Here's why I say fuck Corporate American NGO's like Bono
- Donate to Amma if your going to donate.
‘The idea that a poor African’s life is being ‘borrowed’ for them by a rich white person is not a revolutionary concept. It is degrading, insulting and misleading, further entrenching the idea that this is how the world works and that’s ok. In terms of ethical standards, Red is the very opposite of a regulatory mechanism. The costs will no doubt be written off in the companies’ PR budgets, they will get a huge amount of positive publicity and extra sales off the back of it, and they do not have to make any improvements in the way they treat their workers across the world. These companies are helping perpetuate the very system that is impoverishing Africans and driving the AIDS pandemic. Business has to be more involved in the world beyond its profit margins, but Product Red is not the form this involvement should take. Fundraising is welcome, but Red’s rhetoric (the gross simplifications, the sanctimony, the blacked-up white people) is not. With its grandiose claims and complete lack of a political message, I can’t see how Product Red can be a positive force.’
Will Horwitz, student AIDS activist