In Praise of Bono
By Leon H Wolf Posted in Culture — Comments (14) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Whenever "artists" of various stripes take to the airwaves to promote political causes, it's generally sure to cause much eyerolling at the hopeless naievete of the drug-addled celebrity of the moment. Who can forget Bo Derek's unintentionally hilarious appearance on Hannity and Colmes to plead for the cause of wild horses?
But it appears that Bono, quite apart from producing some great music throughout his career, is cut from a different mold. Bono's recent appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, was, in comparison to most of his celebrity counterparts, incredibly insightful and realistic.
It also contained the personally bold maneuver of breaking celebrity orthodoxy and praising President Bush. More below the fold.
First, Bono's praise of Bush definitely stepped outside the bounds of acceptable practice among the celebrity elites. Said Bono of Bush's cumulative record on Africa:
Well, I think he's done an incredible job, his administration, on AIDS. And 250,000 Africans are on antiviral drugs. They literally owe their lives to America. In one year that's being done. But it can't just be AIDS. It has to be the environment in which viruses like AIDS thrive, or malaria. I mean, 3,000 Africans die every day of a mosquito bite. Can you think about that, malaria? That's not acceptable in the 21st century and we can stop it. And water-borne illnesses--dirty water takes another 3,000 lives--children, mothers, sisters.
Yes, there's a lot of pressure on President Bush. If he, though, in his second term, is as bold in his commitments to Africa as he was in the first term, he indeed deserves a place in history in turning the fate of that continent around. If he doesn't I fear that even the good work that he has started will be forgotten by history and that really makes me very, very sad, because I worked on a lot of this stuff, the AIDS initiative and the Millennium Challenge, and really want to see--I think he deserves his place in history here.
If some of you would like to debate the substance of Bono's comments here, that is fine. For me, however, it is impressive enough that a celebrity of his stature has literally anything positive whatsoever to say about Bush. I think that one of the legitimate reasons that conservative are often loathe to make large commitments to causes like this is that however much is given, however much is donated - the number is immediately used as a club against the conservative as "not being enough," and it's nice to see that at least one prominent person is breaking the mold and giving credit where credit is due.
By far the more profound portion of the interview, however, was when Bono dealt with the other aspect of aid to Africa that gives conservatives the megrims; the fear that most or all of the aid will be confiscated and used to prop up corrupt regimes. Bono here shows that he has completely taken off the blinders and realized where Africa's problems truly stem from:
This is the number-one problem facing Africa, corruption; not natural calamity, not the AIDS virus. This is the number-one issue and there's no way around it.
This is, frankly, a level of political understanding that I would have thought impossible for a celebrity just two days ago. What a stunningly impolitic and un-celebrity thing to say - but more importantly, what a profoundly correct thing for anyone to say. Bono is recognizing here that the situation in Africa has not occurred in a vacuum - they aren't centuries behind the rest of the world due to just random chance or lack of resources. The leadership of Africa is at fault here, and in order for real change to occur, the leadership must change. Bono even went so far as to recognize the value of encouraging *gasp* regime change in blighted areas of the world:
That's what was so clever about President Bush's Millennium Challenge. It was start-up money for new democracies. It was giving increases of aid flows only to countries that are tackling corruption. That's what's so clever.
If he keeps talking this way, he'll get himself disinvited to the next Barbara Streisand party, for sure. And hopefully, he'll encourage more celebrities and average citizens alike to realize the obvious truth that good intentions often produce bad results if they are implemented poorly, and that accepting conditions to change for the better under corrupt and despotic leadership is fine in the world of Model UN, but a disastrous failure in the real world.
Welcome to the real Reality Based Community, Bono. We're glad to have you on board.
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In Praise of Bono 14 Comments (0 topical, 14 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
Bono is serious about helping people in Africa, regardless of who is in the White House.
Hopefully Tony Blair can convince Europe to support democracy and civil rights in Africa. The UN will not play a major role on account of Russian/Chinese veto power. Tyranny seems to be our enemy everywhere.
I still cannot agree with the government using the power of force to confiscate wealth to provide transfer payments (domestic or foreign makes no difference to me) but hearing a rational argument like the one Bono has been making opens me to debt relief, reinforces my (already existing for other reasons) support for eliminating agricultural subsidies and other trade protectionist policies, and more willing to support private aid for that region.
Even if I didn't agree with almost 2/3 of what he wants, I give him credit for the way in which he's making the argument. A lot of people confuse media attention with effectiveness. I have a lot of respect for people who care about issues rather than personalities regardless of where they sit on the political spectrum.
On second thought, he's not so hot after all, the pajama-napping thief. :-)
Here's what I like about Bono: he knows the spectacle of rock star celebrity is ridiculous, and how blessed he is to live his life. Of the three U2 shows I've seen, at two of them, Bono made a point of thanking the fans lavishly for giving him such a great lifestyle...
I was struck by the following in the Meet the Press Appearance: he did not ask for the .7% of GDP that is in the Sachs plan, but rather .3 or .4, compared to .17 currently...he seems realistic, rational, and results-oriented...
Karen Santorum recently published a children's book called "Everyday Graces : Child's Book Of Good Manners." Rick was on Fox talking about the book and mentioned his friendship with Bono. Bono was so impressed with the book, having several children of his own, he wrote a little blurb praising it.
