Saint Bono and His Endless Crusade
Wow. I make a living taking on corrupt unions and incompetent politicians, but I’ve never experienced the kind of vitriol like what I’ve received criticizing U2 lead singer Bono for his tireless and tiring political activism.
The article in question, originally published in the Baltimore Sun, prompted representatives from Bono’s non-profit ONE campaign to pester the Sun, challenging me (unsuccessfully) on the facts. Now Maryland Senator Ben Cardin (D) is attacking me for daring to challenge St. Bono and the efficacy of ONE.
Cardin accuses me of spreading “misinformation” (read: lies) about ONE. In a letter to the Sun, posted on his official United States Senate website, Cardin writes:
Rather than Mr. Patterson’s suggestion that ONE is somehow a failed charity, they are, in fact, a global advocacy organization fighting poverty in Africa by moving government officials to better use development assistance funding to reach the largest amount of people.
Interesting. Here’s what I wrote:
Last year, Bono’s nonprofit ONE foundation was at the center of semi-scandal when it was revealed that in 2008 the organization raised $14,993,873 in public donations — of which only $184,732 (or just over ONE percent) was distributed to charities. Where did the rest go? Well, more than $8 million went to salaries for executives and employees at ONE. In response to the fusillade of criticism following these revelations, ONE spokesman Oliver Buston explained, “We don’t provide programs on the ground. We’re an advocacy and campaigning organization.” Much of the “advocacy” is directed at governments; organizations like ONE aggressively lobby world leaders to contribute “aid” (read: tax dollars) to anti-poverty and environmental causes.
It’s clear that Cardin either (1) did not read my piece, or (2) read it yet deliberately lied about its contents. I suppose it doesn’t matter which. The days when you could expect better from a United States senator have long gone.
What’s interesting is that the larger points of my article have been completely ignored by my many media critics. Bono is a hypocrite for lobbying governments to send tax dollars to Africa while he and his band do everything they can to reduce their own tax burden. U2 is denigrating its own considerable musical legacy by appropriating its songs to serve fashionable charitable ends. The media is silent because those facts are unimpeachable, and U2′s hypocrisy indefensible.
The irony is that Bono and his defenders, for all their good intentions, fail to see the deep and lasting harm they do to Africa when they lobby Western governments to bail out and boost up the Dark Continent. In the unexpressed but implicit worldview of Bono, Africans are helpless children, unaccountable for their own actions and in need of salvation from superior and compassionate Westerners. Bono wants us — the taxpayers of the West — to eradicate AIDS in Africa, when if they cared to do so Africans themselves could easily do so by embracing a culture of monogamy and responsibility, and it wouldn’t cost ONE red cent. But don’t hold your breath.
My view is that Africans, like all human beings, are responsible for their own actions. The corruption and misery in Africa is a direct result of African behavior, and will only change when Africans alter it.
yes the days when you could expect better from a U>S> senator ARE long gone. but we should STILL expect AND demand better. yet it seems there are far TOO many IDIOTS voting, 08 is a PERFECT example,
Well said and well written. Saint Bono is a self regarding, self promoting talentless little prat. A brief period of silence (a couple of decades will do nicely) would be deeply appreciated.
Jez @ Chichester UK
Jez, come on, Bono and U2 are very talented musically, they’re just hopelessly consumed with liberal guilt and are attempting to solve the world’s problems by making them worse.
On TV, I heard a nat’l known producer (of musical stuff) speaking about his work, shctick, whatever, and he referred to it as: “. . . . usually heard on late night TV, . . . and, most of it you wouldn’t wanna hear twice.”; and I suppose that, because music is so much a part of Western Civ., and so often appears in my daily experience, probably, his, is my most often remembered quote—I just had no idea that, any one could so fully epitomize what I had been reaching for.
And in that way, because their capacity for appreciation of worth in music audiences is fallen to so low a level, I see U2 in that category, “most of it I wouldn’t wanna hear twice.”.
And that, to see through this guy’s shallow presentation, our society is most unable appears as a sad fact of our age and society, . . .
I think Bono’s patterned himself after one of those gospel singing televangelists. And is as credible. He’s just tweeked the sartorial and musical veneer.
Common Lee, No they are not! U2 is largely quirky repetitious 3 cord bubblegum pop and Bono is a screecher who couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket. U2 (especially Bono) is a musical version of the Emperor’s New Clothes. Everyone knows that there is nothing there – but it is cool and trendy to say you are a U2 fan. Frankly – I think Bono (don’t ya love fabricated pretentious one word names) knows this too. His charitable efforts are to apologize for his meritless success.
