F Harper....F Martin...Bono for PM

... · Post by **...** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 4:22 pm

Bono expresses disappointment in PM
Friday, November 25, 2005 Posted at 4:07 PM EST

Globe and Mail Update

Rock star Bono made a pre-election visit to Ottawa on Friday, offering harsh words for Prime Minister Paul Martin over his failure to firmly commit to increasing its foreign aid budget.

Bono has urged Mr. Martin to increase aid to 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product by 2015 — a target already adopted by most G8 countries.

"I am personally not just disappointed, I'm crushed, actually, because I really believed that the Prime Minister would do that," he said, noting Canada is the only country in the G8 to boast a surplus.

"I felt, as a former finance minister, he would be able to make the numbers work...If it doesn't work for Canada, it's very hard to ask why Irish people should commit to 0.7 per cent or French people or English people. So there is a lot at stake here."

He also urged Canadians to remind politicians during the coming election of this country's obligations to the world's poor when they come looking for support at their doors during the campaign.

Bono was on Parliament Hill on Friday meeting with political leaders and discussing world poverty prior to U2's sold-out show at the Corel Centre.

hazatude · Post by **hazatude** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 4:30 pm

Bono should learn how to rock and roll before he decides to get into politics. I hate him.

cyyz · Post by **cyyz** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 4:41 pm

hazatude wrote:Bono should learn how to rock and roll before he decides to get into politics. I hate him.

I hate him to.. But he really does need to shut the fark up..

Maybe he should go to africa and tell them to stop screwing each other....

But hey, it's just easier to go to Canada and whine how we don't send enough aid, and let them fark each other silly and continue to spread aids...

... · Post by **...** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 5:08 pm

cyyz wrote:
Maybe he should go to africa and tell them to stop screwing each other....

But hey, it's just easier to go to Canada and whine how we don't send enough aid, and let them fark each other silly and continue to spread aids...

...wha...? you're.....you're joking...right?'

costermonger · Post by **costermonger** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 6:38 pm

Well, in the sense that much of what he posts is a joke..

rotorhead350 · Post by **rotorhead350** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 7:37 pm

F*** Bono and all these rich celebrities who try to tell governments what to do. They can afford to pay big taxes and not have to worry about making ends meet..........................rotorhead350

cyyz · Post by **cyyz** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 7:53 pm

I am Birddog wrote:...wha...? you're.....you're joking...right?'

Obviously I'm generalizing but last time I checked AIDS has gone up in the region...

PITA · Post by **PITA** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 8:02 pm

I would like to get a real dollar number, from a senior and international advertising agency, of the financial benefit these "Rock Stars" enjoy from this world wide covered rock concerts/press conferences they arrange to lay this guilt trip on me and you for eating three meals a day.

PITA

Howitzer · Post by **Howitzer** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 1:37 pm

That whiskey drinking, four leaf clover picking sob should go home. Since when did i vote for Bono to go talk to the country for me? If i ever went to the UK and told Tony Blair how to do his job, he'd tell me to go piss up a rope, and then arrest me and maybe beat me a little bit, before kicking me out of the country. Just cause this guys got money doesn't mean he knows what he's talking about, to Bono I say, scram.

2R · Post by 2R » Sat Nov 26, 2005 2:10 pm

Headlines should read 'Rich Irish pop star does very little about the poverty and beggars in his own backyard'
By highlighting the people starving to death in war torn counties of the world some of the superich feel they can ignore the poor in their own countries and feel good about themselves while they plot to avoid paying taxes and still enjoy the peace in thier present place of residence.
If they really want to make a difference they should run for political office in those countries that they care so much about.

Inverted2 · Post by **Inverted2** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 2:49 pm

If it were up to Bono, we'd spend all of our money on helping Africa. We could spend all the money in the world on some of those countries, but I honestly don't think it would help in the end.

AIDS for example. If everyone were given antiviral drugs, they would live that much longer and spread the disease that much more. Sounds awful but it's the truth.

Wilbur · Post by **Wilbur** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 2:54 pm

Bono, about face, and f... off back to wherever you came from. Get your record royalty money out of those tax haven countries where you hide it, pay taxes to YOUR government, and lobby THEM to sent it to Africa. While your at it, take the money you blow on jet fuel flying around telling others what they should do, stay at home, and send it to Africa.

LostinRotation · Post by **LostinRotation** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 4:07 pm

I have to say that I think Bono's heart is in the right place....but I think his head is up his ass.

