Here's the gist of Bob Herbert's article...
Zimbabwe, once considered the breadbasket
The collapse of Zimbabwe's health system in 2008 is unprecedented in scale and scope. Public-sector hospitals have been closed since November 2008. The basic infrastructure for the maintenance of public health, particularly water and sanitation services, have abruptly deteriorated in the worsening political and economic climate.
A Physicians for Human Rights report quoted the director of a mission hospital:
" A major problem is the loss of life and fetal wastage we are seeing with obstetric patients. They come so late, the fetuses are already dead. We see women with eclampsia who have been seizing for 12 hours. There is no intensive care unit here, and now there is no intensive care in Harare. If we had intensive care, we know it would be immediately full of critically ill patients. As it is, they just die. "
In November, the primary public referral hospital in Harare, Parirenyatwa Hospital, shut down. Its medical school closed with it. Doctors and nurses are trying to do what they can under the most harrowing of circumstances:
The hospital's surgical wards were closed in September. A doctor described the heartbreaking dilemma of having children in his care who he knew would die without surgery. "I have no pain medication,"
With Collapse of Record Industry Market Model, I believe a Direct to Consumer on-line sales model approach could work to raise money for this very worthy undertaking by Doctors Without Borders to assist humanitarian relief efforts in Zimbabwe .
My new direct to consumer on-line sales model works this way...
In my new pop-music marketing model, I take advantage of inexpensive and easily accessible digital recording studios and recent online pop-music marketing innovations to replace the record label in the production and distribution of pop songs. My model faces a formidable task in marketing pop songs in an industry that is already saturated with marketable pop songs. And that brings me to the new wrinkle in my pop music marketing model… by pledging to donate 50 % of the net sales revenue (approximately $0.42 on a $0.99 sale) to Doctors Without Borders, my pop-music marketing model addresses the marketing aspect of the pop song success equation in an original way. By co-branding with the Doctors Without Borders, I pay for marketing by sharing revenue the record companies used to take and help the Doctors Without Borders to assist humanitarian relief efforts in Zimbabwe .
About Mick Star:
• Pop Song Performer – I am Mick Star (my pen name) and I am a youthful 55 year old singer songwriter who has been writing songs since 1976. I teamed up with Jo-Jo Stout (musician/producer)
• Producer – Jo-Jo Stout (musician/producer)
• Marketing – I am reaching out to the Media to collaborate with me by mentoring this project. This project benefits the Doctors Without Borders to assist humanitarian relief efforts in Zimbabwe. And the template of this pop-music marketing project holds potential that is easy to visualize.
o Many causes (like Doctors Without Borders' humanitarian relief efforts in Zimbabwe) are worthy causes with high visibility co-branding potential for creative artists like me.
o I love to create pop songs. Doctors Without Borders gets 50% of net revenue.
o This model is simple and easy to duplicate anywhere anytime.
• Distribution – I use http://www.tunecore.com to bring "The Autobiography of Mick Star" to online market. It’s a great service that gets my mp3 files posted on iTunes, Amazon.com and Rhaposdy.com for as nominal fee. They also do the accounting for me that can be shared and audited by Doctors Without Borders. Tunecore is transparent. Visit their site and see for yourself.
I am looking for the members of the media to collaborate with me to spread the word about Doctors Without Borders and this new way to successfully market pop music with the hopes that
• We’ll be able to sell music and raise monies to help Doctors Without Borders.
• By publicizing our successes, we’ll be able to encourage and enable other artists like me to use this model as a template to raise money for other worthy causes and charities.
Thanks,
MickStar@comcast.net
or
BigNote@comcast.net
