A Plea to U2 from Africa's Children

[miki78]

um What do you mean?

 

[nice gaijin]

Did it not occur to you that the joke at the beginning of this thread was just using a Bono concert as a setting, and that no one actually said that at a concert? A lot of jokes work this way...

 

[miki78]

If that was the case it would be one of those rare occasions i would get really mad i can tell you *puts hands on hips*

 

[Sukotto]

From what I understand, according to the 2nd link above, the so called debt relief was just a smoke screen and didn't really help at all.

So in that sense all the rock stars made it look like something happened,
but maybe made things worse by putting people's (in US or UK for instance)
conscience at ease and making them think they don't really have to bother with such any more. "i did my part. i bought a concert ticket and the tshirt too."
Poverty doesn't just happen.
There are historic and sociological reasons for it.
Just giving back a little bit of what has been stolen isn't going to change anything.

 

[miki78]

What are you saying that the guy never yelled out anything i'v gotten totally cofused over that part

But Bono is always telling people how they can't rest at ease how Africa isn't fixed thats why he is still fighting why his steal trying to explain to people

It isn't about T-shirts to Bono that is just his way of trying to get people involved when his voice isn't loud enough he knows that a band of plastic and a bit of cotten isn't going to cure Africa

Thats what he keeps trying to tell everybody but things get swamped with stars like Maddona who jump on the band wagon becouse they have sudedeny found a concious and there nieve and try and tell everybody fearytales then Bono gets it in the neck ha ha OK out of breath lol

OK i think i ranted enough there ^^;;

 

[Sukotto]

Well I'm an african teenager so you can guess what I think about that joke!

So, what do you think about the article at the 2nd link?

 

[Sukotto]

Some of this stuff is not exactly help:
for ex:

More than half of the promised $50bn (ﾂ≫??8bn) in aid - which wouldn't kick in until 2010 - wasn't new money, but a dishonest amalgam of old pledges, future aid budgets and debt relief. And despite agreeing that "poor countries should be free to determine their own economic policies", only Britain had announced that it would no longer tie overseas aid to free market reforms - a promise it would break in the G8 debt deal.

'liberalization' means selling off of gov't services or industries.

The US, by contrast, had made it clear...that aid increases would require "reciprocal liberalization" by developing countries.

Bush's "millennium challenge account", praised by Bono and Geldof, "explicitly ties aid to co-operation in the US's 'war on terror'".

Dependant on aid so they can get support for domination, er, excuse me, 'war on terror' else where.

The debate is most intense over the organization of Live8, which to many has come to symbolise the damaging behavior of Geldof, Bono and Comic Relief's Richard Curtis. "There were millions watching, but what was the analysis? What was the message?" asks Charles Abugre, who believes Make Poverty History's methodology set the tone for the Live8 whitewash. "It was one of handouts and charity."

MPH = Make Poverty History

campaigners feel Live8 and Geldof hijacked the MPH campaign for a different cause. Their focus was not on global poverty, but Africa. And their demands were not those of MPH, but of the Commission for Africa, a Government-sponsored think-tank committed to free-market capitalism.
The coalition's anger has intensified over revelations about Live8's paternalistic treatment of African campaigners and their relationship to corporations operating on the continent.

 

[Sukotto]

miki78
you may not like it, but do a search on Counterpunch.org 's website
using the word 'bono'.
They really don't seem to like him.
I don't know why. I havn't read so many articles yet.

except the open letter to him asking him
why a company(?) he is connected to is making
a game with a story line to invade Venezuela
because "tyrant" has taken control of the oil supply.
Are they that cheap that they can't do a little research
and/or make up some storyline that doesn't potentially
do lots of damage to the truth. (with possibly lots of real
blood in the future).
I've got to look more into "Mercenaries 2"
On their gamer forum someone's like "don't get political".
what? "don't bother my pretty little head with thinking"
"I just 'follow orders' "
jokes. ha
as long as you don't just follow orders.

 

[miki78]

Nobody will ever change my mind about Bono so there is no point in trying people critise him becouse they don't believe and wallow in there own self doubt that there couldn't be anybody who actully trys with there heart

I believe in him and i know what lies whithin him people hate for there own selfish reasons not for politics or anything else i don't understand peoples dislike for him and franky i have no time for those people

No politics or critisism will ever change my mind about him

I know he is genuine i know what is in him peoples doubt is there choice and i don't care what people think of me for believeing in him i have incounted hostility from people becouse i stick up for him

But if Bono asked i would follow him to the ends of the earth becouse i know whats lies whithin him

And people complaining about a video game need to consontrate on more important things

I have played games about terrirism ww2 invasion spys there just games and they are oftain made in bad taiste

I apriciate everybodys opinion happily but i know how important Africa is to Bono and nobodys else seems to

Sorry i know all my Bono talk isn't really what this thread is about lol you got me started on the subject now i'm not shutting up lol^^

 

[nice gaijin]

That's a lot of faith to have in someone you don't personally know.