This country taxes me to death and he wants more of that money to be sent into the pockets of corupt politicians in Africa. If he really wanted to do some good for the people of Africa he could use some of his hundred million to fund an organization that could look into where the hundreds of millions of dollars the world sends to Africa goes.

The world keeps throwing more money at Africa and it doesn't seem to be doing a whole hell of alot of good....a new Ox here..a new water pump there....How many organizations can you think of that " help Africa " ?
I used to donate money until I found out where most of it goes. Instead now I volunteer at a homeless shelter where I know It'll do some good.

We have people here on this site that will attest to the fact you have to "bribe" African officials to deliver humanitarian aid....WTF is that ?!

.....if you want help Africa Bono....shine some light on the corruption...DON'T THROW MY MONEY AT IT !

-=0=LIR=0=-

Chantal · Post by **Chantal** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 10:59 pm

LiR - You are right about where we should be doing our part, like in a homeless shelter. I believe the world can be changed by all the little things people do for others like volunteering. It may not seem significant to ourselves or others but it is to someone.

I think it's good that Bono tells off the PM, because our government is so bad at wasting money on bullshit stuff, like new departments. The government makes me sick because it acts so high and mighty when it actually is a big failure in the most important things, like helping people to get jobs they can live on. When you think about it, all the different social assistance Canadians can get may not be beneficial really, because It seems to take away the desires to achieve, and to work. This could cause some despair if you think about it. Bono obviously isn't aware of our problems or maybe he is but he knows its the government so thats why he is saying stuff. He did say it to our faces by the way. Bono or somebody should go after the UN to do something but the UN is just a puppet show for TV news reporters to hang out so where should he go?

Wilbur · Post by **Wilbur** » Sun Nov 27, 2005 10:31 am

Where should Bono go? Across the sea to some recording studio where he belongs. He's just another big mouth celebrity who misuses his fame and money to push his personal political agenda in other countries. If Bono wants to push a political agenda, he should run for office in his own country.

John Kennedy Jr was another example of a jackass celebrity telling others what to do. Came to BC pushing his environmental agenda, telling us we should stop cutting trees, accept a lower standard of living, put thousands of forestry workers out of work all in the interest of the environment. Meanwhile, the hypocrite lived a lavish life of excess. He should first have cleaned-up his own act, they his own country's.

Of course, the Liberals got this Bono guy involved in Canadian politics by invititing him to address their convention a few years back. They wanted the votes they thought his star power could bring them. Does this guy have a real name?

altiplano · Post by **altiplano** » Sun Nov 27, 2005 3:46 pm

-Think Globally, Act Locally...

CAPGEN · Post by **CAPGEN** » Sun Nov 27, 2005 4:33 pm

He gave this as a part of an address at the University of Pennsylvania. I don't think anyone has to like his music, his group, or him at all, but what he has to say is, in my opinion, very intelligent, and shouldn't be clouded by someone's love of 'Motorhead'.

The fact that there is an election coming and that the government seems to think that Canadians can be bought and should treated like we're ignorant leaves me disillusioned. I do however, love this country, and the way we get to live. If the government is going to lie and cheat and steal, could we at least do something of significance? 0.7% is so small, and my life would not change a bit if the government spent my money that way.

I'm proud to be Canadian because of other Canadians, not because of our political system. I'm ready to be proud of something our governments do.

RM

There's a truly great Irish poet his name is Brendan Kennelly, and he has this epic poem called the Book of Judas, and there's a line in that poem that never leaves my mind, it says: "If you want to serve the age, betray it." What does that mean to betray the age?

Well to me betraying the age means exposing its conceits, it's foibles; it's phony moral certitudes. It means telling the secrets of the age and facing harsher truths.

Every age has its massive moral blind spots. We might not see them, but our children will. Slavery was one of them and the people who best served that age were the ones who called it as it was--which was ungodly and inhuman. Ben Franklin called it what it was when he became president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society.

Segregation. There was another one. America sees this now but it took a civil rights movement to betray their age. And 50 years ago the U.S. Supreme Court betrayed the age May 17, 1954, Brown vs. Board of Education came down and put the lie to the idea that separate can ever really be equal. Amen to that.

Fast forward 50 years. May 17, 2004. What are the ideas right now worth betraying? What are the lies we tell ourselves now? What are the blind spots of our age? What's worth spending your post-Penn lives trying to do or undo? It might be something simple.

It might be something as simple as our deep down refusal to believe that every human life has equal worth. Could that be it? Could that be it? Each of you will probably have your own answer, but for me that is it. And for me the proving ground has been Africa.

