Then one Saturday morning I read an article in the New York Times (1-16-09) by Bob Herbert entitled "Zimbabwe Is Dying". I stopped what I was doing and wrote this press release.
Here's the gist of Bob Herbert's article...
Zimbabwe, once considered the breadbasket
Life expectancy in Zimbabwe is the lowest in the world: 37 years for men and 34 for women. A cholera epidemic is raging. People have become ill with anthrax after eating the decaying flesh of animals that had died from the disease.
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 same Physicians for Human Rights reported that "the hospital had no running water since August of 2008. Toilets were overflowing, and patients and staff had nowhere to void soon making the hospital uninhabitable. Parirenyatwa Hospital was closed four months into the cholera epidemic, arguably the worst of all possible times to have shut down public hospital access. Successful cholera care, treatment and control are impossible, however, in a facility without clean water and functioning toilets."
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,"
On the other side of the world and with the collapse of record labels, I have developed a direct to consumer on-line Pop Music downloading sales model. I pledge to donate 50% of net proceeds of download sales from “The Autobiography of Mick Star” to Doctors Without Borders to assist humanitarian relief efforts in Zimbabwe.
Here's the gist of my on-line music marketing model...
* On-line sales of $0.99 at iTunes yield a $0.70 pre-tax earning for a record label.
* The record labels, on average, returns $0.15 to the artist.
* On-line distributors like Tunecore work directly with the singer/songwriter or band and eliminates the need for a record label.
* MP3 files get uploaded directly to on-line outlets (iTunes) and profits comes directly to the artist at $0.70 not $0.15.
* By pledging 50% of net profit to Doctors Without Borders, an artist will a difference in Zimbabwe.
* If one artist embraces this on-line marketing model, it's an interesting story.
* If artists collaborate worldwide and embrace this on-line marketing model, Doctors Without Borders and their humanitarian efforts in Zimbabwe will succeed.
It is as easy as it seems. Read Bob Herbert's article "Zimbabwe Is Dying" (New York Times 1-16-09) and if you're an singer/songwriter or band and you're not yet contractually bound to a record label, check out Tunecore.
Drop me an email at mickstar09@gmail.com and let me know your thoughts.
---Mick Star
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org
http://www.myspace.com/
http://mickeystar.com
