I just returned from Shanghai and read that you’re performing in Beijing tomorrow [Saturday] on behalf of the Booyi Loohoo Project aka Bu Yi Lu Hu.
The cynic inside me always goes, “Uh oh, not another charity concert”???!?
I am then haunted by visions of Wyclef Jean wailing about Haiti and that gawdawful “new” version of “We Are The World” where ol’ Wyclef made chicken sounds.
What also enters my mind is how much of the money raised never reached Haiti’s earthquake victims.
Frankly, I’ve never heard of this Booyi Loohoo Project which is not to say that it won’t be magnificent and all for a good cause.
Actually, I have also never heard of Taiwanese singer-songwriter Shunza who, apparently, has made this concert happen.
And what a diverse group of artists have been assembled: Your good self, John Legend and Hong Kong’s Coco Lee.
Jeez, the guest list could have come from Coco’s recent wedding.
Reading the piece in the China Daily, thanks to Hillary Clinton- and I admire the lady and have enormous respect for “Bubba”- you’re now heading up Obama’s Strong Initiative which is “designed to send more US students to study in Asia.”
I can only guess that “Asia” is China as that’s all the newspaper wrote about.
Seeing how much America owes China and how much America is reliant on China it makes sense.
By the way, if you haven’t already, try and get hold of an interview with the head of Caterpillar who gave the sanest reason for a strong Sino-American business relationship.
It was none of the geographically-challenged paranoia preached daily about China by Fox News and Donald Trump.
Does anyone in America know how many times Trump has gone to China with his begging bowl- only to be shown the door- and the money he has stupidly pumped into Dubai?
Whatever you will be doing with this Strong Initiative, you should make American kids aware of the bullshit and hate preached by this imbecile.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyae36yHp54
In the China Daily, you’re quoted as saying, “More American students in public schools need opportunities to learn Mandarin and to study abroad in China which is why I am supporting 100,000 Strong and performing at the concert.”
Okay, so I kinda get this as Booyi Loohoo is organized by the Americans Promoting Study Abroad, “a non-profit organization that sponsors low-income students to study the Chinese language and culture in China.”
You’re also quoted as saying, “It will be fun to perform with apl.de.ap, John Legend, the Bucky Johnson Band, Sa Dingding, Shunza and Coco Lee. And we’re doing all this to support 100,000 Strong.”
But how Mr. Will.I.Am?
Sorry, but I am not getting this.
How can this one concert achieve this huge objective?
To be very frank, the thought of one-off concerts “for charity” with no sustaining campaigns give me the chills and hurts my humps, my humps, my humps.
It might just be my inability to Trust and Understand.
They all sound like vanity projects and a chance to travel the world and stay in five and six star hotels.
Apart from “The Concert For Bangladesh” and ‘Live Aid,” none of these “Music and Concerts for Charity” have done much.
Plus, I very much doubt that 99% of those who will attend your concert on Saturday will have any idea what it’s for and what they can do to help this Strong Initiative.
And this is where I start to waver about Barack Obama and any and all of his initiatives.
They come across as being naïve and with no “end game” in sight.
Remember Hope and Change and the song you wrote for the whole “Yes We Can”promise?
Jeez, even Dave Stewart got in on the act with a truly horrible song about the same subject.
Mr. Will I. Am, what Hope? What Change?
The only “change” has been chump change and the American economy going down the crapper.
In the meantime, China, India, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, they/we go from strength to strength.
So, though having this concert this weekend in Beijing is kinda nice, I don’t see any upside.
I don’t see any future except for some pictures of Coco Lee onstage with you and John Legend.
I hear words, I read more words, but I don’t see where the action starts.
It cannot start with yet another charity concert which tries to “bridge the music of the East with the West.”
This is a very old idea that has been recycled every year somewhere- and has never worked.
Like good music, the idea must be far more original.
Cheers,
Hans Ebert
Chairman and CEO
We-Enhance Inc
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