Bob Geldof copyright Victoria Mary Clarke 2005

There are two kinds of people in this world.  The sensible kind, who follow their heads.  Those people who play it safe, and do things by the book, never taking unnecessary risks.  The kind of people who are insured for every eventuality.  The kind of people who prefer permanent, pensionable jobs and who may dream of bigger things, but wouldn’t dare take the risk of following those dreams.  The kind of people who will never know how exciting life could be, because they will never take a chance on finding out.
          And then there are the Bob Geldofs of this world.  Those that follow their hearts and who sometimes take risks that other people think are insane and even irresponsible.  The kind of people who get passionate about poverty and about people suffering and who jump right in with both feet to try to do something about it.  The kind of people who risk danger, adventure and looking stupid or crazy, because they believe that some things are worth it.
          This week Bob was photographed aboard a boat in Southampton, after having called upon the sailing community to recreate Dunkirk, in the war against poverty, by sailing to France to pick up supporters for the ‘Long Walk to Justice’, who would then march to Edinburgh to protest at the G8 summit.  Bob has suggested that people take to the sea in any available vehicles, to this end, even in rowing boats, if necessary.  ‘This is not a time for timidity,’ he announced.  Many people have suggested that he must be crazy, because any kind of chaos could result.  People could easily drown, or be run over by the ships in the channel.  It seems like a lunatic proposition.
          Equally daft, of course, was his other idea, that a million people should march on Edinburgh.  There were mutterings from the city council that it would be impossible for Edinburgh to accommodate a million marchers, and there were fears of rioting, of all kinds of insanity.  Even Midge Ure who was Bob’s partner in the original Live Aid said that Bob doesn’t think before he speaks, that he must have been speaking metaphorically.  ‘Bob could have called for a billion people to march,’ he said, implying that we shouldn’t really take Bob seriously, that Bob is impulsive and not very sensible.
          Of course our governments think that way too.  They don’t think Bob is realistic, or sensible or even serious about what he says, even though they pretend to be very impressed.  Governments are not paid to be passionate, they are paid to be sensible.  It is possible for passionate people to get into politics and it has happened in the past, but as everyone knows, the reality of trying to please everyone, in order to stay in government is usually enough to dampen even the most fervent ardour.  Those of us who watch ‘The West Wing’ are aware that it is not the elected governments, but rather the civil servants who run the country.  Politicians can have big ideals about ending world hunger, but civil servants will soon tell them all the reasons why such a thing will not be possible.  And schemes that start out as great ideas end up buried under mountains of bureaucracy.  Such is the nature of democracy.
          According to the UN, three million children will die in the poorest countries of sub-Saharan Africa, as a result of the failure of the global community to meet it’s promises of slashing the death rates of under fives by 2015.  That is equivalent to twice the combined under-five population of New York, London and Tokyo.  You can imagine what would happen if all the children under five in those cities were to die of hunger.  There would be riots.
It’s easy to blame the governments and the system for things like this.  But I suspect that many of us, if we were in government, would handle things with the same caution and rectitude as Bush is exhibiting.  Because even though we are not starving, we like to be sure that we have enough for ourselves, before we think about giving anything away.  Even if that means we buy a new car before we save the life of a starving child.  Even if we are aware that during the famine in this country, lives could have been saved if governments and individuals had not decided that money should be spent on other things.
There is hope, however.  If enough people decide that enough is enough, a revolution always comes.  And with revolution comes revolutionaries like Sir Bob.  People who follow their hearts and not their heads.  People who are prepared to take risks and do unrealistic things.  When Ireland won her independence it was not because of sensible people, it was because of people who were willing to take risks and demand the impossible.  When 385,000 Allied troops were rescued from France in World War Two, it was not because people worried about whether it was a good idea to try to cross the channel in small boats. 
There can be no greater cause than the alleviation of human misery on the scale that is happening in Africa. And when the need is great enough, courage is necessary to make the necessary changes.  Courage comes from the heart and not from the head.  And courage is necessary to stand up and speak your mind, to try to do something about it.  Courage is necessary in government, also.  The courage to stop presenting reasons why something can’t be done and to find a way that something can be done.