The Express, Mail and Sun have been using British funding of an enterprising girl band in Ethiopia as a stick with which to beat the government over our overseas aid budget. They now have had their way. Not that I disagree that the money involved seems excessive, but the affair is a distraction from the real scandal of the International Development department (DfID). Too much money is going to projects which favour Western contractors and financial manipulators. The results often leave local people worse off than before. Private Eye, which has long campaigned on the subject, will no doubt have something to say on the matter in its next issue.
In the meantime, one trusts that some commercial organisation picks up the baton dropped by the DfID. What these young women are doing is clearly worthwhile and it seems a perfect fit with the Western music industry.
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