Do you remember back in the 80's, when Bono made his mark on the world as a voice for the Ireland conflicts? When "Soonday Blooodah Soonday" (or "Sunday Bloody Sunday") hit the charts on U2's War album, it was a smash hit. Few bands had come to America singing about the plight of the Irish Protestants and Catholics. His perspectives were seen by the trend followers as fresh and edgy.
Flash forward to the next U2 album: Joshua Tree. This album was an attempt for the Irish band, U2, to play to a pop sensibilities in America. U2 being uniquely Irish, really have no connections to a Joshua Trees. You won't find dry desert plant in Ireland or on the British Isle, or in even Western Europe. One can only surmise Bono and company probably saw their first Joshua Tree in...wait for it...California. For those of you who don't know, California doesn't border Ireland. As for the music on this album; Joshua Tree moved away from Irish issues and full into pop depression. On the whole, one could still give the band some respect as some of the songs were pretty good.
Rattle and Hum, Zooropa, Actung Baby and the other crap that has come out of the creative minds of the band formerly from Ireland (or earth), really show what happens when a band sticks around too long. The song "Angle Of Harlem" is a great piece of evidence showing U2's lack of grasp on reality. Does anyone truly think Bono, Edge or the other guys spend much time in Harlem. This song has the integrity of Barbara Streisand singing "Ave Maria" on her Christmas album. If people see that you have no connection to something perhaps it's is best that you don't sing about it.
The rest of the poppy bile that has been sung by Bono and friends since the 80's has been purely mass produced disappointment. U2 is now, Debby Gibson, or more up to date Britney Spears in a band. The uniqueness and novelty of the old U2 is gone. The only thing left is the dark whole where their integrity once stood tall. Alas, the once great head singer Bono went from being a trend setter to a trend follower.
The trendiness doesn't stop with music however, Bono has taken his fame to the world as a voice for human rights. Isn't this what all good lefties do? In the last ten years he has scolded wealthy nations for not being more generous. He has apparently overlooked that his once poor country is now a world economic power, not due to aid, but good old ingenuity and capitalism. Perhaps Bono should visit his home country some time (not California, Ireland). Bono has convinced wealthy western countries to relive the debt owed them by poor African countries. These same poor African countries then simply ask for more aid and loans. The countries who have their debt relieved just build up more debt and the starving citizens of these countries are perpetually worse off.
Truth check for self important Left-Wing super stars (I'm talking to you Bono). African countries have received aid for the better part of the last century. In the 70's aid was sharply increased from countries like the U.S, U.K, and Japan. The result has been continental poverty around 15% in 1970 to 40% today. In some African countries poverty is worse than 40% and these countries receive aid all the time as they build up their newly relieved debt.
One of Bono's latest pop song says; "every generation has the chance to change the world." Well Bono 'change' is a double side sword. When you and Al Gore and other talking heads who create new trendy ways to stay relevent, you can end up hurrting more people than you help. Bono, take the example of the pop princesses you resemble; just sing.
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|2009-09-01 12:05:09 Mr. Scott - The Diamond in the RoughCheck out the U2 album, "All that you can't leave behind". It is by far my favorite album by them and has many redeeming qualities when compared to their junky albums.
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Well said. Generosity is all well and good, but the real issue is governance and lack of trust in the rule of law in the countries receiving aid. More aid = more to skim off the top = less per capita reaching the poor.
The necessity to bribe everyone at every level of the bureaucracy adds huge overhead to every transaction. The widespread mistrust of everyone else that this type of corruption generates is a huge drag on businesses of all kinds.
An additional problem is that African governments are modeled on European welfare states. Wealthy nations can "afford" hugely inefficient governments, poor nations cannot. Even without rampant corruption, the costs of the state apparatus that administers the aid swallows a huge portion of the money coming in.
Give a man a fish...
