Everybody Hurts? Lets get some perspective on this

The video for the all star charity single “Everybody Hurts” was released today. Simon Cowell has gathered up all the pop stars you could possibly think of to cover REM’s infamous song to raise money for the Haiti earthquake disaster. It will raise an awful lot of money. And that is great and shouldn’t be criticised…

The video is a montage of the wonderful pop stars singing in the recording studios in Los Angeles and London, depending what part of the planet the particular pop star was on at the time, mixed with footage of the travesty that has become Haiti. The soft voice of Cheryl Cole can be heard while we watch babies crying and covered in blood. “Everyboooooody huuuuuuurtsssss, sssooooooometimes.” Yes Cheryl, this is true but that’s no reason for you to feel alright about singing this in reference to the unimaginable despair that Haitian people are living through right now. And that’s what it is for us. Unimaginable. When REM sang “Everybody Hurts” they were excluding the people that they didn’t know anything about surely. They must have been talking about a certain kind of hurt. A hurt that they and people they know have experienced. To talk about a hurt that you have no idea about and will probably never experience, something like an earthquake, is surely a bit disrespectful? Of course a song can resonate universally but these big names singing this song out of pity for the people of Haiti sits incredibly uncomfortably with me. I thought the words to this song were about people that we can identify with and have things in common with. Like bereavement and break ups and job losses and so on. This isn’t to belittle any problems or hurt that any westerner experiences but the Haiti earthquake is something that most of us will never know the full impact of.

The truth is all these stars: Cheryl Cole, Leona Lewis, Gary Barlow, Robbie Williams, James Blunt and the man behind it all, Simon Cowell, could have just got together and worked out how much they wanted to give and then privately donated loads of money. The hope is they have all done that anyway.

But make no mistake about it, this charity single is being released primarily to make us feel better about ourselves in this country. We buy it, it gets airplay in abundance, we hear one of the most well known and depressing songs of all time and we feel like we’re saving Haiti in the whole process. “Everybody hurts sometimes.” “Yeah come on Haiti, pull yourselves together, we all hurt sometimes but you’ll be alright.” It’s such an unbelievably inappropriate song choice. And the fact it’s being sung by the biggest money making mega stars ever makes the hypocrisy of the whole thing so blindingly obvious. The dignity is lacking.

I attended a concert for Haiti last week in London called “Concert for Haiti.” El dignity did flow. It was a mixture of speeches, poetry and music. First up to say a few words was a national treasure. I’m not really into the whole ‘national treasure’ idea because I’m so far removed from being patriotic I’m often embarrassed to be English or Scottish or British. I’ll go with British. But Tony Benn is English and he is a treasure. He probably didn’t speak for more than five minutes but what he said will mean more to me and more importantly, mean more to Haiti than the charity song by the stars. He spoke about how when he was born, 84 years ago, there were two types of people. There was the English and then there were foreigners. He spoke with pride that in his lifetime he has seen that change so dramatically. He emphasised the importance of a multi-cultural society and told us to remember the human link between all of us when facing challenges. Contributions from actual Haitian people is what brought the real sense of dignity to the evening.

Every single person who spoke at this concert felt it absolutely necessary to put across the stark reality that the problems in Haiti won’t be solved next week, or next month or next year. The charity single doesn’t spread that message. It’s a way for us to feel like we’ve done something and then forget about it. We know how it works. It won’t be long before the Haiti disaster goes down the pecking order on the news. And the majority of us will forget. Something else will happen. Another big news story will come along for us to get swept away with.

The video for the single is made for you. Not for anyone in Haiti. It starts all sad and depressing and then when that little uplifting bit comes at the end of “Everybody Hurts” you see people being pulled alive from the rubble as if to say anything is possible. If it works and you buy the single, which you should do, then great. But don’t think that this song is for the Haitians. It is to send you on an emotional roller-coaster. Best bit of advertising I’ve seen for a while with the best celebrity businessman in Simon Cowell behind it all. Go out and buy it. But know you can always do more.

Donations for Haiti: http://www.unicef.org.uk/give/index.asp?page=32

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