The touchstone to our minds and hearts.
The voice - the word. The beat of drum.
>From the anguish of slaves, to the songs of protest,
music is the force to be reckoned with.
It cannot be silenced.
Now in this age of disorientation - alienation and isolation, we can take this opportunity to use technology for a higher purpose. Link up and communicate - we all want to make a difference.
Music has been the messenger from ages past. -Eurythmics
So the words, the Eurythmics chose to linked with their name on the www.netaid.org website.
Even more than Dave Stewart, these are the words of the leading member of the duo, Annie Lennox, politically conscious artistic performer over more than 15 years, who shows her revolutionary commitment in the subtlety with which she judges the reformatory message at any one time.
Click yourself on www.netaid.org. The congestion is over but artists in three capitals have promoted a website that is only three clicks away from the UN.
This is free advertising. This is the eureka moment. This is the direct link between the people of the world and the UN, which will give the UN an independent source of funding over the heads of the the governments of the world.
That is what above all the Tobin tax is needed for but it has come through a cooperative partnership between the commercial sector and the voluntary sector, with people making the bridge in their own lives. (Look at the tribute on the website to the Network Operations Team:
"They don't need sleep, they don't remember sunlight, but these folks built the NetAid network and they keep it ticking..."
The site is being managed by the UN, strictly its Development Programme, but others admit that it is and will be, political, campaigning directly against world poverty. The non-rational communication medium, of music, dance, mime, lyric communicates across the world. It is the world language even more than English is.
This link is the next step in world concerts like those for Mandela's 70 birthday when he was still in jail, and again after his release, but the battle against apartheid had not been won. This makes the connection with the internet.
Why? Why link comparatively rich young males on the internet with poor women in third world countries? Read the simple effective discussion of this on the netaid website. They do not duck the question. They use it. These are expert communicators. (As clearly are companies like Cisco, which will make a lot of money out of it - no doubt, but many of their staff will also give a lot of their time free.)
This is a revolution that *will* transform the balance of political power in the world. This is not subjective futorology. This is historical materialism, because this revolutionary step is based on a material change in the means of social reproduction, the internet.
And like all truly revolutionary change it sensitively links with the more modest feelings of people of good will who only see what is in front of them. For example the words of the currently highly popular amiable narcissist, Robbie Williams, squeezing out a few selfless cooments after several paragraphs of self-promotion:
"We all have human rights, every last one of us" says Robbie, "and events such as NetAid are excellent for getting a message across as it's not just about talk, it's about everyone getting together and giving hope to tragic lives."
Gramsci would have approved.
The possibility of this connection, now once made, will never be undone. The governance of the world has changed qualitatively. The UN can have direct communication and funding from the people of the world, with the most powerful method possible, culture.
This is a eureka moment.
Chris Burford
London