Impressed by Bob Geldof

 I recently watched Bob Geldof being interviewed by Gay Byrne on RTE1 'For One Night Only'. I've been a fan of Bob Geldof for a long time and it was really interesting to see him almost 30 years on from his Band Aid and Live Aid work. He sang many fine songs,some old, some new, all showing an interesting history to the man and his music-making. 

In the conversation with Gay Byrne he was still outspoken and irreverant at times, which is part of his appeal but he also spoke with great honesty and depth about how hurt and affected he was by the break-up of his relationship with Paula Yeates.

My great admiration for him stems from his work to highlight the plight of the Ethiopian people suffering from famine in 1984. It was horrifying and shocking to watch how the world stood by while up to 8 million people were in danger of starving to death. Bob, an outpsoken, opinionated rock star at that stage, just shook people out of their apathy and complacency and made us realize that something had to be done. He did what he does best, play music and sing songs with lots more famous pop and rock stars, and through that generated a huge awareness and willingness to help the Ethiopian people.

It is ironic to realize almost 30 years on that almost exactly the same situation has arisen again in the same part of the world. Hopefully the response from governments, agencies and ordinary citizens will be quicker and more effective this time around.

I've been lucky enough to have worked in and visited Ethiopia a number of times in the last 30 years. I have many images in my head of the amazing landscape and the beautiful, gentle people of Ethiopia.  I decided that in tribute to Bob Geldof and his fantastic personality and work for the less well off that I would do a painting to celebrate the man and his work. I chose to paint a picture of a young Ethiopian boy, smiling and healhty walking along holding his father's hand. The idea is to show the positive side of life in Ethiopia and to show what can be achieved with well planned and well targetted development work. You can see only a small portion of the right hand of the father figure leading the young boy along. I see Bob Geldof as that father figure. 

Well done Bob.