Last night's Oprah in Africa on ABC was pretty good, despite being hosted by the agita-inducing Diane Sawyer. And despite the People Magazine-style approach to the issue of slow, hopeless AIDS death. ("Coming up next: A little girl who changes Oprah's life forever!")
Diane and Oprah sat in a holiday-bedecked set and talked about how Oprah realized what a twit she was for worrying about remaking her kitchen when at the same time there was an AIDS holocaust rolling across other parts of the world. So the mighty Oprah--in terms of recognizability, America's #2 billionaire--decided to start buying truckloads of gifts for African kids. (Not Zambian or Ethiopian or South African, but "African." That's how it seems all Americans, Johnnyblog included, seem to approach the issue at first.)
So her and a couple dozen Harpofolk tote their tons of stuff down to a rural part of South Africa. (The country was only mentioned once, and no map was ever shown.) She dispenses toys and clothing, conveniently cries in front of the camera, and--best part: conflict!--slaps down Sawyer when Sawyer tries to argue that victims of poverty in the US and poverty in Africa face similar hardships. By the end of the show, Oprah has created a foundation, guaranteed teacher's wages in one part of the country, and resumed remodeling her kitchen.
It was a good bit of soft journalism. Should it mean anything to hard journalists? Possibilities:
Oprah, Bill "#1 billionaire" Gates, and Bono could easily become some kind of Aqua Teen Hunger Force of celebrity guilt. [Really necessary to make Adult Swim references when talking about the AIDS holocaust?--ed. Yep! Just like Oprah crying on camera, or all those idiotic 80's synth-pop stars singing "And there won't be snow in Africa this Christmas," elitist pop culture referencingon the Johnnyblog, while offputting to many, may help spread the word about the millions in need. To at least a dozen people! Viva la bloogervucion!--ed.]
So could the ATHF--Oprah as Master Shake, Gates as Frylock, Bono as the ineffectual but beloved Meatwad--create some grand synergizing force for high-profile billionaire do-gooding in the very near future? Somewhere in America, there must be some really rich people talking about it. Could said super-do-gooding be marekted as a challenge to Bush's $15 billion AIDS-in-Africa plan? Very possible. Fundraisers need angles, and all that Live Aid/Farm Aid/Comic Relief charity/dreck came out when Thatcher and Reagan were running things.
Or I could be completely wrong. America's really really rich may be so filthy stinking godly wealthy at this point (and so egotistical) that it's not worth the hassle trying to get them all to cooperate. A Gates or an Oprah really can just take create a small fiefdom of relief, and set about controlling it in their own peculiar CEO ways.
Or maybe its the ATHF allusion that's taken me astray. Better allusions: The A-Team? Young Guns? Predator?
