"I started off by visiting slums where the squalor and destitution were indescribable. Most of the hovels never saw the sun; whole families were crowded into tiny rooms, and slept on the bare ground in dampness, filth and cold.
An unknown world was revealed to me, a world of suffering more horrible than anything I had seen. I longed to snatch these poor creatures from their pitiful conditions, and I was staggered by the immensity of the task. I thought of the incalculable sums spent on wars and on scientific research which resulted in the destruction of humanity, while so many wretched men and women were reduced to subhuman conditions."
That sounds like something Bono would say, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear if it was his quote. But this was almost 100 years ago! I was reading the autobiography of Prince Felix Yussoupov, a young Russian nobleman who was 21 in 1908 when, helping the poor, he made those observations. I agree, and have heard Bono say similar things, all the money wasted on wars and research for more destruction when so much good could be done for so many. If only the world had learned back then, but it's only gotten worse in the time since
Yussoupov had plans of using his vast fortune, when he inherited it, for the good of the poor and needy in Russia. Sadly, the Revolution deprived him of that chance. He had to flee his homeland for his life, and lost all his estates and money and most of his assets. He could never return to Russia, and it broke his heart to see in the newspapers that the Communists and confiscated and kept his belongings and valuables. He had much less money in exile, but was known in his later years until his dying day in 1967 as a doer of good deeds in whatever form he could.
An unknown world was revealed to me, a world of suffering more horrible than anything I had seen. I longed to snatch these poor creatures from their pitiful conditions, and I was staggered by the immensity of the task. I thought of the incalculable sums spent on wars and on scientific research which resulted in the destruction of humanity, while so many wretched men and women were reduced to subhuman conditions."
That sounds like something Bono would say, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear if it was his quote. But this was almost 100 years ago! I was reading the autobiography of Prince Felix Yussoupov, a young Russian nobleman who was 21 in 1908 when, helping the poor, he made those observations. I agree, and have heard Bono say similar things, all the money wasted on wars and research for more destruction when so much good could be done for so many. If only the world had learned back then, but it's only gotten worse in the time since
Yussoupov had plans of using his vast fortune, when he inherited it, for the good of the poor and needy in Russia. Sadly, the Revolution deprived him of that chance. He had to flee his homeland for his life, and lost all his estates and money and most of his assets. He could never return to Russia, and it broke his heart to see in the newspapers that the Communists and confiscated and kept his belongings and valuables. He had much less money in exile, but was known in his later years until his dying day in 1967 as a doer of good deeds in whatever form he could.
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