Are we are still talking about the lyrics “There won’t be snow in Africa this Christmastime”?
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Depends where in Africa, obviously.
That’s my main issue. Treating Africa like it’s just one monolithic thing, when we’d never confuse Ireland with Turkey.
That, and the racist imperialism, of course. But you’d have to be pretty imperialistic to think that in the first place.
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I think we’re arguing about something we agree on. I’m arguing that a monolithic view (there’s no snow in Africa during December) is bad and wrong, and you are arguing that it is true for some people (which I don’t disagree with).
The song was about Ethiopia, which means the song still isn’t true. You get snow in the Semien Mountains close to where the 1983-5 famine was worst, you can see it on satellite images.
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But he never did that. Everything he said was gracious, polite, appreciative. That’s why I liked it.
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“There’s no snow in Addis Ababa at Christmastime” still scans 
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Another interesting thing about that song is that In Ethiopia, it won’t be Christmas at the same time as it is here. Not only are the vast Majority of Ethiopians Christians Orthodox (who will be celebrating on January 7th instead), in 1984 Ethiopia was still operating on a separate calendar:
So the response to the question “Do they know it’s Christmas?” Would actually be that for “them”, it isn’t Christmas yet, and if we could agree on a Date for Christmas with them, it would happen at different times.
Still, despite all that, the actual, real world result of this single was to raise millions and save countless lives, and continues to do so, as the royalties keep rolling in each year, so on balance, I’m not going to be sniping at it.
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Maybe it’s just jealousy or anti-St. Bob sentiment, but I’ve heard more than one person claim the food made it all the way to Ethiopia… and then either rotted at the dock or got stolen. I hope not.
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So, the song should be called “They Know It Isn’t Christmas”
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I was just talking about this at the other place; how I introduced my kid to all the movies and pop culture I loved in the 80’s and 90’s, and how I’ve been chagrined by how much homophobia and transphobia is prevalent in them; not to mention all the casual sexism that we just took for granted as “the way things were.”
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Not really. Seems to me that song was a pretty clear satire of nationalism.
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Oh, for sure. They are satirizing English chauvinism in typical F&S fashion.
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It’s not even subtle, or about mixed signals or “different social meanings” like the classic discussed downthread. It’s blatant “I don’t care what you say, I don’t care if you violently resist.” yet it’s a “fan favourite” and the classics station plays it all the damn time.
But if that’s what we were being fed on a daily basis, some of it definitely sinks in on some level. And people look at you funny because they’ve internalised it and never examined what isn’t even subtext.
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Not necessarily bad. It’s bad if you pretend that there’s nothing problematic about it, but one of the reasons for this thread is to highlight the waters that we grew up swimming in, and just how polluted they were, and the subtle (and not so subtle) ways being immersed in those media oceans has affected us. How much they normalised bad and even toxic ways of thinking and behaviours, and how little we thought about it.
And to help us recognise just what was seeping into our brains, which can help explain why some people still defend the indefensible. Until you recognise danger, you can’t save yourself.
ETA: dangerous media become a lot less so when you see them for what they are. You can like something without endorsing the message, but you need to know what it is to do that.
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I had no idea what was being talked about either. I don’t think Gino Vannelli has had any big hits in the US since the 70s.
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Oh, nothing is new, but CanCon rules increase the odds of airplay.
Stupidly, because there are plenty other bands and songs to use.
But this is the kind of garbage we grew up with as kids, people singing along on the radio. The fact that it’s not US, and it’s not necessarily a touchstone for you is why I included the lyrics. But those of us who grew up with it, or listen to classic rock radio in Canada know exactly what song it is.
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This routine spoke to me:
Not that Rock himself isn’t prime material for this thread.
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During the famine, I worked in food aid. This sounds glamorous and important; the truth is I was an administrative assistant for a government contract that did very little except siphon money off the government’s purse into the salaries of the people who worked on the contract. However, the two women I worked with who had Masters in Nutrition were actually knowledgeable about the field and taught me a lot. One day, a photographer visited with us. He specialized in photographing famines, and he showed us some of his photos from Ethiopia.
Here’s the devastating thing about what he told us. You’ve heard it before but it takes on a whole different context in this case. “The camera really does add 10 pounds.” It was really hard for him to capture how truly thin the people he was photographing were.
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I’d never heard of him.
I assume he was a Canadian singer who had some territorial hits in the 1970s.
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