You must be right….that’s why they’ve been selling out stadiums for better than 20 years now…
The thing that gets me about these liberals and their generosity is that they want YOUR money to pacify their liberal guilt. Many if not most are quite wealthy , which is likely where their guilt is coming from. Instead of trying to convince you and I to hand over our money why don’t THEY contribute; then perhaps they might really be able to placate their gnawing guilt.
“consumed with liberal guilt”? I beg to differ. He’s one of the guys who knows how to use <other people's guilt to manipulate them and gain power. He himself feels quite comfortable with his own wealth and fame.
Finally, someone is aware of Bono’s crap beside me…. he doesn’t do this stuff out of guilt… he does it for his ego…I detest this cretin..he’s 100% phoney boloney..
Exactly how I feel about the dirt bag. Threw out all the U2 disks I had years ago once he started running his mouth in public. He and the band would have been better off just playing music.
Bone and Neil Young don’t think much of America or the well off while having made millions but “Imagining” they’re counter-culture.
U2′s musical arrangements are boring and Young hasn’t done anything good since the early 70s.
There is lots of good music out there. Why do we only see what is most prominently presented and promoted. Answer: creative laziness. We all think our creative opinions matter while at the same time being unable or unwilling to seek out the obsure and declare it to be good. I’m not arguing to ignore anything prominent but just to search out stuff a little more before declaring a hopelessly redneck band like U2 be any kind of real innovators.
They are sleazy and immoral but not in the rebel rock ‘n’ roll way but just the rich and stupid way. U2 and Neil Young’s main talents are serving up propaganda to build their images and making money; music is somewhere quite far down the list and whatever juice they ever had has long been spent.
If I were young I’d despise what they’re selling as they are the establishment and not the other way around.
I think that there was a South Park episode that characterized him beautifully.
Yes, there is. It is episode 9 of season 11. Go to http://www.southparkstudios.com/ and watch it.
I saw through this phoney years ago. I never bought a U2 album, ever.
I have always been amazed by the number of world leaders – including US Presidents – who cater to this publicity hound. The only explanation that I can come up with is that they listen a people who are into the Disney version of reality (the tune “It’s a small, small world” will haunt me to the end of my days). Whenever I see Bono with another President or Prime Minister my opinion of them sinks and I wonder “what were they thinking?”
Bono’s wife makes nice cosmetics though.
I guess Bono feels that he doesn’t have to pay taxes because of all the time he spends “working” on international charities. Well, I guess if he feels this way, then he should become a government official or get elected to something. Oh, that’s right, even elected officials have to pay taxes. Hmmm, that IS a problem for this guy. He’s part of that liberal club that always wants to tell you how YOU should live, but never really feels that those same rules apply to them. Just like Al Gore.
Patterson: you’re nothing but a racist. You have the nerve to write the following:
“My view is that Africans, like all human beings, are responsible for their own actions. The corruption and misery in Africa is a direct result of African behavior, and will only change when Africans alter it.”
Are you kidding me? AFRICA IS A CESS POOL BECAUSE OF WHITE IMPERIALISTS! And really hot weather, but that’s issue caused by global warming (another white man’s evil). Africans are people too, but they need our help so that they can take care of themselves. They need food, maze and clothing, and basic electronics, and gold teeth. Bono’s ONE foundation encourages governments to provide these basic necessities. ONE spreads awarness and understandingness. And acceptanceness of black peoples. It’s encouraged brave people like Sandra Bullock, Angelina Jolie, and Mr. Drummond to adopt poor African babies. What do you do with your spare time Patterson? Hmmm? Crticize people who advocate and care? Loser! Go adopt a Zambian kid if you care so much.
Gold teeth? LOLOLOLOL!!!!
I like “maze.” The misspelling works so well, whether it’s intentional or not.
Will one of you maroons please Google “Mr. Drummond”. In my humble, Upper East Side opinion, it’s the kicker.
Again, what the heck is a “maroon”? I’m assuming you’re trying to spell “moron”? You’re not doing yourself any favors by your postings.
Maroon is a deliberate, tongue-in-cheek misspelling. Laugh a little.
“Again, what the heck is a “maroon”?”
I have to assume you were deprived of a healthy dose of Bugs Bunny cartoons while growing up.
It’s a shame what they’ve done to the original classics. They are completely unwatchable these days.
I heard that in the black community AXE body spray is pronounced ASK……..
