For the second year running, the Belgian version of Triple J has very successfully run a christmas campaign (music for life) where three of the most popular DJs present all the shifts for 24 hours a day, 6 days running, without food (living on a staple diet of brown juice...) in a glass house in Leuven only playing requests. The catch is that all requests must be paid for with every single cent raised going towards a particular charity (involved with the red cross). Last year, they raised over a million euro with the government generously doubling this figure to help destroy the remaining landmines and treat the victims. This year, the Belgian's raised 2,5 million euro (with another million from the government) to aid in providing clean drinking water to the poorer countries. The whole "music for life" campaign began in the Netherlands in 2005, last year including Belgium, this year, with Belgium, The Netherlands and Switzerland, and next year, three new countries are going to join in. I was completely blown away as to how much people will do to help! Every song I heard on the radio was at least worth €50, but on top of requests, there was also the opportunity to bid on ebay for a lunch/dinner with a celebrity. We almost managed to go along with Annemie and Hans (they were bidding their paycheque away!) but were just outbid in the last 10 seconds! (The lunch went for over €500 mind you!).
It was just amazing the way the country stopped to listen to the radio 24/7! I know it is such a shocking indication of how rich we really are if we can afford to donate over €3 million in less than a week, but in the spirit of christmas, it is truly a much better feeling than the instant rush of opening a present of your own!
