From our friendly Labour Councillor Bob Piper...
I don't know whether this is true... but someone told it to me at the weekend and it made me laugh. Bono is at a U2 concert when he asks the audience for some quiet. Then in the silence, he starts to slowly clap his hands. Holding the audience in total silence, he says into the microphone... "Every time I clap my hands, a child in Africa dies." A voice from near the front pierces the silence... "Well, f***ing stop it then!"
Class. I can't stand Bono, or his music, or his poncey glasses.
29 comments:
Boner and his ilk should be ignored. But the problem is that politicians queue up to stand next to Boner in the hope that a little of the showbiz gold dust rubs off. I pray that Cameron is not so foolish. But his gatecrashing of so-called Posh n'Becks recent party does not auger well.
Ugh, Bono is such a snivelling little creep.
I shall never forgive Ireland for giving us Bono, Feargal Keane and Orla Guerin - three weeping widows - just sickmaking.
Pointing out that people are dieing in Africa is one thing that should be pointed out often, by anyone that chooses to. However not understanding the real reasons why, and spending all your emotional power over your audience on wrong unworkable solutions which only make the situation worse, is quite unforgivable. In fact it is as evil as the problem itself.
Al-Beeb just loves Bono.It always makes such a huge fuss of him. Why would that be, I wonder?
I don't even know who Bono is, and already I can't stand him. Another Irish saviour?
Gary Powell, I seldom disagree with you because you usually speak sense, but I honestly don't think we should be pointing out that people are dying in Africa. This is an African problem and they have been encouraged into a childish dependence.
How is it the entire, vast continent of S America doesn't, in the main, have people dying of starvation? Or the Inuit in the bitter north of N America? How is it it's always the Africans, who live in an unbelievably rich, fertile continent, who are starving?
Read PJ O'Rourke on this, chaps and chapesses. "Eat The Rich" is a mind-bender.
Another hypocritical left wing artiste( who pays very little tax). I remember walking out of a concert at Wembley when he stopped the music to talk to someone currently being bombed in Sarajevo.
God save us from well meaning socialists who couldn't run a whelk stall !
I can see why people are irritated by him, but at least he is out there trying to use his fame to highlight the problems Africa has and that should be applauded!
ahh bono the tax dodging whining git
remember rattle and hum ? more prattle from scum .if him and geldof had a child it would be steven byers!
It all went wrong musically after Achtung Baby really. Bono was always a bit of a prick, but ever since Zoo TV he truly went up his own arse in a way that makes Elton John look like a mere trainee prima dona
Bono, like other self obsessed do-gooders, is jerking himself off at the expense of the poor starving Africans. Aid is the problem. It promotes corruption, arms trade, genocide, starvation and supports dictatorships. White man should stay away with his $ and photo-ops. But no. Speaking for the poor makes the likes of Bono/Geldoff and others feel good and offers them redemption from their own vacuous moronic lives. Shut the fuck up you idiots. Only Africans can sort out the mess that is Africa.
Paul do you not think these so called role models should lead by example?
For instance that drop the debt thing he was so insistant on was of course in essence funded by us the tax payer.
You would think, that since he feels so strongly about he would be the first to reach into his deep deep pockets and contribute towards this poverty reduction he believes so passionately in.
Yet what do we find?
That he and his accounting gnomes have squirreled most of his business empire away into a tax haven. So he can actually contribute less toward this debt we should be happy to write off. No wonder he and St.Toné get on so well. Cut as they are from the same cloth of "as I say, not as I do".
The warbling Irish troll is a bit keen on himself. So we should treat him with disdain. Apparently he does not like being called Bongo.
So, Bongo it is.
paul burgin "Trying to use his fame to blah blah blah?" Or trying to elevate himself above plan vanilla pop stars who just sing and put on a performance for the folks who bought tickets?
I find the egos of these pop saviours grotesque.
All aid, save medicines for children, should cease forthwith. They have the most fertile continent in the world, they have diamonds, they have gold, they have loads of other minerals other countries want to buy. Let them get on with making their own way in the world, given the enormous advantage that nature has already given them, or die surrounded by plenty. I have no sympathy with them and no empathy for the tens of thousands of people who have made an industry of cultivating fecklessness in Africans.
