London, Feb 5 (ANI): Rastafarian poet Benjamin Zephaniah has accused pop stars of using the Haiti earthquake to boost their careers.
"I know a lot of these people, they talk to their managers and say 'is it worthwhile; is it a good career move for me?'" the Telegraph quoted him as saying, at the Concert for Haiti at Congress House, the TUC's headquarters, in London.
He continued: "They obviously raise money and so one can say that it is a bit of good, and you can't ignore a bit of good, but why didn't they do one for China?
"I come from a time in the Eighties where lots of artists were political and they didn't mind standing up and being counted. Now that kind of activity is being replaced by charities and Red Nose days."
The 51-year-old Zephaniah, who declined an Order of the British Empire (OBE), added: "They call you a militant for being political and they think they are going to change the world by doing Comedy Relief [sic].
"I have nothing against those people - well I have, but I don't think we should get rid of them, they do something - but when I talk about stopping the problem in the first place, then I'm called a militant.
"To talk to journalists and stand in front of people and articulate what we are doing there and why you think it is important or whatever can be very difficult for some pop stars who can hardly string a sentence together, to mention no names."
Simon Cowell had organised a charity single, Everybody Hurts, for the victims of the quake-ravaged nation, after a personal plea from Gordon Brown. (ANI)
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