Bono is a surprisingly down to earth kind of guy.
In all of the Bono talk, I am not exactly sure what the money raised in the concert will be used for. I do understand how debt relief can be beneficial. Does anyone know if Bono has asked for:
- the removal of the Islamofascist thug regime in the Sudan which is committing genocide in its Darfur Region?
- The overthrow of the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe.?
- changes in all the other corrupt and murderous gov't in Africa, which I don't know details on.
the original post in its entirety? Specifically, the part where Bono acknolwedges that corruption is the number one problem in Africa, more than natural events and AIDS? Did you read the part where he praised Bush's Millenium Challenge, which provided cash to encourage democracies?
And I do have to say that I admire his compassion and seriousness on the issue.
But each and every one of the people pining for this aid should first be required to read "From Subsistence to Exchange" and other essays by Lord Peter Bauer, a British economist who spent his life studying how poor societies advance to prosperity. His writings highlight why countries have succeeded and why others have failed.
I'm not opposed to aid of the kind Bono seeks. But, in the end, it's not much different than most other types of welfare -- in that, too often, the end result is just a chronic dependence on others and no particular movement towards self-reliance.
Bono hinted towards this in mentioning the Millenium Challenge, which tied aid to democratization. That's encouraging.
But what I want to hear is that Bono & Co. are interested in getting African nations on a concerted path towards economic modernity.
I am happy Bono is taking a stand in an intelligent way against what is going on in Africa, but I would be even happier if he also continued to remind people about the plight of his own country. In trying to get peace and democracy in Africa, which is a great cause, he should also be focusing on spreading the word about Ireland. Right now, the economy of the southern Ireland is the best in the world, yet people are still suffering under English rule in Northern Ireland. I know in the 80's, when U2 first became popular in the US, this was one of their underlying themes.
Either way, I am happy when a celebrity uses their clout in a positive way, instead of a self-serving, negative way like what we're used to seeing.
"Honey attracts more flies than vinegar."
In this case, most of you are right on target about one point: Bono genuinely cares about the issues facing africa, and genuinely wants to help.
Any praise he laid upon bush in a very salesmanship manner was merely to further his cause.
Being somewhat mathematical, I'm aware of the 30-70% AIDs rate across many African countries. On the whole, the continent suffers from nearly a 10% HIV rate, roughly 50 million people are HIV positive. When Bono said that US aid has saved 250,000 lives from retroviral drugs in one year, that sounds like a great thing until you consider the numbers. Thats 1 person saved in every 200 that is HIV positive. In other words, that level of help, when we are capable of doing much more, is pretty minimal.
Of course Bono is no fool, and he genuinely wants to pry some money out of Bush's hands to fight the aids cause. He knows if he says positive things about bush and comments about how much more can be done, its more likely to get results than to chide and deride bush for doing so little.
On the other hand, I'm not sure I always agree. Chiding and deriding works if you look at what the public's response to bush's tsunami aid package of $15 million was. Soon it was up to $350 million or more (I'm not sure what the final total was).
As far as the problems in africa, I visited 3 African countries 20 years ago for a couple of months. While that doesn't make me an expert, it at least gives me a tiny bit of perspective on the situation. To suggest that most of Africa's problems are poor leadership and corruption is incorrect. Yes, they do have those things and they don't help. But there are many other reasons for Africa being in the state of poverty that it exists in. Excepting disease and starvation which are NOT present in extremely high levels in most African countries, the African people are largely happy and content. They do not covet wealth because they have no experience with it. In most cases, they are not jealous of westerners, they simply view us as 'different' or 'mzungu' or 'nzungu' in East Africa. Translation suggests 'white person' but that is incorrect, a black friend of mine who travelled separately was ALSO called mzungu. The best translation I can come up with is 'westerner'. Mzungu is not derogatory, it merely means 'this person has a different lifestyle than me'.
In other words, what africa suffers from economically is culture. Their tribal cultures and philosophies aren't based upon a culture of 'wealth'. The shop owners in the places where I visited were almost ALWAYS from India. There were very few store-owners who were African, they simply didn't aspire to such things.
If its culturally foreign to have capitalistic values, then how does a society become wealthy? THAT is the 'problem' africa faces from a westerner's perspective. Of course an african wouldn't necessarily see it as a 'problem'.
I don't know if Bono had anything to do with the announcement, but bush pledges 1.2 Billion to fight malaria in Africa
Anyone who can get Pat Robertson and Sean "Diddy" Combs on board with the same initiative - in THIS political climate - deserves everyone's praise.
Amen, Bono.
I was an African Studies minor in college and from my perspective, Bono has always been an intelligent, well-informed, passionate advocate for democracy, aid, and helping Africans overcome poverty. He is not trying to score political points or look good with his friends, he's too cool for that. He actually cares. And he doesn't care who gets credit. He knows that aid can help in the right situations. And he knows how to talk to administrations of both stripes. This image of him with Sec. O'Neill in Africa always stuck in my head. If more celebrities took the time to learn about an issue and promoted with the respect and non-partisanship that Bono embraces, they might not be the brunt of so many jokes. Kudos Bono, keep up the good work.