Their choice.
I remember collecting money for African children when I was 5 years old by walking round the streets of Newcastle with my mother. Forty years later I still sponsor children living in African villages.
From my point of view it is such a turn off when celebrities like Bono / Geldof get involved along with their egos. My immediate reaction is that they must have an album to sell,a book to plug or their careers have nose dived. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth watching them use the Continent of Africa as a marketing tool.
I also object to being called a right wing tosser because of my distaste for a tax avoiding, pretentious git who charges a king's ransom for his concerts and then preaches to a captive audience who have come to be entertained and have to listen to his drivel dressed up as a sermon.
Tonbridgeblog your point seems valid when viewed from Tonbridge. I have travelled, lived and worked in Africa. I am involved in micro projects. I commit funds and time. I have observed closely. Institutional aid corrupts. $400bn since 1960. Show me evidence of this investment. Where are the dams and roads and schools and factories and plantations? Where is genocide, wars, starvation dictatorship. All around the continent. Africans will get the rulers they deserve when we get the hell out of their lives.
tonbridge blog - Well, that makes me a right wing tosser. So what?
They live on the richest continent on planet Earth. They've had $400bn in aid. And they're still starving or still without clean water or still without ... whatever. Time they showed some initiative and solved their problems.
I would say free medicines for children up to age 18 because none of this is their fault. But they minute they hit 18, they'd better become part of the solution because in the West, we're fresh out of answers and money for them.
Check out http://www.myspace.com/bonomustdie
Ace indie rave outfit.
As far as I'm concerned the only aid programme that worked was Marshal aid to Europe 1948? to 1951.
-Not mentioned much these days in our anti-American media.
Anyway the aid worked because it WASN'T cash - it was in the form of capital goods, normally second hand, delivered to Europe from the USA (eg old railway locos).
The capital goods benefited the local economy even if, say, the MAFIA got hold of them because to make money out of them they had to put them to work locally.
Ironically, under current GATT rules, governments are not allowed to send anything other than cash(/credit).But as we all know, send cash and it ends up in Zurich.
Charities CAN and do send goods, but its normally something destructive to the local economy; free food or - like my local Church - 2nd hand clothes delivered to Sri Lanka - free clothes flooding in are not the best thing to help the local (buoyant) textile industry.
Free anything stimulates a dependency culture. (Try explaining this without sounding like a born-again fascist)
tone_made_me_do_it - Interesting post, but I think we are way past sending anything, including money, to Africa. A vast, fertile, unimaginably rich continent should be sending money to the Eskimos and the folks living in Tierra del Fuego. Instead, they can't support themselves. If they can't manage with fertile soil, gold, diamonds, oil and other minerals, I despair.
Let's withdraw all aid (except medicines for children) forthwith. Let them sink or let them swim. Their choice. (At the same time, we have to get rid of these wicked import tariffs and laws; let them try their luck exporting to Europe and Britain!)
Ease (by which I mean eliminate) the trade barriers - meaning they have unbelievably fertile soil, gold, diamonds, oil and other minerals plus FREE TRADE with Europe and hopefully everywhere else.
If they cannot ride this wave, we have to consider if we need them as passengers into infinity. (Personal view: I think they can do it. Trade is trade and humans excel at it. Get rid of the barriers; get rid of the international aid and let it rip. But no safety net.)
There is a lot of nonsense being spoken here by people who like me, are on the right of centre. It saddnes me that this allows the left to act morally superior, and to protray itself as having the monopoly on compassion.
We might not like Bono, or his 'preachyness', but that doesn't mean he isn't right! We might regard Africa as a basket case (which actually, it mostly no longer is), but that doesn't excuse us of our obligation to the children of Africa who are dying as a result of our actions - and before I get screamed at, it is our actions.
Our (America/EU) trade policies ensure unfair advanatages to domestic producers and prevent free markets from happening - not least because we dump food we have overproduced on them, preventing their agricultural industry from developing.
