Middle East from day-to-day life on the ground amid its citizens.

      2. classter

        Most of the migrants are not risking life and limb to get there.

        One of the many misconceptions one gains from being exposed to so much UK media is that every benighted, poverty-stricken human in the world is trying to make their way to the UK.

        In reality, they receive a fraction of the asylum requests of other similar-sized European countries.

        Those that do go there, have a variety of reasons. Perhaps they have family members there. Perhaps they speak English & not Italian. Etc.

  16. CousinJack

    Need western soldiers on the ground and colonial governance, the middle east and north african countries aren’t fit to govern themselves (including israel)

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