Just my two cents worth...
1. It is justice and it is charity and it is loving thy neighbour, it is whatever it takes to get people to do something and if the most they can do is write a cheque then thats what they do. One of the things I am hearing in all these posts is "What can we do?" in a physical sense, and, for many, volunteering to hand out leaflets or go to another country and help are pushing the comfort levels. Perhaps, though, someone could suggest some ideas for helping that people can then take on board. While it is easy for many to just wander into their nearest Amnesty branch (or whatever) for some that conjures up the ideas of protest marches etc, which may not be what they are interested in doing at all.
2 Bono and appealing to the masses rather than the politicans. How many times have we seen the B-man in the paper, magazines, on the telly etc with Clinton, Blair, Kofi etc. He is using his public profile to highlight these problems in the best way he can. He is famous and a rock star. He is also a contradiction to the mainstream media because he cares enough to continually get into these people's faces about some stuff that is pretty amazing. Lets face it how many of the other 30+ people that were involved in the original Band Aid have gone on to do what he has done and generated the publicity he has? To expect Bono to go door-to-door (while a dream in itself to the PLEBA girls) would not have generated the media interest or the public attention that he has been able to garner through his current methods.
3. That we are talking about these subjects, that people who are U2 fans want to do something, is a testiment to Bono's abilities. Look at it from the point of view that if only 1% of the population of each of the developed nations knows about the situation in Africa, its going to take a lot of talking about to get some sort of action going. So why not go to the top, why not just stomp into someone's office and basically blow them away with what you know and what you think should be done, and if being a rock star is what has given you the access then go for it. Being a rock star or an actor or a sports star is used to advertise everything else, why not a crises situation in Africa.
4. As an aside, saying that you need to get the masses moving before the politican will is not entirely true, as a lot of the work Bono has done, especially say in the US, has been the result of his and a few others lobbying all sides to get legislation through. In most democratic societies this is one of the quickest ways to get a result.
As Bono himself has said "... don't mean to bug ya...."
1. It is justice and it is charity and it is loving thy neighbour, it is whatever it takes to get people to do something and if the most they can do is write a cheque then thats what they do. One of the things I am hearing in all these posts is "What can we do?" in a physical sense, and, for many, volunteering to hand out leaflets or go to another country and help are pushing the comfort levels. Perhaps, though, someone could suggest some ideas for helping that people can then take on board. While it is easy for many to just wander into their nearest Amnesty branch (or whatever) for some that conjures up the ideas of protest marches etc, which may not be what they are interested in doing at all.
2 Bono and appealing to the masses rather than the politicans. How many times have we seen the B-man in the paper, magazines, on the telly etc with Clinton, Blair, Kofi etc. He is using his public profile to highlight these problems in the best way he can. He is famous and a rock star. He is also a contradiction to the mainstream media because he cares enough to continually get into these people's faces about some stuff that is pretty amazing. Lets face it how many of the other 30+ people that were involved in the original Band Aid have gone on to do what he has done and generated the publicity he has? To expect Bono to go door-to-door (while a dream in itself to the PLEBA girls) would not have generated the media interest or the public attention that he has been able to garner through his current methods.
3. That we are talking about these subjects, that people who are U2 fans want to do something, is a testiment to Bono's abilities. Look at it from the point of view that if only 1% of the population of each of the developed nations knows about the situation in Africa, its going to take a lot of talking about to get some sort of action going. So why not go to the top, why not just stomp into someone's office and basically blow them away with what you know and what you think should be done, and if being a rock star is what has given you the access then go for it. Being a rock star or an actor or a sports star is used to advertise everything else, why not a crises situation in Africa.
4. As an aside, saying that you need to get the masses moving before the politican will is not entirely true, as a lot of the work Bono has done, especially say in the US, has been the result of his and a few others lobbying all sides to get legislation through. In most democratic societies this is one of the quickest ways to get a result.
As Bono himself has said "... don't mean to bug ya...."
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As MLK once said, power concedes nothing without demand. The WTO, IMF and World Bank didn't even start listening until Seattle 1999....
