MERGED --> Enough Rope interview discussion here + November it is!!

[Bono in Sydney]

Bono’s people got in contact with the ABC cause they heard Denton was the interviewer in Australia with the most “credibility”. Bono does one interview in what he considers countries who can help out on his idology. So Bono and his people basically orchastrated the interview, Denton’s style is to spend half an hour going on lovely dovey topics then try and get to know the real man. We were warned by Bono’s people there to not go off the agreed topics. Bono is Mr Charming of the highest order and basically Denton felt privileged to get the interview so there was never any risk he was going to do anything other than what had been asked for.

Messages on T-shirts are slogan’s man.

You have to get into the syntax of what you are actually asking for to see if it is viable. Is there a cause and effect?

Debt Relief is the end game else the Debt just comes back without any visable gain for the suffering people.

 

[U2Girl1978]

I'm at a loss for words right now.

 

[ruffian]

i think we've possibly derailed this thread with a discussion about debt relief that isn't going to be productive

back to your regularly scheduled discussion of the interview content...and my apologies to all for fueling this insanity

 

[biff]

Bono’s people got in contact with the ABC cause they heard Denton was the interviewer in Australia with the most “credibility”. Bono does one interview in what he considers countries who can help out on his idology. So Bono and his people basically orchastrated the interview, Denton’s style is to spend half an hour going on lovely dovey topics then try and get to know the real man. We were warned by Bono’s people there to not go off the agreed topics. Bono is Mr Charming of the highest order and basically Denton felt privileged to get the interview so there was never any risk he was going to do anything other than what had been asked for.

Messages on T-shirts are slogan’s man.

You have to get into the syntax of what you are actually asking for to see if it is viable. Is there a cause and effect?

Debt Relief is the end game else the Debt just comes back without any visable gain for the suffering people.

Please. You really need to just stop.

 

[Sicy]

i think we've possibly derailed this thread with a discussion about debt relief that isn't going to be productive

back to regularly your scheduled discussion of the interview content...and my apologies to all for fueling this insanity

I agree. This is a topic for a different thread.

Lets get back to the original topic please.

 

[tryan101]

I personally think the African geo-politics and economics are incredibly complicated, but agree 100% with B-I-S re: the need to change much of the political landscape before any real progess can be made. corrupt leaders and governments diverting aid money and supplies has and will continue to be a significant obstacle to these countries changing the course of their futures. obviously there are other alternatives that work *around* the govenments, but the job would be much simpler with more helpful leaders and gov'ts.

ETA: sorry to continue with the OT post - got interrupted mid post.

 

[evieangelique]

I agree. This is a topic for a different thread.

Lets get back to the original topic please.

thanks. It isn't your fault, ruffian! I'm all for discussing the merits/drawbacks of debt relief etc. in another thread, but certain people need to just need to vent their personal grudges elsewhere.

 

[Bono in Sydney]

I didn't start it.

Certain people here, just come to slagg off other individuals and they need to look inside their hearts to see if that is what Bono would do.

No man more than Bono tries to appease everybody and say nice things about everybody.

But some people here are very unBonolike.

 

[Bono in Sydney]

Peace to Everyone.

 

[Angela Harlem]

so, bono in sydney, do you live in sydney? north syd? or was it someone else who lives a few streets away from the house bono is staying in?
and how did you meet his "people"? did you also say you had seats to the taping?

 

[Ralphie]

Originally posted by Sicy

I agree. This is a topic for a different thread.

Do we have another thread for this type of discussion? It's a fascinating topic and obviously U2 related.

Loved the interview, although I felt like I had heard/read about 80% of it before it previous interviews and speeches. Bono seems very, very analytical and I like to hear his analysis of various people and situations.

 

[ShellBeThere]

how can a country build infrastructure if they have no money because of debt

yeah...how?!
I agree mightily with Bono in Sydney's points about getting trade barriers out of the way; that's huge.

But what about the notion that debt relief is only being offered to countries where there is 'transparency' and oh...something akin to a certain level of 'trustability' in the government that exists at present? Mugabe isn't getting his debt relieved is he?!

I recall finding out at around Live8 last summer from my relatives in Kenya that they're *not* qualified...too much corruption, etc. I was more than bit surprised really; thought Kenya was okay, but things have gotten worse there in the last decade.

