The Saints are Coming
I saw the most amazing music video last night. It literally gave me chills. It was the Greenday/U2 collaboration “The Saints are Coming”. The song’s great, but the video was just spectacular. It’s basically scenes of Hurricane Katrina overlaid with fake news subheads like THOUSANDS OF TROOPS DIVERTED FROM IRAQ TO HELP KATRINA VICTIMS. Overlaid on that they had images of fleets of helicopters zooming over the crowds outside the stadium, then hundreds of helicopters lowering baskets to pick people off rooftops, and thousands of food and water parcels plummeting out of the sky to the waiting crowds below. It still makes me sick that none of that happened.
We were in New York when Katrina struck. We’d spend the day walking the streets of one of the most affluent cities on earth then come back to the hostel and watch the most horrific suffering on TV. I remember writing an email to friends back home saying “You guys can’t imagine how bad it is, please give all you can afford.” Then I stopped and looked at the screen and went “Hang on. This isn’t Darfur, or Phuket after the tsunami. This is the richest country on earth. Why am I writing to my New Zealand friends telling them to donate?” It literally looked like a third-world country. It showed me very clearly that all of society is really only a week away from savagery. Take away our water and food and sanitation and see how long we remain civilised. The tragedy of the US government's lack of action was just unimaginable - I can still barely believe it happened in America.
We watched a whole lot of Katrina coverage that NZ wouldn’t have seen, but the truest thing we saw was a celebrity fundraising thing going out live five days after the storm hit. Beautiful stars stood in front of horrific pictures and pleaded in their modulated voices for people to donate. When we turned it on, Cameron Diaz was simpering prettily at the camera. Then Mike Myers and Kanye West stepped on. Mike, looking seriously at the teleprompter, said “Hurricane Katrina has destroyed homes and families. Give generously to help us rescue and rebuild.”
Kanye then stared straight into the camera and, ignoring the script, said "I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family and they say we are looting, you see a white family and they say they are looking for food. And, you know, it's been five days because most of the people ARE black. And even for me to complain, I would be a hypocrite because I would turn away from the TV because it's too hard to watch. I've even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what is the biggest amount I can give. And just to imagine, if I was down there and those are my people down there. If there is anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help about the way America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well off, as slow as possible. Red Cross is doing as much as they can. We already realize a lot of the people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way. And now they've given them permission to go down and shoot us."
Mike Myers just stood there frozen, but managed to get through the next bit of his spiel. Then it went back to Kanye, who said, nearly crying, "George Bush doesn't care about black people." Mike's head whipped around in utter shock. He literally couldn’t believe Kanye was saying something so heretical. Then they cut the feed. They cut a live feed which was broadcasting to all of America, because someone said something against Bush. Good to know that freedom of speech is alive and well in the land of the free and the home of the brave. And that it takes four Irishmen to demonstrate what should have been done.
We were in New York when Katrina struck. We’d spend the day walking the streets of one of the most affluent cities on earth then come back to the hostel and watch the most horrific suffering on TV. I remember writing an email to friends back home saying “You guys can’t imagine how bad it is, please give all you can afford.” Then I stopped and looked at the screen and went “Hang on. This isn’t Darfur, or Phuket after the tsunami. This is the richest country on earth. Why am I writing to my New Zealand friends telling them to donate?” It literally looked like a third-world country. It showed me very clearly that all of society is really only a week away from savagery. Take away our water and food and sanitation and see how long we remain civilised. The tragedy of the US government's lack of action was just unimaginable - I can still barely believe it happened in America.
We watched a whole lot of Katrina coverage that NZ wouldn’t have seen, but the truest thing we saw was a celebrity fundraising thing going out live five days after the storm hit. Beautiful stars stood in front of horrific pictures and pleaded in their modulated voices for people to donate. When we turned it on, Cameron Diaz was simpering prettily at the camera. Then Mike Myers and Kanye West stepped on. Mike, looking seriously at the teleprompter, said “Hurricane Katrina has destroyed homes and families. Give generously to help us rescue and rebuild.”
Kanye then stared straight into the camera and, ignoring the script, said "I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family and they say we are looting, you see a white family and they say they are looking for food. And, you know, it's been five days because most of the people ARE black. And even for me to complain, I would be a hypocrite because I would turn away from the TV because it's too hard to watch. I've even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what is the biggest amount I can give. And just to imagine, if I was down there and those are my people down there. If there is anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help about the way America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well off, as slow as possible. Red Cross is doing as much as they can. We already realize a lot of the people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way. And now they've given them permission to go down and shoot us."
Mike Myers just stood there frozen, but managed to get through the next bit of his spiel. Then it went back to Kanye, who said, nearly crying, "George Bush doesn't care about black people." Mike's head whipped around in utter shock. He literally couldn’t believe Kanye was saying something so heretical. Then they cut the feed. They cut a live feed which was broadcasting to all of America, because someone said something against Bush. Good to know that freedom of speech is alive and well in the land of the free and the home of the brave. And that it takes four Irishmen to demonstrate what should have been done.