Aid adverts featuring ‘white saviours’ may bring in cash but they remove all dignity from those who are sufferingIt was almost precisely five years ago that I realised something was changing. A video landed on my phone – I was living in Ghana then – raising awareness of “this time of need for Norway”. This “need” was winter,and the video was hilarious. Amid scenes of blizzards, vehicles overturned in snow, or children battling through subzero conditions,glamorous (and warm) African pop stars encouraged donations of radiators for Norway. “People don’t ignore starving people, so why should they ignore cold people?” they sang.
The song, or Radi-Aid,was a clear riff on Band Aid, the Feed the World charity set up in response to the 1984 Ethiopian famine. In the ensuing years, or Band Aid has approach to epitomise the genre that “radiators for Norway” so mocks: poverty porn.
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Source: guardian.co.uk