A bit of Balance...Africa is rich/ Bono is a hypocrite
international |
crime and justice |
opinion/analysis 
Thursday August 13, 2009 12:57
by paul o toole
pauljotoole at eircom dot net
As U2's millions are tucked away in a bank account in Holland, and their 'No Line On The Horizon' tour travels across the globe, the question remains..Is Bono a Hypocrite or not.??
The actual harm done by Bono, bringing his shallow, propagandist, short on fact, and empty brand of 'awareness', denying that Africa is the richest continent on this planet, in fact, does more harm than good. It kills more kids than it saves, starves more villages than feeds, spreads more disease than cures, wipes out more forrests, drains more resources, and impoverishes more of the already most impoverished and marginalised of this very abundant planet. As the already obscenely wealthy, make off with the bounty, the lions share of the wealth. Does Bono actually do harm??
The 'good' that Bono is credited with having done by his loyal press followers, PR gurus and scriptwriters is over-rated in the extreme...in light of the corruption he helps keep in the closet. The magnitude of Bonos deception can be measured in the suffering of the poorest of the poor in Africa, those he claims to help. The dying, emaciated, deliberately starved children he built his image upon.
Bono, U2,Geldof, and their ignorant band of self acclaimed 'artists' perform onstage supposedly to bring awareness to the plight of the poor in Africa, as they prance about the stage dripping in gold and diamonds and sweatshop clothes.
He willingly fails to identify the causes of this deliberate impoverishment...which if there was the slightest willingness to do so... would be a piece of cake for our Bono. Wouldn't take much. It wouldent kill a gig, ruin a performance. Wouldn't turn the crowd away bored. Wouldent loose him any fans (more likley gain some)-cos they love him- and they listen to him, and unfortunately ....they believe him .
Bono has the power to make real change....
It would take 1 minute of Sir Bono's life, 60 seconds. Do you think thats to much to ask Sir Bono??, enough time for 20 kids to die?.
Well mabey 2 minutes. Ok, 40 kids.... The problem is that if he did, he would expose his friends at the top that he has been covering for and protecting for years with this deceptive, misleading 'awareness', which mounts to little more than 'lying by omission'. His tax dodging debaucle is a minor infraction, a disrtaction from a bigger picture, a story to run with to allow the real crime and their criminals to continnue un-abated, as 30,000 kids daily will continnue to starve and die -'needlessley' -as Bono himself has said. Over 10,000,000 deaths a year.....is this deliberate? is this genocide?, is this preventible?, Yes.
With no word to the wise form the self appointed appointed spokesperson on theese issues, the carnage and systemic impoverishment is set to continnue for Africas poor.
The question should be asked...Does the guilt for this atrocity, at least part of it, rests squarely on Bono's shoulders.??
Comments (5 of 5)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5This is worth a read
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/ian--....html
Ian Birrell: Big men, bankers and the stench of corruption
We cracked down on terrorism, so why not on this larceny that kills far more people?
Tuesday, 18 August 2009SHARE PRINTEMAILTEXT SIZE NORMALLARGEEXTRA LARGE
Frederick Chiluba is a sharp dresser. The one-time bus conductor who rose to become President of Zambia has a fondness for expensive designer suits, his monogrammed shirts set off by matching silk ties and handkerchiefs. While the majority of his fellow countrymen struggled to survive on less than a dollar a day, he would think nothing of jetting off to Geneva and dropping £300,000 in his favourite clothes shop.
But like Imelda Marcos, it is the shoes that seem the most insulting. This diminutive and vain man, who stands little over five foot and was on an official salary of £52,000 a year, had more than 100 pairs made with two-inch heels, many displaying his initials in brass. These size-six shoes, together with dozens of shirts and suits, are now in battered metal trunks in the offices of Zambia's anti-corruption task force.
"While the majority of his fellow countrymen struggled to survive on less than a dollar a day, he would think nothing of jetting off to Geneva and dropping £300,000 in his favourite clothes shop."
This is TYPICAL of leaders in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Emperor Bokassa for instance:
http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums/f186/central-afric....html
Even Bono doesn't sit on a solid gold throne:
http://img114.imageshack.us/i/bm99cl.jpg/
DON'T blame Bono.
Who blamed bono, ??? No one.
Bono is just part of the coruption and not the cause, as seems to be stated by the last poster insisting we should not 'blame' Bono.
However, if he did pay his corporate taxes and not run off to holland soon as it was capped at arround 250 grand/pa in 2006, having been EXEMPT for three decades up to that point, the problem of starvation and death for 1 million kids/pa he says he wants to help, could be averted.
He dosent, he prefers instead to hoard ever more millions upon millions in offshore accounts in foreign countries to avoid taxes in Ireland which he claims to be his home, and kids starve to death which may not die if he paid taxes in the normal way.
If he didnt take part in the avoidance of 160 billion due to the people in Sub-Saharan Africa then he might have some ground to stand on and preach his NONSENSE to the rest of us.
Bono is not the cause, but his approach is typical of one that causes more harm than good.
He constantly clamours for more aid to be sent to Africa, despite the fact that the $1trillion of aid that the continent has received has done little to help. In fact, many African countries have a lower GDP now than they did at independence.
Aid is artificial money that distorts local economies, encourages corruption and creates a culture of dependency.
Aid also makes Western leaders look good, while diverting attention from the problems of unfair trade and unsavoury alliances (think France/Gabon).
The Aid industry is killing Africa. Furthermore, many Africans, from economists to politicians want to see another way.
However, they don't get listened to in the way that middle aged, tax dodging rockstars do.
"Bono has the power to make real change...."
The point has perhaps already been made, but looking to Bono as either the cause or as part of the solution to anything is misguided.
The whole point about Bono is precisely that he has nothing do declare but his irrelevance.
He is a problem in so far as he is a distraction, but that's as far as it goes.
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