Band Aid is making its appeal for Africa in 2004 more as a political demand than the first time it touched the world's conscious in 1985 to raise money, creator Bob Geldof said Friday.
Geldof said the people who supported Band Aid 20 years ago when it released the disc "Do They Know It's Christmas?" are now in power.
"The promises of 1985 should be fulfilled politically, finally," the former punk singer told a press conference in New York where he is attending meetings for a Commission for Africa, a body set up by British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Geldof was the inspiration behind Band Aid in 1985 and he assembled a new galaxy of rock stars -- including Paul McCartney, U2 singer Bono and members of Coldplay and Radiohead -- to record a new version of the Christmas song last weekend in Britain.
The singer said he hoped the new Band Aid 20 "will resonate" in political circles.
"More than raising money, you make a political demand this time, because these people in power know what's going on.
Geldof said that Africa's troubles were "an issue that transcends politics and becomes morality, whether you're on the right or on the left."
"As years go on, Africa declines even further," he added.
A video of the new Band Aid, presented by Madonna, came out Thursday. The audio disc -- which also features singers Robbie Williams and Dido -- is to be released on Nov. 29.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
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