HelloAngel
ONE love, blood, life
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'A spirit too strong for any army.'
For Time Magazine's celebration of the '100 Most Influential', Bono praises Aung San Suu Kyi, a 'real hero in an age of phony phone-in celebrity.'
'It's hard not to become a monster when you are trying to defeat one. Aung San Suu Kyi is the leader of 'Myanmar', the country more correctly known as Burma. She has been, in effect, under house arrest since 1989 when she was elected to office.
Why? One, because of the military junta who came to power in a bloody coup in 1962 and have been running the country with a truncheon ever since. Two, because of us. The US has been better than Europe on the thorny subject of sanctions, but all in all there's been no real roar at this poster child for human rights abuse... just the odd bark and the occasional peeing on the General's garden gate.
Hard to imagine, but even single-party democracies check their mail. They're not just muscle, they're vain. Even these juntas have one eye on the clapometer to measure just how many boos and hisses they can get away with. Were it not for Amnesty International and filmmakers like John Boorman I wonder would I have forgotten about her. ASSK's peaceful bloody-mindedness is driven by courage but her captor's bloody bloody-mindedness is driven by fear - of losing the business they are running for themselves.
ASSK is a real hero in an age of phoney phone-in celebrity which hands out that title freely to the most spoiled and under qualified. Her quiet voice of reason makes the world look noisy, mad... a low mantra of grace in an age of terror, a reminder of everything we take for granted, and just what it can take to get it. You can't help but use anachronistic language of duty and personal sacrifice.
U2 wrote the song 'Walk On' to honour this extraordinary woman who put family second to country; who for her convictions made an unbearable choice - not to see her sons grow and not to be with her husband as he lost his life to a long and painful cancer.
I had wanted to get her life on the radio so we wouldn't forget the courage of one so vulnerable and far away, whose life may depend on being remembered. The lyric goes "You could have flown away, a singing bird in an open cage, who will only fly, only fly for freedom?" This woman, with an idea too big for any jail, and a spirit too strong for any army, changes our view - as only real heroes can - of what we believe to be possible. The jury is still out on whether we deserve the faith she has put in us.
Walk On won 'Record of the Year' at the Grammies, a very proud moment. But in front of an audience of millions, I did what I've begged others not to. I forgot to say 'thank you' to the woman in front of the song. Thank you.
More on Aung San Suu Kyi here:
http://www.u2.com/hearts_minds/hearts_minds.html
'A spirit too strong for any army.'
For Time Magazine's celebration of the '100 Most Influential', Bono praises Aung San Suu Kyi, a 'real hero in an age of phony phone-in celebrity.'
'It's hard not to become a monster when you are trying to defeat one. Aung San Suu Kyi is the leader of 'Myanmar', the country more correctly known as Burma. She has been, in effect, under house arrest since 1989 when she was elected to office.
Why? One, because of the military junta who came to power in a bloody coup in 1962 and have been running the country with a truncheon ever since. Two, because of us. The US has been better than Europe on the thorny subject of sanctions, but all in all there's been no real roar at this poster child for human rights abuse... just the odd bark and the occasional peeing on the General's garden gate.
Hard to imagine, but even single-party democracies check their mail. They're not just muscle, they're vain. Even these juntas have one eye on the clapometer to measure just how many boos and hisses they can get away with. Were it not for Amnesty International and filmmakers like John Boorman I wonder would I have forgotten about her. ASSK's peaceful bloody-mindedness is driven by courage but her captor's bloody bloody-mindedness is driven by fear - of losing the business they are running for themselves.
ASSK is a real hero in an age of phoney phone-in celebrity which hands out that title freely to the most spoiled and under qualified. Her quiet voice of reason makes the world look noisy, mad... a low mantra of grace in an age of terror, a reminder of everything we take for granted, and just what it can take to get it. You can't help but use anachronistic language of duty and personal sacrifice.
U2 wrote the song 'Walk On' to honour this extraordinary woman who put family second to country; who for her convictions made an unbearable choice - not to see her sons grow and not to be with her husband as he lost his life to a long and painful cancer.
I had wanted to get her life on the radio so we wouldn't forget the courage of one so vulnerable and far away, whose life may depend on being remembered. The lyric goes "You could have flown away, a singing bird in an open cage, who will only fly, only fly for freedom?" This woman, with an idea too big for any jail, and a spirit too strong for any army, changes our view - as only real heroes can - of what we believe to be possible. The jury is still out on whether we deserve the faith she has put in us.
Walk On won 'Record of the Year' at the Grammies, a very proud moment. But in front of an audience of millions, I did what I've begged others not to. I forgot to say 'thank you' to the woman in front of the song. Thank you.
More on Aung San Suu Kyi here:
http://www.u2.com/hearts_minds/hearts_minds.html
