A seminal moment in my experience of music was Bob Geldof's (and of course Midge Ure's) Live Aid Concert. It also was a foundational moment in rekindling my personal determination that politics and faith needed to kiss and make up ... (but not get married).
Bob and Midge and the many musicians at Live Aid encouraged us to 'Feed the World.' But there was something that they didn't know ...
something I discovered this weekend.
Putting aside recent questions as to how successful Band Aid was at actually delivering aid at the point of need, the shift in public consciousness here was undoubtedly immense. But many still went hungry in Africa.
I am pleased to announce that this need happend no more.
Because I have discovered a way to feed the world for free.
I went into a well known shop (it could have been one of so many) to buy and sandwich and a drink.
Total cost 3.49
But if I took a packet of crisps it would become a 'meal deal' and only cost 2.99
'But I don't want the crisps' I explained.
'No, crisps, no meal deal. Its not a meal without crisps', the cashier explained.
'Couldn't we just pretend ...
The shop would be a packet of crisps the richer? I asked
'No,' she said.
So I bought the meal deal and offered the crisps as a present to the cashier.
She declined my offer.
So did the near by security guard who had become curious.
But he did intervene when I went to replace the packet of crisps on the shelf.
Seriously, he stopped me giving them stock.
It would mess with the system he said
'But any system as crazy as this needs to be messed with!' I said.
So folks here's what to do.
Mess with the system.
Go to whatever local shop is offering a meal deal
Save yourself 50p and get your bag of crisps
proclaim to all the world that a meal is a meal without them
and then we can collect them all
and ship them off to Feed the World
The 50ps we save will even cover the cost of shipping.
If only Sir Bob had known.
3 comments:
If you travel by a certain kind of train, they too do this deal, only I think you save even more... thisn has prompted some interesting conversations with train staff recently. So not only can we feed the world we can conscientise the people at the bottom of the retail food chain too. So here's plan B for once we've fed the world... all those 50ps donatedto enhance the min wage paid to shelf-stackers...
...and yes, I had the same conversation with the canteen at work last week. I eventually relented and bought some Brasilian Salsa flavour crisps which I later fed to my children.
I now plan to sue the canteen for messing with my kids' diet, and will gladly donate the funds to your campaign.
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