This Christmas stand in solidarity with those in despair

In 1984, at the height of the Ethiopian famine, a BBC report was aired in England exposing the extent of the human tragedy. The Irish songwriter Bob Geldof saw the BBC report and co-opted Scottish guitarist James Ure. Together they co-wrote and produced a song to raise money for famine relief, appropriately titled, “Do they know it’s Christmas?” The song, sang jointly by top British musicians, became a platinum hit, and the highest-selling single in UK Singles Chart history for fourteen years, until it was superseded by Elton John’s 1997 tribute to Princess Diana, “Candle in the Wind.”

“Do they know it’s Christmas?” is not a particularly great song. Neither the lyrics nor the musical scores are brilliant, and the song would have been quickly cast into the trashcan of history were it not for the celebrities who sang it, and more importantly the cause it espoused. As it is, it marked one of the most genuine outpourings of pure philanthropy, or love for fellow man, and the consequent vicarious suffering in the pain of another, that is a particularly distinctive characteristic of human society.