Ableton Forum

Since this community seems really passionate about so much more then just music let me share with what bothers me for last few days and specially today. Yesterday may european manager reminded me about the video clip that my indian label -"Magnasound" did for MTV few years ago. After seeing it I just cannot get it off my head.
It was shot near my house and studio in Thiruvanmiyur in Madras, South India right on the beach. Since the slum kids used to hang outside the studio during rehearsals we decided to invite them for the shoot and they are the main "actors" in fact. It was so much fun, we got them lots of food, sweets, soft drinks ( which they can never afford) outfits, sunglasses etc, etc, was more like party for children.
The latest news are that the whole village/slum was wiped out, if not that I relocated to Frankfurt I would be dead ( my studio was right there 300 yards from the see) most of this kids might be dead or orphanes. While their mothers usually worked as servants their fathers were fisherman. December till March is the main fishing season so they were all caught on the sea.
Knowing how the NGOs work I have no much hope, most of charites spent more on themselves then the victims and in the end the poor never see any compensations. I will try to reschedule my works to find time and go there, do little something.
Perhaps some of you may come with some ideas- get some release for the benefit ? I am sure many have some unreleased material which could be used. There are also some smart people here who may be good at organising something.
See the video that I put on my "under construction" page. People tell me I should do something with it too, have Betacam pro copy ( I dont think it would be problem with the label to use it , perhaps combined with the recent coverage). The irony is that there is so much water, waves in the video. Just see it.
I am really devastated after watching it but dont want to just cry, really want to do something. These simple people are so wonderful, poor but can enjoy life so much , in the end nobody cares, just for the rich tourists.
See the video - wmv, quicktime and real format:
http://www.musicyoga.com/

this whole thing almost brings me to tears.. its so sad

we should start up some kind of donation thing to help out

Ambioun - Techno Man wrote: we should start up some kind of donation thing to help out

Somebody already has http://www.dec.org.uk

The world has never known a natural disaster on this scale, everyone should chip in.

I have seen a lot of missuse of the so called charity money. Lots of christian organisations use it for their own political purposes. Since I look very "ingles" ( my mother was Indian) people presume I am christian so I saw a lot of ugly stuff, "buying the souls " for a boat , motobike or bicycle. Getting monthly salary just for being christian or becoming one. The lepra hospital in my home town Puri, Orissa ( btw. the home there is wiped as well) was built for propaganda purposes ( I was told by the founding father himself). Then of course there is increadible corruption too. So I am not critisising "ignorrant" foreigners, our own middle and upper classes can be shamless and without consience, having no scrupules to benefit from poors misery and get the aid into their fat wallets.
I used to cooperate ( mainly doing charity concerts) with "CRY"- Child Relief and You, founded by private person, gay airline steward who made it a point that maximum was spend for the needed and not the organisation. Very simple concept- for 30$ you were sponsoring 1 year of one childs 1 year education, for 40 it included health care too( I am not sure of the money it was 400 and 600 Indian Rupees). I checked them personally before getting involved, they were not like other organisation who have their fancy AC offices and cars. My ex wife worked for UN so I have clear picture how these NGOs work. I dont want to judge but personally like to see that my money / work benefits the needy.

nolus wrote: http://www.dec.org.uk

The world has never known a natural disaster on this scale, everyone should chip in.

That url is legit, myself and partner used it to donate the other day and the figures have been making bbc news if it's any reassurance to you.

The british public out donated the government by such an embarresing ammount that it forced them to raise their donation to 50 million, which makes a welcome change from donating armed forces.

Since I'm in the Portland (Oregon) area, Northwest Medical Teams is always in the news, and, as is usual when disasters strike, they are right there.

Last night on the local news they said that $0.96 of every $1.00 given to NWMT goes directly to helping the victims of the disasters. For charities the average is only $0.30, so when donating to NWMT you can be sure that nearly all of your donation is directly helping out.

Their website is http://www.nwmedicalteams.org/

Is it just me? Even though I have compassion for the victims and yes they need help but, I have this strange feeling this is a sign for those who keep ignoring Mother Earth. Is it just me?

Nilus Rothschild wrote:Is it just me? Even though I have compassion for the victims and yes they need help but, I have this strange feeling this is a sign for those who keep ignoring Mother Earth. Is it just me?

I think it's just you.

"A sign for those who keep ignoring Mother Earth." If that were the case then the trajedy should have happened to people who were actually exploiting nature... not these poor souls.

No... this is a sign for that area's Tsunami alrt system to get their shit together. And more importantly... that we should all help the victims in any way we can.

