Risk banned

GNU BRITAIN

I am indebted (not in a Third World sense, obviously) to Curious Hamster on several counts.

First, he observes that the wristband campaign may serve to raise awareness of the issue, which is a fair point. I didn't tackle this in my earlier post, partly because I think the whole 'raise awareness' issue is unproven (all advertising is unproven, believe it or not, which makes me wonder how a global multi-billion dollar industry has arisen over something which has no more definitive proof behind its effectiveness than swallowing frogs to cure sore throats... but I digress). My other reason for not commenting on raising awareness is that my post was intended to focus on the self-congratulatory element of public displays of charity.

Second, the whiskered one directs me to this article by Justin McKeating over at Chicken Yoghurt (yes, it's that man again!). Apparently this Live8 thing isn't a fundraiser after all, except insofar as the money raised goes to PAY THE STARS WHO ARE TAKING PART (apart from a measly £1.5m, which is going to the Prince's Trust, which has as much connection with famine relief as I have with snowmobiling). Read that bit back to yourself (the bit about paying the stars, not the bit about snowmobiling) and stagger at the hypocrisy of it all.

Third, CH has sent me a meme. More on this in a bit.