Africa makes a mockery of what we say, at least what I say, about equality and questions our pieties and our commitments because there's no way to look at what's happening over there and it's effect on all of us and conclude that we actually consider Africans as our equals before God. There is no chance.

An amazing event happened here in Philadelphia in 1985--Live Aid--that whole We Are The World phenomenon the concert that happened here. Well after that concert I went to Ethiopia with my wife, Ali. We were there for a month and an extraordinary thing happened to me. We used to wake up in the morning and the mist would be lifting we'd see thousands and thousands of people who'd been walking all night to our food station were we were working. One man--I was standing outside talking to the translator--had this beautiful boy and he was saying to me in Amharic, I think it was, I said I can't understand what he's saying, and this nurse who spoke English and Amharic said to me, he's saying will you take his son. He's saying please take his son, he would be a great son for you. I was looking puzzled and he said, "You must take my son because if you don't take my son, my son will surely die. If you take him he will go back to Ireland and get an education." Probably like the ones we're talking about today. I had to say no, that was the rules there and I walked away from that man, I've never really walked away from it. But I think about that boy and that man and that's when I started this journey that's brought me here into this stadium.

Because at that moment I became the worst scourge on God's green earth, a rock star with a cause. Christ! Except it isn't the cause. Seven thousand Africans dying every day of preventable, treatable disease like AIDS? That's not a cause, that's an emergency. And when the disease gets out of control because most of the population live on less than one dollar a day? That's not a cause, that's an emergency. And when resentment builds because of unfair trade rules and the burden of unfair debt, that are debts by the way that keep Africans poor? That's not a cause, that's an emergency. So--We Are The World, Live Aid, start me off it was an extraordinary thing and really that event was about charity. But 20 years on I'm not that interested in charity. I'm interested in justice. There's a difference. Africa needs justice as much as it needs charity.

Equality for Africa is a big idea. It's a big expensive idea. I see the Wharton graduates now getting out the math on the back of their programs, numbers are intimidating aren't they, but not to you! But the scale of the suffering and the scope of the commitment they often numb us into a kind of indifference. Wishing for the end to AIDS and extreme poverty in Africa is like wishing that gravity didn't make things so damn heavy. We can wish it, but what the hell can we do about it?

Well, more than we think. We can't fix every problem--corruption, natural calamities are part of the picture here--but the ones we can we must. The debt burden, as I say, unfair trade, as I say, sharing our knowledge, the intellectual copyright for lifesaving drugs in a crisis, we can do that. And because we can, we must. Because we can, we must. Amen.

This is the straight truth, the righteous truth. It's not a theory, it's a fact. The fact is that this generation--yours, my generation--that can look at the poverty, we're the first generation that can look at poverty and disease, look across the ocean to Africa and say with a straight face, we can be the first to end this sort of stupid extreme poverty, where in the world of plenty, a child can die for lack of food in it's belly. We can be the first generation. It might take a while, but we can be that generation that says no to stupid poverty.

http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/between/20 ... nce-b.html

cyyz · Post by **cyyz** » Sun Nov 27, 2005 5:50 pm

CAPGEN wrote:
There's a truly great Irish poet his name is Brendan Kennelly, and he has this epic poem called the Book of Judas, and there's a line in that poem that never leaves my mind, it says: "If you want to serve the age, betray it." What does that mean to betray the age?

Well to me betraying the age means exposing its conceits, it's foibles; it's phony moral certitudes. It means telling the secrets of the age and facing harsher truths.... slavery, segregation, etc...

Just to be devils advocate, Could not PCism not be an "age" thing and might it not be a thing we want to betray?

Teach a man to fish concept, well, giving africa all of canada's wealth will still see them all in the same predicament, no water, no food, full of AIDs...

We're about to give the Natives 5 BILLION dollars, that is almost 5 billion times more than what was paid for Manhatten.

and I'm assuming we'll need to dump another 5 billion in another 4 years.....

Maybe, just maybe, we need as some posters around here have realised, to drop the PC bs, and stop it with comments like

...wha...? you're.....you're joking...right?'

When someone says something that isn't "PC" we might stop and "think" about it...

People tell you how XXXX thousand africans die each day, well I can save 10,000 if not more without even spending a dollar just 1 simple sentence, "STOP HAVING SEX," jesus, that's horrible of me... Well guess what, you can pretty much do the same with a bunch of the worlds problems
"STOP EATING MCDONALD'S YOU FAT PIECE OF SH*T"
"STOP SMOKING"
"DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE or we'll kill you"

instead we get wonderful crap like this in society,

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Conten ... Source=RSS

The subtext to the uproar that followed the arrests is colour. The victim is white. All of the accused are black.

