"Quit Moaning About Bono, Thank Him"

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Jamila

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In the 25 December 2005 edition of Ireland's Sunday Independent newspaper this article appeared:




Quit moaning about Bono, thank him


NO DOUBT the usual cranks and begrudgers will be bitching about Bono over the Christmas. "Man of the Year?" the taxi-drivers will say, "Time fecking magazine? I'll give him Man of the Year. And Time magazine. It's far from it he was reared."

It's easy to have a pop at Bono. It's practically an instinctive reaction at this stage. "Oh, he might fool that crowd of Yanks at Time magazine and that George Bush fella, but he can't fool us. We knew him when he hadn't an arse in his trousers."

Frankly, that kind of thing reflects more on the people who say it than it does on Bono. Because, if you think about it, Bono hasn't actually done anything wrong. And it's not as if you could disagree with most of his causes. He's often compared to Jesus, in a negative kind of smart-arsey way. But, in fact, he is a bit of a Jesus - though in a good way.

Whatever your personal opinions about Jesus, it'd be hard to disagree with most of his messages: Don't kill people and be nice to the poor and so on. And Bono is pretty much the same. The message is inherently sound: Cure Aids, be nice to black people and eliminate poverty. You can't fault that kind of thing.

And in fairness, his heart seems to be in the right place. There are people who claim that he does it all as a big PR thing to sell even more records, but that doesn't really stack up. If anything, the preaching is probably putting people off the records.

But for the other members of the band it has a musical benefit. Larry Mullen broke ranks recently to say it was handy when Bono headed off out of the studio and let them get on with theirwork. He'd go off and meet George Bush or whatever and they'd get on with making the album, and when it was all nearly ready he would come back in and do his singing thing.

And it's not easy being some class of a living saint. In fact, if you listen to Bono properly he actually spends a lot of time trying to tell us that he's not a saint. In fact, he goes to great lengths to try and convince us that's he's only a human being - and a flawed one at that,

a bit like the other Christ. He's always telling us what an eejit he is and how he lets people down and how he goes on the piss and doesn't have time for his friends
and how he's insecure and hugely egomaniacal.

But still people think he goes around thinking he's a saint. But he doesn't. People are just projecting.

And the fact of the matter is that the rest of us
haven't really got time to think about world peace and curing Aids and poverty and the environment and all that other stuff. Most of us have jobs and just need to try and look after our own little corner of the world.

And we could easily forget that all those big problems exist and we could sleepwalk our way into a situation where it all falls apart for future generations.

But Bono has the time and the money to be thinking about it all and doing something about it. And it kind of takes the pressure off us a bit. He's kind of like our nagging conscience. And of course he's the nagging conscience of the politicians as well. If he wasn't bugging them and embarrassing them they'd probably happily enough ignore the whole saving-the-world business
as well.

The other thing to bear in mind is that he doesn't have to do all this stuff. He could happily sit around on his arse out in Florida, make one album every five years and be loaded.

But he's taken this job on himself. And what a job it is. He could have taken on something simple, like paying for an orphanage or a school or something. Instead, he decided to try and solve the insoluble, to do a job that is as wide as it is deep, a job that often seems to have no tangible results, and a job that he gets the complete piss taken out of himself for doing. It's not only impossible, it's
thankless.

So, for the New Year, we should thank him. We should start ignoring the knee-jerk reaction to seeing him mugging around the world with the Nelson Mandelas and the George Bushes and all that. We should remind ourselves that he is doing a good thing.

And, not to be cliched about it, but he really is a great ambassador for this country. He'd actually make you proud to be Irish.


Brendan O'Connor

------------------------------------------------------

Have you ever read a better article about why we should all be grateful for Bono?

I don't think I have. :)


And to know that it was written by a fellow Irishman is really great!