AK

Andrew K wrote:

Nilus Rothschild wrote:Is it just me? Even though I have compassion for the victims and yes they need help but, I have this strange feeling this is a sign for those who keep ignoring Mother Earth. Is it just me?

I think it's just you.

"A sign for those who keep ignoring Mother Earth." If that were the case then the trajedy should have happened to people who were actually exploiting nature... not these poor souls.

No... this is a sign for that area's Tsunami alrt system to get their shit together. And more importantly... that we should all help the victims in any way we can.

AK

it's a wake up call to the wealthier nations out there, that we have it a shitload better off than a whole bunch of other countries...

...the real 'disaster' is that there are not enough resources in these communities.

not just disaster relief, or an 'early warning system'... but a stronger infrastructure... education... housing...

Whose infrastructure? Whose education? Whose housing?

Sorry, I am lost in a very strange world!

Nilus Rothschild wrote:Whose infrastructure? Whose education? Whose housing?

Sorry, I am lost in a very strange world!

ok.... let me put it this way....

if there was a tsunami 2 hours off the coast of california, what would happen?


INFRASTRUCTURE...
Every single coast guard, policeman, fire dept. etc... would be informed.
Every radio station, every tv station, going into every single home in the states (the world for that matter) would have it's approach running "live".
And... Probably every single person along the coastline would have been evacuated.

EDUCATION...
...A 10 year old Britsh girl saved a whole beach with 350 people on it, because she learned in her Geography class in school that the tide goes out before a Tsunami hits...

HOUSING....
i don't think that the poor communities along the beaches of Asia live in Hut's because they like their 'rustic charm'. If California, or for that matter the suburbs of Sydney, was flooded, I think our housing would hold up a little better.

welcome to this "very strange" world.


-am

the BBC World Service radio was interviewing the Vice President of India a few days ago and from what he said, the problem wasn't just needing an early warning system. The problem is infrastructure.
Where a majority of the population lives in villages that have no plumbing, electricity, and the only running water is what can be piped from running streams. Telephones? pffft.

This isn't a downtown block of skyscrapers that had all dead batteries in their fire alarms.. This is the THIRD WORLD.

And it should be a sign or wake up call to the U.S. that there truley are more important things in the world than U.S. Interests.

But regardless of what this gigantic tragedy is a sign of or isn't a sign of.... All we, sympathizing Westerners, can do now is give money and hope that lives can still be saved.

P.S. i also heard a soundbyte that the U.S. spends more money every day in Iraq in the first 8 hours of the day than it has given to the Tsunami crisis.

AdamJay wrote: i also heard a soundbyte that the U.S. spends more money every day in Iraq in the first 8 hours of the day than it has given to the Tsunami crisis.

That's the sort of thing that needs spreading around the net, says it all really. The UK govenment pledged 15 million and the public pledged 25 in the same day! I find it disgusting that they think those people are worth a fraction of the cost of one tornado bomber

What really made me sick is what they showed on german TV yesterday. Western tourists continuing their holidays, I dont know if the fat white male sipping cocktail next to Thais cleaning the debris ( sitting on his plastic chair few yards away) was a German but they interviewed some families, you know people who look like a bank clerk or a school teacher, they continue the holidays and seem to have no problem doing it next to debris and dead bodies. These were not some uneducated brutes, sextourists who come with so called "bumsbomber" (fuck bomber) but absolutely "civilised", educated people. TV said tha all german tourists have the right to leave immediately, the tourist agencies pay it but many of them are staying because they want to. I know that many Germaqns have a religious obsession with thier "Urlaub" - holidays but THIS goes too far for me. How they can be so indifferent, so heartless, thick skinned ?
Yesterday talking to another foreign musician stranded here he reminded me how several times when minor disasters happened in the "first" world we woudnt have work because there would be these mournings, no concerts, public performances and now 200 000 dead , nobody bothers and they celebrate, get drunk and make idiots out of themselves ( unlike me he did play the 31). I am so glad I dont tdo these well paid shit gigs.
It all remind me about the Bhoopal where US multinational Union Carbide killed 3000 people and none of the victims got compensate till today.
It is so shocking because you might think that TV get us used to horror images but it is not TV there must be really stink od decomposing human bodies and the rest , locals freaking out over their dead relatieves and you continue your bloody holiday sipping MaiTai ! How the consumer attitude twisted peoples souls!

i donated via the DEC.ork.uk as well webiste for any one else who is concerned about it not being legit.

i've got two friends who are travelling through thailand and india at the moment. we never really hear from them any way and havent yet since this happened, but i really hope they are ok.