#BringBackOurGirls Subterranean Homesick Blues

As soon as I saw Michelle Obama (raises pressure over kidnapped schoolgirls via The Guardian) holding up the sign #BringBackOurGirls, I thought, “Oh shit, there’s another opportunity for some clever dick to change the heartfelt message.” – It didn’t take long! Then there were all those fucking celebrities who jumped on the bandwagon hoping for a few thousand ReTweets.

Malala Yousafzai #BringBackOurGirls

Malala Yousafzai says the world must not stay silent over the abduction of the Nigerian schoolgirls.

I’d like to think that some of them were actually genuine. I trust Malala’s was. I’ve quite a strong feeling that David Cameron’s was too, as I watched the Andrew Marr Show where he ‘did it’ – maybe it was ‘planned?’

David Cameron and Christiane Amanpour supporting Bring Back Our Girls #BringBackOurGirls
David Cameron and CNN’s Christiane Amanpour with the Twitter campaign’s hashtag #BringBackOurGirls

I’ve a strong feeling that Twitter hashtag campaigns are not a real measure of public feeling – once the celebrities start Tweeting their hashtagged selfies, there is a lot of sycophantic action from their hoards of followers, who are desperate to connect with their idols! However, I think it’s the nearest we are going to get to knowing the size of world opinion.

The massive outpouring of world feeling for these abducted Nigerian girls on the social networks, is akin to prayer – ultimately useless I’m affraid. What we really need to do is sort out extremist religion and corruption in world politics.

koo bring back our girls

Koo, my lovely wife, made this cross stitch #BringBackOurGirls banner

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