Here is the link to the article, I don't know if you have to register before to read the article or not:


http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1532799&issue_id=13463



I hope you liked this article as much as I did. Consider it my St. Stephen's Day present for all of you. :hug:
 
this.... is I think the best article describing Bono I've ever read!!! we should send this to paul theroux! we should show this to any of our friends/idiots who keep on bashing Bono!
this really made my day, smiling :)
thanks for the link! I'm gonna use it for sure! heh my father at dinner: 'hasn't Bono gotten another award, from the UN or so? I think he's quite a social little fellow.'
I was like.... Lol, that's what I've been knowing for a year! and finally they notice it too! but it turns out that not only fans notice that, but my father(not into u2) knew about his social activism, just because it was on the news etc. I think it's a good point that he's getting some attention, but it's also feeding the Bonobashers... but now I have something to counter that :D
 
Thanks for all the wonderful comments so far to this article.

I'm not from Ireland (part Irish though) and all I really know about how tough fellow Irishmen can be on each other is mainly from what I've heard Bono (and U2) say in interviews.

Evidently, they can be fairly hard and critical on those who have achieved fame and fortune.

So for this article to have been written so straightforwardly, so unapologetically by one Irishman for another Irishman who has achieved nearly the pinnacle of fame/fortune/world acclaim and to have been published on CHRISTMAS DAY in an Irish newspaper is probably one of the highest compliments that Bono has ever received from a fellow countryman!:up:


And think what his reaction must have been to have seen this article in the Sunday newpaper.


This article can definitely be used as "ammunition" to get the right point across to Bono-bashers.

And I think that Mr. Theroux should be faxed a copy of this article.

He needs to know that Bono-bashing is on the way out - even in Ireland.

:applaud:
 
I liked the humorous tone of the article, and the fact that the author pointed out how much Bono DOESN'T paint himself as some kind of saint. I don't see how so many people can completely miss the fact that Bono is always poking fun at himself and admitting feely to his own faults.
 
a bit like the other Christ. He's always telling us what an eejit he is and how he lets people down and how he goes on the piss and doesn't have time for his friends
and how he's insecure and hugely egomaniacal.


That had me laughing:lol:

Very fun, very true article! Thanks for sharing!!
 
We all knew this already though; that Bono isn't doing anything wrong but merely helping the less fortunate, we SHOULD thanks and APPRECIATE him, and we do!!
 
Hear! Hear! Thanks Jamila.

And the fact of the matter is that the rest of us haven't really got time to think about world peace and curing Aids and poverty and the environment and all that other stuff. Most of us have jobs and just need to try and look after our own little corner of the world...But Bono has the time and the money to be thinking about it all and doing something about it. :up:


Great article
 
Nube Gris said:
are they really moaning about Bono? is it true?
what kind of people are these irish folks?:mad:

Moaning about Bono is a bit of a national sport over here. :lol:

But most people just complain about silly things. Nothing too important.
 
if somebody has a contact adress for mr Paul Theroux, I say we should all mail him this article!!! EAT that Bono basher!
:lol: that article made me laugh :) and it still does!
 
hcbiggs2002 said:
Adding my vote to the chorus, wonderful article!:up: But who's this Paul Theroux person?!?:confused:
a big bad buffoon I tell ya!!! he was in another thread, he's supposed to be an expert on africa, and he was badly bashing Bono, saying all things about him wich aren't true, saying Bono thinks money can help africa and nothing else, and that afrtica needs education and sutff, while Bono says the same!!!!
 
Galeongirl said:

a big bad buffoon I tell ya!!! he was in another thread, he's supposed to be an expert on africa, and he was badly bashing Bono, saying all things about him wich aren't true, saying Bono thinks money can help africa and nothing else, and that afrtica needs education and sutff, while Bono says the same!!!!

He's obviously not quite the "expert" he likes to think himself to be!?!:tsk:
 
gr@cie said:
Hear! Hear! Thanks Jamila.

And the fact of the matter is that the rest of us haven't really got time to think about world peace and curing Aids and poverty and the environment and all that other stuff. Most of us have jobs and just need to try and look after our own little corner of the world...But Bono has the time and the money to be thinking about it all and doing something about it. :up:


Great article


You're very welcomed, gr@cie, sofia and everyone else who have posted their very positive ideas in this thread. :hug:
 
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