My husband is just about to get back from finally visiting his brother who's an aid worker (relatively higher up the organizational tree) for UNICEF in Somalia, where there is a devastating drought happening. I think they got the recent rains they were supposed to, but it has fucked up crops, 8 million people in the whole region are in danger of starving and dying of *thirst* in some places. His brother was *kidnapped* by a "businessman" wanting to get paid for work he allegedly did some long time ago for the UN. This kinda thing apparently happens fairly often...the warlord-led militias are still all over, with nothing much else to do, and kidnapping is a money-making scheme *as well as* how people settle disputes in the region...
it's like a bloody alternative to small claims court! There are no courts so people kidnap each other over 100 bucks apparently. How can "trade" even be conducted under such conditions?
The aid workers can't even get in there, and though sometimes it is an issue of wanting to avoid some civil war, at other times it's pirates on the coast taking shipments away, etc....

I think we really need to make a serious all-out effort to get to a "tipping point" in the places where things can change--where there are reasonable governmental structures in place, where work can be effective. And there are definitely places like that. Relieve debt, give *serious* aid for infrastructure, so that people are healthy enough to work, getting educated enough to work.
That's what I see Bono and the groups he represents doing...deciding to try for those tipping point phenomena in the places where it can happen, so that the rest of the continent can see what can be done, find some hope, maybe some resolve to change their unfortunate states. because sometimes I feel like its either that or go in with like a gazillion soldiers, which just cannot work in the world george bush has left us and probably wasn't such a great idea anyway.
it's just hideous...children are apparently getting hurt competing with leopards for watering hole water. drinking their own urine. in the "modern" fucking world. doesn't even make the press...
I saw somewhere that kenyan prisoners were agreeing to give their lunches to the millions on the verge of starvation there. Good that there is a prison system there at least, unlike in somalia. Hard to imagine that we have whole swaths of lands like that on our planet currently, but we do. The school attendance in Somalia and northeast kenya is actually *up* where the schools haven't been downright closed, because they kids come to get lunch and save it and bring it home for families.

I can damned well understand why Bono would want to make sure he doesn't slag off the people who have the power to write checks, and I can damned well understand why he's maybe not doing "get to really know me" interviews while he's trying to address these problems.

I'd like a good interview as much as the next U2 fan, o' course!
Can't wait til my download finishes...only 31 hours left for my dialup line it says!

The Aussie papers on-line, by the way, were the first to publish news about my brother-in-law when I was desperate to get some info (phone service to Kenya sucks too..it's gotten worse over the years...no more collect-call services out of that country, and no 800-number services etc. Thank goodness for cell phones!)...he was safely released...
"Enough Rope" seems a great title for a show, and it sounds like Denton is very cool...but I can see why Bono maybe wouldn't want to be hanging himself on this important work..there's enough death to go around africa unfortunately..
sorry for the rambling rant...cheers all...

edit: oops, sorry...didn't see the suggestions above that we take debtrelief to another thread til after...it's not that I was ignoring it! cheers again....

 

[biff]

I didn't start it.

Certain people here, just come to slagg off other individuals and they need to look inside their hearts to see if that is what Bono would do.

No man more than Bono tries to appease everybody and say nice things about everybody.

But some people here are very unBonolike.

(Is your name Debbie, by the way?)

 

[Ralphie]

But what about the notion that debt relief is only being offered to countries where there is 'transparency' and oh...something akin to a certain level of 'trustability' in the government that exists at present? Mugabe isn't getting his debt relieved is he?!

I thought I remembered reading about that philosophy being used (i.e., debt relief as an incentive to countries with stable governments and not in areas with corrupt governments)...maybe in the Time article. It's an important distinction to make, I think.

 

[ruffian]

"Free Your Mind" might be the best subforum for this discussion. ShellBeThere, (and Ralphie, Tryan) you make some important points about *how* debt relief can be implemented in the face of so much political instability, corruption, and environmental degradation that makes areas prone to drought and famine. It's a huge undertaking, and just getting people aware of the problem is half the battle, and Bono's done a remarkable job in that respect. Anyway, thanks for the (sane) discussion. I'm off to bed

 

[Sicy]

(Is your name Debbie, by the way?)

biff, uncalled for.

