Volunteering for Rihanna

June 3, 2010 - 7:33 AM by

Rihanna performing in Tel Aviv

The day before I attended the Mashina concert earlier this week, my 16-year-old daughter was rocking out to international pop sensation Rihanna who had come to Israel for a massive performance in Tel Aviv.

The very fact that Rihanna stuck with her schedule to play in Israel – unlike Elvis Costello who canceled his tour in order to support the misguided boycott of Israel – grants at least a small degree of validation to our place as a country not defined entirely by politics.

Rihanna went one step further than just performing: she made entry dependent on concert-goers doing volunteer work to serve Israel’s underprivileged sectors. It was impossible to buy a ticket; the only way in was to give four hours of your time.

Merav and three of her friends spent a sunny afternoon gardening and painting the courtyard of a high school that helps kids who are on the verge of dropping out. At the end of the volunteer work, Merav received a ticket and a t-shirt. And then she was off.

The program was sponsored by RockCorps and the cell phone provider Orange. RockCorps has put on concerts in the U.K. and France as well as in Israel and, says its website, has “inspired more than 60,000 volunteers to give back with more than…450 charity and non-profit partners.” In Israel, participants logged over 54,000 hours.

The entire system was highly computerized and way Web 2.0, with pictures from the volunteer work being tagged and immediately posted online from the wireless laptops of the Orange staff at each worksite.

And the concert? “Amazing,” Merav reported. How could it be otherwise with 15,000 mostly teenage girls (there were a few boys, Merav added) jumping and screaming on a warm night at Tel Aviv’s Bloomfield Stadium.

Kol HaKavod (good job) to Rihanna for bringing out the giving side in Israelis while providing our teenagers with a tangible reward for good deeds.

Tags: , , , • Category: Environment, Israeliness, Pop Culture 

Comments

One Comment on Volunteering for Rihanna

  1. David-Joe on Fri, Jun 4th 2010 2:32 AM

    2. Yes, in this world of double standards aimed at Israel because of the usual
    reason – that of anti-semitism – it is good that this singer stands on proper principle, however, it is contradicted by her dictate that tickets to her concert not be available based on justice but injustice.

    It is not just to command servitude over productivity. By all means, she does have the right to decide whether she wants to sing in Israel or anywhere else, but this does not extend to her manipulation of people that desire to attend.

    And for those not able to afford a ticket – maybe some sort of “in kind” arrangement is valid.

    She was wrong to do it this way.

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