Instead of feeling pity for the girl, the surrounding community has reacted with rage.

They call the police ham-fisted, and worse Ñ racist. They wonder: If this had been a black girl and white boys, would police have reacted with charges so quickly? Would they have arrested the youth in their school, not allowing their parents the courtesy of taking them to the police station without the glare of flashing cameras and the wide eyes of their peers?

"I don't think if it was a black (accuser), it would have reached that," said Jeffrey's mother. "And take 14 white people out of school? I don't think so."

Yes, the cops would have made a public broadcast announcment, "those children abusing the girl, can you please turn yourselves in" THINK PEOPLE.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/news/national/2 ... knife.html

R.C.M.P. surrounded the school at about 11 o'clock in the morning, after they received a complaint of a person with a knife trying to get into the school.

Oh, wow, looks like they do "hop" into action and do arrests at schools...
I think the next one might be black.

http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=2680803

PHILADELPHIA — A 10-year-old girl was placed in handcuffs and taken to a police station because she took a pair of scissors to her elementary school.

Finally, since we're off on a tangent, the Young offenders Act is RACIST, they shouldn't be allowed to reveal the "child's identity" but some how the new's papers and these idiot parents are saying the kids were black, so they should all be charged and sent to jail to!

/rant, time to drink, back in 5hr

Chantal · Post by **Chantal** » Sun Nov 27, 2005 8:53 pm

Thanks CAPGEN, for posting that poem, it is powerful. I'm glad I got to read it.

rotorhead350 · Post by **rotorhead350** » Sun Nov 27, 2005 9:09 pm

Once again cyyz you hit the nail square on the head. Too many bleeding hearts out there who choose to ignore what is really going on around them. Its about time they took their heads out of their ass.........................rotorhead350

2R · Post by 2R » Mon Nov 28, 2005 2:17 pm

Every two seconds a child dies in africa where are the fathers of those children????Do not blame us for their overbreeding Thirty million canadians
700 million africans perhaps they should take some responsibilty for they own actions.

mellow_pilot · Post by **mellow_pilot** » Mon Nov 28, 2005 5:39 pm

The increase in AIDS in Africa is the fault of Bush. Before you go calling me names look into it. AIDS was actually in decline in a few countries till Bush said he'd only give money if they promoted celebacy instead of comdom use.

So if you want Yank money, you have to use it stupidly.

Way to go Bible thumper, you're causing the destruction of a continent. Ya, that's God's will...

Oh, and the really funny thing is that one of the biggest reasons that African men refuse to wear condoms is that the aid agency idiots send them white ones... go figure.

cyyz · Post by **cyyz** » Mon Nov 28, 2005 6:49 pm

mellow_pilot wrote: Bush said he'd only give money if they promoted celebacy instead of comdom use.

African men refuse to wear condoms is that the aid agency idiots send them white ones... go figure.

Celebacy = No sex at all.. Last time I checked can't figure out how aid's would be going up?

White, as in "clear?" last time I saw a porn, seamen(sp) was white, from all males, guess they'll need to chop off their balls....

Dash7nomad · Post by **Dash7nomad** » Mon Nov 28, 2005 9:33 pm

Here's the solution. Paul Martin should kidnapp Bono, hold him hostage on one of his tankers, and send him the f*** to LIberia(where his tankers are registered). Don't tink de Irishman would be singing along with Alpha Blondie. They could also send every African male two condoms with asmall bottle of hot sauce . instructions would read- 1. place one condom on penis 2. then apply hot sauce liberally to condom being worn 3. Place second condom on penis, over the first condom with hot sauce. 4. if
partner starts to scream "pull-out pull-out''.

They could also keep the rest of the f****** celebs happy by sending Paul Newman's hot sauce.

Wilbur · Post by **Wilbur** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 8:22 am

Mellow Pilot, you are joking aren't you? The spread of aids must be Bush's fault because he won't give them money for condoms. I guess I'm at risk of getting aids too then because nobody has given me money to buy condoms either. Oh wait, maybe I'm not likely to get aids because I keep my pecker in my pants unless I'm with my wife. I don't screw whores, bimbos, and everything else that moves.

The spread of aids in Africa is entirely due to the sexual behaviour of Africans, just as it moved quickly through the gay community in North America because of their sexual behaviour. Educate them about the disease and how it is spread. After that, it is almost entirely a self inflicted problem. It won't be our fault, their dictators fault, or anyone else's fault. Only the fault of the individuals who choose to drop their drawers.