 

[Sicy]

Yes, you all are more than welcome to start a topic in Free Your Mind or Everything You Know is Wrong for this type of discussion.

 

[Aussie Edge]

So back to the question at hand... has anyone heard anything about dates yet?????

 

[Lila64]

yeah, I have a date Friday night. Oh wait, that's not what you meant is it?

 

[ShellBeThere]

Yes, you all are more than welcome to start a topic in Free Your Mind or Everything You Know is Wrong for this type of discussion.

sounds good...I'm off to bed for now though too...hope to see some lively discussion on it tomorrow in one of those places!

Hope everyone gets the official rescheduled actual dates asap!
It sounds like they'll be special shows indeed...
and thanks to neutral for getting the interview ysi link up so fast!
cheers...

 

[hoppípolla]

Still nothing on Coppel and its almost 6pm on the east coast. I doubt anything is coming today.

Denton has been chasing Bono for the past 2 years actually. He said so on the radio the other day.

Also, I might be wrong but Denton said that the bed picture was before the interview and Bono suggested that they do the pic ala John Lennon and Yoko.
So Id say that the comment about the bed was in reference to that. I don't think Bono was bothered by it, espeically as the shot was his idea in the first place.

This is the same man who stated in the cover story of Q last month that " Am I a Massive Shagger? Of course I am, ask the wife."

 

[fly so high!]

Bono has people and if you don't think Bono has people, you are pretty niave.

I have seen Bono's people in action.

Tom Cruise has people, John Travolta has people. Joan Fonda had people. Even Billy Connolly had people.

I am not saying things are good or bad. All I am saying is that like most magicians, it is not always as obvious or easy to see as you would think.

I would have liked to have coffee with Bono but Bono's people even intimidated Andrew Denton.

What have you been smokin'?

 

[fly so high!]

Sorry! About that,back to the topic of this thread!
The dates should be relaesed today *fingers crossed*

 

[Bono in Sydney]

yeah...how?!
I agree mightily with Bono in Sydney's points about getting trade barriers out of the way; that's huge.

But what about the notion that debt relief is only being offered to countries where there is 'transparency' and oh...something akin to a certain level of 'trustability' in the government that exists at present? Mugabe isn't getting his debt relieved is he?!

I recall finding out at around Live8 last summer from my relatives in Kenya that they're *not* qualified...too much corruption, etc. I was more than bit surprised really; thought Kenya was okay, but things have gotten worse there in the last decade.

My husband is just about to get back from finally visiting his brother who's an aid worker (relatively higher up the organizational tree) for UNICEF in Somalia, where there is a devastating drought happening. I think they got the recent rains they were supposed to, but it has fucked up crops, 8 million people in the whole region are in danger of starving and dying of *thirst* in some places. His brother was *kidnapped* by a "businessman" wanting to get paid for work he allegedly did some long time ago for the UN. This kinda thing apparently happens fairly often...the warlord-led militias are still all over, with nothing much else to do, and kidnapping is a money-making scheme *as well as* how people settle disputes in the region...
it's like a bloody alternative to small claims court! There are no courts so people kidnap each other over 100 bucks apparently. How can "trade" even be conducted under such conditions?
The aid workers can't even get in there, and though sometimes it is an issue of wanting to avoid some civil war, at other times it's pirates on the coast taking shipments away, etc....

I think we really need to make a serious all-out effort to get to a "tipping point" in the places where things can change--where there are reasonable governmental structures in place, where work can be effective. And there are definitely places like that. Relieve debt, give *serious* aid for infrastructure, so that people are healthy enough to work, getting educated enough to work.
That's what I see Bono and the groups he represents doing...deciding to try for those tipping point phenomena in the places where it can happen, so that the rest of the continent can see what can be done, find some hope, maybe some resolve to change their unfortunate states. because sometimes I feel like its either that or go in with like a gazillion soldiers, which just cannot work in the world george bush has left us and probably wasn't such a great idea anyway.
it's just hideous...children are apparently getting hurt competing with leopards for watering hole water. drinking their own urine. in the "modern" fucking world. doesn't even make the press...
I saw somewhere that kenyan prisoners were agreeing to give their lunches to the millions on the verge of starvation there. Good that there is a prison system there at least, unlike in somalia. Hard to imagine that we have whole swaths of lands like that on our planet currently, but we do. The school attendance in Somalia and northeast kenya is actually *up* where the schools haven't been downright closed, because they kids come to get lunch and save it and bring it home for families.

