BMJ  2004;329 (13 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7475.0-h

Editor's choice

The power of women, community, and Bob Geldof

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Twenty years ago images of Ethiopia were beamed into our living rooms and showed people in poor countries living with overwhelming poverty, disease, and despair. What could they possibly teach us? At least we could offer money, pity, and our clever ideas about eradicating corruption and resurrecting their failed states. When musician Bob Geldof inspired his pop pals to sing for charity we learnt that one man could begin to change the world, provided that man lived in a rich country. "Do they know it's Christmas?" may have been a futile lyric for millions living in poverty, but it captured a mood that said we are no longer willing to tolerate such a divided world.

Now, with a humanitarian crisis in Sudan, sub-Saharan Africa in deep poverty, Asia strangled by child deaths, and Bob Geldof singing his Christmas song again, what have we really learnt and what have we done . . . [Full text of this article]

Kamran Abbasi, acting editor

(kabbasi@bmj.com)


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