MIA takes on News At Ten

As if the two news programmes going head-to-head wasn't enough, MIA is also squaring up in the battle of current affairs television, turning up on Canadian TV's 4Real series exploring Liberia today.

Or, more accurately, Liberia 12 months ago - as that's when she went, blogging quite extensively about it at the time:

I BOUGHT T SHIRTS OFF THE STREET BOYS BACK, WHICH DIDNT GO DOWN WELL WITH ANYONE I WAS WITH, EVERYONE LOOKED AT ME LIKE I WAS ROBBIN THE SHIRTS OFF THE BACKS OF THE POOR THAT WAS SOOOOOOO DISGUSTING HOW COULD I EVEN THINK OF THAT? , I DID OFFER LIKE WEEKLY PAY FOR SOMETHING THE BOYS GOT FREE FROM THE SACKS CHARITY CLOTHES DROPED ON THEIR HEADS.

Hmm. It's not the most obvious approach to charity work - and there does seem something a little arrogant about buying clothes from the poor and then shrugging "they got them for free in the first place". It's not quite as bad as those people who roll the shoebanks down hills to get their hands on free winklepickers, but it's getting there. If the idea is to give people the cash, then give them the cash. Otherwise, it's just 'rich person making the poor people strip for cash'.