Furthermore, we use trade sanctions to prevent the developing world from adding value to their own produce. For example, Africa can cheaply export coco beans, but we add whopping tariffs on chocolate. That is why 90% of coco beans are produced in Africa, yet less than 3% of the world's chocolate is produced in Africa? Why? Because we keep the value here in the west through tarriffs!
Secondly, the way were pollutting the atmosphere in the 70's changed rainfall patterns over sub saharan Africa in the 80's, and lead directly to the drought and famine which first got Bono et al so exercised.
So, in closing, can I give you some facts:
1. Roughly 200,000 people died as a result of the Asian tsunami. This was considered a disaster so big, the world was galvanised into action on an unprecedented scale. However, against this backdrop of suffering, we must remember that 210,000 children worldwide die from hunger every week!
2. 850 million men, women and children do not have sufficient daily food, and over half of them are chronically malnourished. And the figures are RISING!
3. Every year, 11 million children aged five years or under die from hunger
4. Every 3 seconds, someone somewhere dies of starvation
5. Poor nutrition causes the death of 1 in 3 people in the developing world
6. 93% of HIV/AIDS sufferers live in the developing world
7. In Africa, HIV/AIDS is the one of the biggest contributing factors to poverty and hunger. As parents die, they leave behind orphans who must care for themselves - and often don't manage to.
8. In 2001, half a million people died from AIDS in southern Africa alone. In 2003, over 14 million people were infected in southern Africa
9. Every day HIV/AIDS kills 6,000 people and another 8,200 become infected
10. In Africa, a child will die from malaria every 30 seconds
Malaria kills 1 million people each year in Africa, and 3 million throughout the world
11. Within the last ten years, over 2 million children have died as a result of armed conflict
12. 1.2 billion people live without access to clean drinking water
13. 2.6 billion people live without basic sanitation, which kills 5 million people (mostly children) each year
14. Every minute, somewhere in the developing world, a woman will die whilst giving birth
15. In Afghanistan, 6% of pregnant women will die whilst giving birth - 1,000 times the rate of the UK
16. 1.3 billion people survive on less than 50 pence a day
Another 2.7 billion people survive on less than £1 a day
17. The net wealth of the 10 richest billionaires is $133 billion, more than 1.5 times the total national income of the least developed countries
18. The cost of ending global poverty is estimated to be a mere 1% of global gross domestic product (GDP)
19. In 1971, the world's wealthiest countries pledged to increase their aid budgets from 0.46 of GDP to 0.7%. However, in 2003 that figure had actually fallen to 0.24%
20. The UK has pledged to finally meet its 1971 target by 2020 - nearly 50 years later!
21. The USA spends only 0.15% of its GDP on development aid
22.The world spends $900 billion each year on its military budget
Debt relief for the 20 poorest countries would cost only $5.5 billion - the same amount as it cost to build EuroDisney!
23. In the time it has taken you to read these facts:
61 people have died of starvation
15 people have died from poor sanitation
10 people have died from malaria
8 people have become infected with HIV
7 people have died from AIDS
2 women have died in childbirth
and the world has spent $2.6 million on war!
And finally, to quote a hero of mine:
"The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to them their own". Benjamin Disraeli
Verity, re your post of 1.34. This is exactly what the African's want for themselves. They don;t wish to be reliant upon our 'charity', but sadly, we make it difficult for Africa to develop.
Therefore, you simplistic approach is exactly that - simplistic. You are ignoring the much wider issues which are that Africa needs to be 'weaned off' aid, but that the west needs to get its act together in its appraoch to trading with Africa!
Finally guys, those who think that I am just a bleeding heart liberal don't know me at all. There is sound economic reasons for getting Africa on its feet - not least of all as it woulod reduce the immigration pressure we are currently facing in Europe.
Secondly, has anyone here on this post ever sat with a mother who has just spent 2 weeks walking away from war and famins, has no food, whose milk has dried up, and who is seeing her child starve to death before her eyes? It's not a nice place to be - especially when you know there is nothing you can do to prevent it.
I am afraid that I get angry - really angry - when the right-wing don't feel any sense of obligation, compassion or understand that it is in our own interests to stop this situation!
