During Maná’s concerts Tuesday and Wednesday there will be much singing about the poor and downtrodden.
The Mexican rockers have become millionaires with lyrics about socio-political topics such as Mexican immigrants (“Pobre Juan”) and the rights of Mexico’s indigenous people (“Justicia, Tierra Y Libertad”).
You can tell those Maná guys are on the side of social justice: they’ve got a red star right in their logo.
The only problem is that the poor and downtrodden won’t be there to hear it.
Tickets to the concerts are priced at $68 to $118 plus $12.95 in “convenience” charges per ticket.
That’s a lot more than Pobre Juan or anybody else who is poor can afford.
I will give Maná credit, the band members do walk the walk.
In 1995, Maná founded Selva Negra (Black Jungle), a non-profit foundation intended to protect several hundred miles of Pacific coastline in Mexico.
The foundation has also funded schooling for the indigenous people of Chiapas, provided food to communities in need, and supported organizations such as Greenpeace and Amnesty International.
Maybe it’s that red star and what it symbolizes to me. In that red star I see the frozen millions of dead in the gulags of the Soviet Union. The rotting stench of the killing fields in Cambodia. The Chinese slave labor that makes the products in our discount stores.
One of the men I admire most in this world spoke up in Cuba. The people of the red star threw him in prison for a year.
To use the red star as some sort of fashion statement on a $30 concert shirt smacks of poor taste on an unimaginable level. What’s next? Ku Klux Klan T-shirts?
But irony runs rampant in our world. Rock bands play a concert to save the planet and then have their food flown in from Los Angeles by private jet.
A huge corporation once hired me to photograph an event. They had donated $10,000 to a school.
To mark the donation, they erected a huge tent, invited a couple of hundred people, flew in five publicists from San Antonio plus others from corporate headquarters, rented cars, brought in the executives and fed everybody barbecue.
After the check passing, full-page ads appeared in local papers.
By the time it was all done, the corporation probably spent $40,000-$50,000 tooting its own horn about a $10,000 donation.
Of course, I cashed my check, too. As Michael Corleone says in “The Godfather Part II:” “Senator, we’re all a part of the same hypocrisy.”
I claim to be concerned about the planet. But I do like to take long showers and that wastes a lot of water.
Maybe I should follow the example of actress Angie Dickinson.
She has figured out many ways to save water around the house. It’s not that she can’t afford it. But why waste a precious natural resource?
Some of her methods were quite clever.
Before we get in the shower, must of us just let the cold water run down the drain. Angie puts that water in a bucket and uses it to water her garden.
I guess the first thing I need is a garden.
