Yesterday (4/5/14) Rihanna launched her Rouge perfume in Paris, France
without incident. Today she held her much hyped press conference at the
Hard Rock Cafe in Paris to reveal the big secret.
It turns out that secret is that Rihanna has donated some of her clothes
(not ones she's designed) to the Hard Rock Cafe so they can sell them
in aid of the Clara Lionel Foundation which helps children affected by
blood cancer (Leukaemia). However, as always with Rihanna, the exact
work of this foundation seems poorly defined. So I would say that
Rihanna's CIA handlers have gone so small on this it was simply an
excuse for Rihanna to appear at the Hard Rock Cafe in Paris so food
could be used as an example of that Winter Olympic theme of European
high culture versus American low culture.
Of course along with the release of Chris Brown from prison by again
associating Rihanna with charity her handlers were also trying to signal
that they intended to press ahead with their plan to force Rihanna into
a marriage to Chris Brown. The pair will then be used to exert pressure
on developing nations through low profit tours and charity visits. The
idea being to provoke an aggressive backlash particularly from me. As
such I feel I should point out that unless Rihanna is prepared to make
some effort of her own what I can achieve is extremely limited meaning
that I am starting to view her as a lost cause. It is obviously
difficult to become passionate about a lost cause.
The US was also hoping that this backlash would allow the UK to position
itself in the role of good cop by leading the objections to the US'
plans for Rihanna. Displaying wonderful prior knowledge the UK yesterday
put that plan into motion with the announcement that one baby has died
and 14 others have been made seriously ill by poisoned nutrient (food)
IV drips. The intended subtext being that Rihanna is being poisoned by
the poor quality food that is being provided by Chris Brown who is
hardly an impressive example of masculinity - a "bit of a drip" in
slang. It must be said though that to me that only serves to highlight
how skewed the UK's world view is because it's rare that baby killers
are viewed as the good guys.
The issue of charity is intended to heap pressure on the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change's (UNFCCC) June meeting because
it is extremely close to the issue of climate finance which divides
developed and developing nations. What the developing nations primarily
want is money that they can spend how they like. Failing that they want
technology transfers which involves things likes patents being waived
bringing down the cost of new technology and technical experts being
provided so they can make the best use of new methods. What they often
end up with though are rather twee programs that see "educators" from
developed nations travel to developing nations to train local people in
things like eco-driving techniques. Although these sort of programs
aren't completely without value they fall far short of what is required
and often seem more beneficial to the donor nation then the recipient
nation.
Following things like the "Bring Back Our Girls" campaign in Nigeria
there is a growing concern that these type of programs - particularly
ones linked to gender or gay-rights issues - are actually being used by
the developed world to destabilise the developing world. Obviously by
linking Rihanna to charity work within the context of the Winter
Olympics where soft-power and covert efforts to overthrown governments
were major themes is intended to exacerbate those fears and increase the
divisions between the developed and developing nations in the area of
climate finance. The fact that Leukaemia is a blood born disease makes
it a very easy euphemism for HIV/AIDS which has in the past frequently
got tangled up in UNFCCC's discussions particularly on the REDD+
program.
Finally it makes it very easy to make fun of Rihanna because many people
would describe the Council of Fashion Designers of America's (CFDA)
recent decision to bestow an Icon award on Rihanna as an act of charity
by the fashion industry. Also this is not the first time that Rihanna
has involved herself in charitable efforts to address childhood
leukaemia. Back in 2008 she took on the cause of Jasmina Anema - a 6
year old girl with the disease - appealing for a bone marrow donor and
setting up a charitable foundation in her name. However after the
publicity faded Rihanna appeared to dramatically lose interest with the
foundation seeming to undertake absolutely no work and Rihanna and not
even bothering to offer her condolences to the Anema family following
Jasmina's death in 2010.
(Originally Posted) 13:15 on 5/6/14 (UK date).
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