Pandit Ravi Shankar and the concert for Sandy relief
December 14, 2012  13:38
David Hajdu writes in the New Republic on how Pandit Ravi Shankar paved the way for the Concert Sandy relief, which was held at Madison Square Garden a day after the sitar maestro's death.

'It is just a coincidence that the Concert for Sandy Relief, the gargantuan spawn of the Concert for Bangladesh, was staged the day after Shankar's death. The cause was worthy, even if other causes could also benefit from the mobilization of so much talent. There is no reason to doubt the good intentions of any of the stars whose played,' he writes here

But, the event's failing, he notes, as obvious and inexplicable: its fixation on old white men, many of them from England. There was something unsettling in the message -- inadvertent, no doubt, but real nonetheless'"that, in the face of crisis, relief should come from old, white men.
« Back to LIVE

TOP STORIES