Sorry, Adrian, but it is up to the Africans to ensure that their children get food. Giving them handouts hasn't worked for 60 years.
"I am afraid that I get angry - really angry - when the right-wing don't feel any sense of obligation, compassion or understand that it is in our own interests to stop this situation!" Before it is in our interests to stop "this situation" it is in the Africans' interests. They have had 60 years of help and it hasn't worked.
I have argued here and elsewhere that the most effective thing we can do if we want to have one last heave at giving Africa a leg up is drop trade barriers. Let them overrun Europe with cheap and tasty fruits and vegetables,for a start. Human being are business-oriented and once they spot the opportunity, they'll be after it.
I don't believe in any kind of trade barriers anywhere in the world. NAFTA works very well on this side of the world.
But it is time to withdraw the safety line of aid, aid, aid, advisors, the World Bank, blah blah blah from Africa and let them sink or swim.
As I said earlier, this isn't the fault of the children and they should get free medicines from the West until they are 18, at which point they should start being part of the solution. We have absolutely no moral obligation to shoulder the burden of people who have consistently failed to help themselvesand havelet themselves be run, and robbed by, dictators.
Not one more cent of taxpayer money, except for medicines for children.
Verity, on dropping trade barriers, you are right.
On aid you are wrong! You cannot simply just drop aid, as like it or not, people depend upon aid to survive. Remove aid without making sure something else exists and people die. I cannot believe that you are advocating this approach (at least, I hope you are not).
You need to drop barriers immediately (barriers are why the aid thing hasn't worked for 60 years), then over a period of years, after the economies have grown and developed into something resembling a developed country, with a tax base and their own methods for dealing with their own poverty, aid can be gradually removed. This can all be achieved within a 20 year period. But to stop aid now would be inhumane and make our problems worse, because EVERYONE in Africa would be heading for the Canaries!
Finally, please understand that the Africa of today is not the africa of 30 years ago.Africa is politically and economically much more stable than in the 1980s. In 1985, there were 20 major wars in Africa, now there are just 4. Then, half of Africa was under the control of despotic dictatorships, now over two-thirds of Africans have democracy in some generally speaking acceptable form. Then, the African economies were stagnant, now they are growing rapidly with a budding entrepreneurial class emerging. Then, corruption was simply the way things got done. These days, whilst corruption is still widespread, it is steadily being eradicated by governments who recognise that corruption gives them bad PR with the west!
Yet despite all this good news, some parts of Africa are more threatened with poverty than back in the 1980s and the west still makes excuses and reneges on its commitments and promises!
If you want something to read, go to www.different-travel.com and click on 'about us' then read our views on poverty! Then visit my blog and have a rant on that. I will even put up a blog entry today to give you something to hang your hat on!
Many moons ago I was at a U2 concert when as a stunt Bono telephoned the house of commons and asked to speak to Mrs Thatcher. The receptionist was bemused, as she explained, Parliament is in summer recess. Despite pushing her, Bono achieved nothing and looked rather silly.
Bono has never made that clapping of hands, relating it to the death of children, at any U2 concert, as far as I know (if yes, do say in which concert and date happened that -maybe I'm wrong).
Bono snapped his fingers in a television ad with that meaning (from the Make Poverty History campaign, along with dozens of others artists and cinema stars), so that must be the confusion with his U2 concerts...
Shame on you, Bono is a God.
I hate you.
Bono never made that clapping of hands, it's a stupid joke, written by a stupid man on this stupid blog, believed and supported by stupid people.
Bono truly try to help African people, while you, greedy capitalist bastards, only criticize and speak shit about him.
I pray to the Lord, to shed some of light over your cynical asses.
I was seriously considering changing my allegiance to the Tory party until I read this crap!
This site really does show how out of touch with the majority of the country you all are. As soon as someone tries to do something worthwhile you shoot them down. There isnt much constructive criticism here, just snide, bitter and arogant remarks.
I don't think any of you are in a position to judge Bono as a "snivelling little creep". Please change your attitude and I might just vote Tory at the next election yet.
My god, what a nasty bunch of idiots you lot are!
no wonder you plebs are not in power!
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