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In 2002, Coldplay’s Chris Martin went to Haiti. What he saw there — proud-yet-poor people facing overwhelming odds — has remained with him ever since. And it’s made watching the footage streaming out of the earthquake-ravaged nation over the past few days even more difficult.
“I went there to do a project with Fair Trade, so I was on about 15 farms in Haiti, and Port-au-Prince, these places you’re seeing on the news,” Martin said. “Sometimes when you see things like this on the news, there’s an easy disconnect, because you think ‘Well, I’ve never been there, I’m never going there, someone else will sort it out.’ But when you’ve been there, it’s a little bit more real.”
So, when the organizers of tonight’s “Hope for Haiti Now” telethon reached out to Martin and his Coldplay mates, they were more than ready to help out.
“When something that terrible and tragic happens, you have to play to your strengths, to do anything you can to help,” Martin said. “We’re useless on the ground, as it were. So the best thing we can do is what we do. It’s the same as if you’re a shop assistant: you go on the Internet and donate. Everyone’s got their small part to play on this.” Read full article.
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