Is this thread still about humor? If not it's starting to lose its place in this subforum.

 

[Sukotto]

That's a lot of faith to have in someone you don't personally know.

Which is a danger of rock stars?
Unless maybe miki78 is like his daughter or something...?

Is this thread still about humor? If not it's starting to lose its place in this subforum.

I agree, and I've done my share to continue it that way.
On video games.
I'm not against violent video games. They're in so many countries
including Canada & Japan yet there isn't as much violence such as gun crimes in those countries.
I grew up on video games and still play them when I get some time.
I'm just disgusted they were so lazy as to put such an ignorant and potentially harmful story line into their game.
Gawd. I feel like almost like the PMRC here.
I AM NOT in favor of any sort of game censorship or even those stupid
ratings things.
I probably should have posted that one else where since I
didn't really post that as a diss of Bono but just because it was
the only other story at CP on Bono I read and it was disgusting in and of itself. Bono or not. It just happened to be connected to Bono here.

Maybe it's not Bono per say, but Live8 that is the problem?



Humor:
A string walks into a bar,
the bartender (coincidentally named Bono, but doesn't really need a name)
says, "hey. we don't serve your kind in here."
The string slinks away and walks outside.
There he runs into a guy (also named Bono, but really doesn't need a name)
and asks Bono to tie him in a knot and undo his ends.
The string goes back into the bar and
the bartender says, "hey. didn't i just tell you we don't serve your kind in here?"
"I'm afraid knot"



i'm not posting anything more on this string.

 

[JimmySeal]

Bono strikes me as a person who is desperate for attention. U2s success started to peter out over half a decade ago and now they've taken on a cause that will generate attention for their band (and with Live8, for many other bands as well).

I don't think Africa needs our money. What they need is for the rest of the world to finally leave them alone.

 

[Live91]

Bono strikes me as a person who is desperate for attention. U2s success started to peter out over half a decade ago and now they've taken on a cause that will generate attention for their band (and with Live8, for many other bands as well).
I don't think Africa needs our money. What they need is for the rest of the world to finally leave them alone.

Hm Africa needs ideas on how to make more money. And they also need to africans abroad to teach them what they learn abroad too. But what do you mean by leaving africa alone?

 

[miki78]

I was thinking that

And 250 Million album sales say diffrent to your U2 opinions ^^

 

[Sukotto]

Looting Africa: The Economics of Exploitation - book

I said I wasn't going to post any more on this thread, but I came across the following book. Despite this thread starting out with a joke with Bono (rock star from the band U2), I do not want to discuss Bono. The point of the joke, I believe, was that things such as Live8 were doing more harm than good. This book seems to suggest this as well.


I found this book on Africa at Multinational Monitor magazine's website. From their review:

A key subtheme of Looting Africa is that the charitable efforts of many global NGOs and rock stars like Bono and Bob Geldof (through efforts such as the rock concert-embellished campaigning to ﾂ"Make Poverty Historyﾂ") are fundamentally misguided. Bond insists that the claimed benefits of these efforts (are vastly overstated ﾂ― and, even more importantly, that the efforts to make the global economy work for Africa ignore how the rules of the global economy are actually central to Africa's problems.

The below is a review from Amazon.

Book Description
Despite the rhetoric, the people of Sub-Saharan Africa are become poorer. From Tony Blair's Africa Commission, the G7 finance ministers' debt relief, the Live 8 concerts, the Make Poverty History campaign and the G8 Gleneagles promises, to the United Nations 2005 summit and the Hong Kong WTO meeting, Africa's gains have been mainly limited to public relations. The central problems remain exploitative debt and financial relationships with the North, phantom aid, unfair trade, distorted investment and the continent's brain/skills drain. Moreover, capitalism in most African countries has witnessed the emergence of excessively powerful ruling elites with incomes derived from financial-parasitical accumulation. Without overstressing the "mistakes" of such elites, this book contextualises Africa's wealth outflow within a stagnant but volatile world economy.