I can damned well understand why Bono would want to make sure he doesn't slag off the people who have the power to write checks, and I can damned well understand why he's maybe not doing "get to really know me" interviews while he's trying to address these problems.

I'd like a good interview as much as the next U2 fan, o' course!
Can't wait til my download finishes...only 31 hours left for my dialup line it says!

The Aussie papers on-line, by the way, were the first to publish news about my brother-in-law when I was desperate to get some info (phone service to Kenya sucks too..it's gotten worse over the years...no more collect-call services out of that country, and no 800-number services etc. Thank goodness for cell phones!)...he was safely released...
"Enough Rope" seems a great title for a show, and it sounds like Denton is very cool...but I can see why Bono maybe wouldn't want to be hanging himself on this important work..there's enough death to go around africa unfortunately..
sorry for the rambling rant...cheers all...

edit: oops, sorry...didn't see the suggestions above that we take debtrelief to another thread til after...it's not that I was ignoring it! cheers again....

Totally agree with you. Great post. I hope everything is alright and if it is any consulation, your story made me cry.

 

[Bono in Sydney]

I understand what you're getting at, but I have to correct you. MTV has always sucked. i mean, i'm nostalgic for the early 80s mtv too, at least they actually PLAYED MUSIC, but i think it always pretty much blew.

What you were saying about religion being used to keep people in line and work out who gets fed or not......those must've been scary times, say 1000 years ago in europe when the priests controlled everything and routinely tortured people. they had it down to a science.......probably the only "science" in history to be endorsed by religion.

But hang on, it still happens in Modern 21st Century mankind in Africa. It is freaky stuff that we allow this weakness in mankind to exist yet we claim we are all generous and giving people.

 

[Bono in Sydney]

Anyone with weak faith always tries to convince other people in order to make their own faith stronger.

If ever I heard more hypocricy, I wouldnt know it. So your saying that all religions, especially the Christian( Catholics, Mormons, Prodestants, etal) are weak because theyve done the most "convincing" in the history of religion.

You know what the real problem is, the real problem is that "I'm right and anyone who disagrees is wrong and I wont ever bend, change, or even think that they could have a point that I'm not getting". Thats the problem, and it affects a lot of people. Organized religion and bi-partisan politics are both archaic. Theres no need for that type of seperation and the anger and hatered that comes with it.

 

[U2_Guy]

Mmmm, People get old, you know..........

They do... and some look their age, others look younger than their age and some look 15 years older than their age...

 

[Ellay]

Well I though it was a really good interview.

100 times better than that awful interview that was on radio one the night they played in their Dublin studios for the launch of HTDAAB

(which went along the lines of -

Bono - "says anything"

Everyones else in studio - " laughs hysterically as if the comedian of the year had just spoken")

 

[#KIWIMOFO#]

Originally posted on alt.fan.u2 till I found out it isn't 'cool' anymore and this is where its at in this day and age...

Moving out of my house in Sydney at the moment, so didnt have a TV available.
Thankfully a workmate recorded it to DVD for me...

Can I just say that everything I watched tonight is an affirmation of what I have always felt for Bono/the band since I was 6 years old.

Unbelieveable just what comes out, especially I think as a fan of a band you have followed for so long. The sub-texts and the feeling you get. Perhaps I am blinded as a fan and can't see objectively anymore...
if that is the case, I don't care. Bono isn't objective either, and
thats what it takes to get something done. Objectivity is blending
in... mediocrity. What it takes is people who care and people who will challenge.

I will continue to be excited about November as a fan of such wonderful music that has its own subjective meaning to me, with it pulling my emotions, challenging my thoughts and simply furnishing my emotions with sounds that I simply can't work out how to emulate.
I will also continue to do what little I can to push the causes that
we have been fortunate enough to come out of a group of people who encapsulate music and the right morals. (I say the right morals, cos like Bono I don't care about drugs/alcohol/sex/lies/videotapes I care
about the stuff that matters - people being treated with respect by everyone being fed, loved and cared for everywhere around this world).

#MOFO#

 

[martha]

newbies who think they have Bono and his causes sussed but haven't done their homework