Midnight Oil protests in front of Exxon 20 years ago! Where's a Midnight Oil for today?

[cascadiance]

Run time: 05:17 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDTmjQirNcA   Posted on YouTube: April 05, 2008 By YouTube Member: ngenet Views on YouTube: 49624   Posted on DU: July 11, 2010 By DU Member: cascadiance Views on DU: 453

 
20 years ago in May, current Australian environment minister and then lead singer for Midnight Oil and his band put together a "guerilla action" concert in front of Exxon's building in New York to protest the Exxon Valdez oil spill then. "Black rain falls"... They NAILED how we're being poisoned by Corexant rain by BP today! And we haven't learned anything in 20 years! We need more dedicated people like Garrett and company today!

For a longer version of the video here and a description of what happened then, go here...



http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2010/05/28/midnight-oil-exxon-video-black-rain-falls/

Has another great and relevant song in addition to this one to this event ("Blue Sky Mine").

We need the tape of that VHS concert reissued on DVD today!

[depakid]

1. Here's where the frontman for Midnight oil is:

http://www.petergarrett.com.au/

[gateley]

2. He sure walks his talk -- what a wonderful person! nt

[depakid]

4. Yep- bit more on the Minister of Environment Protection, Heritage and Arts here:

http://www.environment.gov.au/minister/garrett/index.html

[gateley]

7. He came into my coffee shop when Midnight Oil played in Seattle in the 90's.

Really nice guy!

[XemaSab]

3. I was just heading in this direction to post this

Awesome. :D

[Dogmudgeon]

5. Keith. Rachel. Maybe a few others.

The "music-can-change-the-world" meme is dead. It was always a fantasy, anyway.

I have nothing against Garrett, and what he tried to do, or any other musician who tried to tie song to politics. Like most people, I admire them. But depending on the music biz to change anything is like depending on BP's wind turbine commercials to deliver renewable energy.

It just means we have to try new things.

--d!

[cascadiance]

6. The music industry gets in the way of activist artists' success today moreso than then...

Do you think a song like Edwin Starr's "War" would be allowed to be made popular today?

We need to find ways to help musicians be heard and resonate messages like this. Music was a big factor in helping build the culture to end the Vietnam war. That element's not being allowed by corporate America to end the current wars we have now too.

We need some way to fight through this. I don't know if today in front of BP that someone like Garrett and company would be blasted with a sound cannon, tear gas, and tasers when the cops look like they looked the other way then 20 years ago. We need some way to fight through that.

[MannyGoldstein]

8. I'm not sure that "War" would even be allowed on DU.

Based on the recent invective and other actions against those who call out bad "Democratic" policies.

[cascadiance]

9. Did Peter Garrett warn us about global warming 20 years ago?!!!

Just was listening to the long clip on the linked page. Go to 38:43 in that segment and listen to the interview segment there...

Peter Garrett: ... Let's make the words mean something! If we care for the earth let's make it mean something! Not simply be propaganda! Not simple be a way of getting a politician elected! Energy conservation! Real energy conservation! And national energy policy and international energy policies which mean that you don't have the ships going out in those conditions! Where's the double hull ship? Where is it? Where's the ability to clean up a spill like this? It doesn't exist! Whatever scientists of one kind and one side might say, where's the complete reorientation of the way we use energy? Where is the, where is the commitment in the budget in any of the western countries for energy efficiency in your own D.O.E.? It's one percent! Where's the commitment to public transit? We can't all drive motorcars! Can a billion Chinese people drive Chevy's and BMW's around China? I mean can they all do it in Australia? We can't! THE WORLD IS HEATING UP! Where is the commitment to these scientific realities of an ecological catastrophe? This is what has to happen! This is what has to happen fast!