Dr. IrwinRedlenerMD, who worked with Harry Belafonte on USA for Africa, recalls the singer's bright personality and profound conviction for bettering the world.
I went with Harry and a few other people from the organization to Ethiopia, where we visited these remote villages that had been overtaken by drought and famine. Harry’s ability to relate to people in every conceivable circumstance was remarkable. I’m a pediatrician, and I’ve been working my entire life with populations in adversity, so I’m not a stranger to interacting with people who are suffering from adversity. But Harry was such a natural communicator.
In the last couple days of our trip, we flew by helicopter to a remote village in northern Ethiopia to witness the UK’s Royal Air Force make a drop of these 50-pound sacks of grain in a field. In the briefing beforehand, the RAF told us that these bags were designed to break open when they hit the ground so that nobody could take a full 50 pounds’ worth; people would take a portion for themselves and their families.
When we left Ethiopia to go home, we stopped in Nairobi and visited one of the major TV broadcast studios, which said there were camera crews from NBC, CBS, and ABC there. They said, “Would you like to see the coverage from the three networks that were at the event where the grain was dropped?” And we said, “Sure.” So Harry and I are sitting there, and the three networks covered the story dramatically differently. One network reported what happened accurately.
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