** GUFFAW **
Truth laid bare with scalding humor. I hope Bono reads this article and comments – especially the above.
“AFRICA IS A CESS POOL BECAUSE OF WHITE IMPERIALISTS!”
Cute shtick, but wearing thin.
But, for anyone who might take your comment straight: Sure, because Africa was so clean and healthy before white Imperialists arrived.
And just how many Zambian children have you taken in? Please tell us all once again.
I love you LovelyEarth. Your posts alone would make it worth coming here and reading. The gold tooth bit got me laughing so hard I could hardly breath.
For anyone who thinks the gold teeth bit is unrealistic….I spent some time in British Guyana, and many people there literally live in the bushes, sleep on the ground, and never know where their next bite of food is coming from, yet many of them have gold teeth, and everyone I talked to wanted them. As a matter of fact, when I left, I gave some money to a family that lived near where I was staying. They wrote to me later to proudly thank me….they had used the money to cap their teeth in gold….the whole family. No electricity, running water, windows, doors or screens but by god they have gold teeth.
“AFRICA IS A CESS POOL BECAUSE OF WHITE IMPERIALISTS! And really hot weather…”
I like this theory. It’s pretty much impossible to have really hot weather AND a civilized society.
Example: Los Angeles.
Never have commented here but this post had my muffin top jiggling too hard from laughing not to post.
Didn’t even have to google ‘Mr. D’. Thanks for the jolly good web guffaw.
Oh,and Bono should get therapy for that white guilt crap.
holy crap batman …we is screwed. given the stupidity foisted in the lovey comment.
all hope is lost. people are just too dangerous when they are that brainwashed.
“Acceptanceness”? Hmmm…. Oh people, people! Lovelyearth is of course being ironic, come on. Even we who see the light can get too earnest and up our arses, no? This is a subtle piece of irony. And: well played, Lovelyearth.
Bono isn’t number one. He’s number two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5f7hOhl-jE
Where do you get these wonderful toys?
It’s clear that Cardin either (1) did not read my piece, or (2) read it yet deliberately lied about its contents.
I don’t think he’s saying you lied but rather that he’s outraged, or perhaps OUTRAGED, for your telling of the truth.
After endless testimonials from do-gooders digging wells for one African village after another (if they need a well they can’t dig one themselves? really???) I’ve come to the conclusion that the problem with Africa is Africans.
Open in another browser tab of mine is a NY Times editorial defending the DSK accuser’s lies to secure asylum in the U.S.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/opinion/06mcgovern.html?_r=2
Saint Bono of Gobshite is apparently worth north of 600 million. Does anyone know how much of this lolly the sainted one contributes to his various motormouth causes. I suspect not a lot.
like most leftist / progressives the want you to pay for their projects. they consider their name being put on a letterhead to be sufficient sacrifice.
like most progressive scum bono, (why name yourself after a chimpanzee variant)does not really care about anyONE but himself. a colossal fraud and if you want the honest view watch the South Park episode. …they get it.
Someone up the line suggests that Bono is ‘musically talented’. Really? A singer who reaches little more than a half octave range cannot be called talented.
How absurd it is for so many ultra-rich libruls like Gates, Buffet, and this clownish Irishman to keep insisting the rest of us must pay more “taxes” (read involuntary pseudo-charitable contributions). Don’t they have any sense of self-knowledge at all? Don’t they have even the least concern about how comical they look? Well, at least Gates and Buffet have given money to various, but nebulous, causes. Note it is never published that any of them pay extra taxes. (See also Marc Malone’s comment under the Colbert item here at PJM.)
Check out a new book on the deadly affect of aid (and I don’t mean the disease) to Africans and Africa: Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo. She (and African) takes Bono to task, among many others who practice false compassion. It is exactly as you say. . .
AWESOME book!!!
Thanks for the recommendation. Love a good book and love a good book which expands my knowledge of facts.
Re: U2′s talent. In Rock ‘n’ Roll, sometimes all you need are three chords and half an octave – but you have to be able to SELL IT. Bono sells it.
Re: Bono. One of my earliest memories of Bono is, I believe, from the video of the Red Rocks concert. What I remember seeing is Bono standing on the edge of a stage, waving a flag while singing “Bloody Sunday” or some other “protest” anthem. And the audience was just going berserk, cheering and reaching up to him. Bono looked creepy up there in the lights, waving his banner of rebellion in front of the screaming crowd. It reminded me of one of those Soviet or Chinese posters, with the flag-carrying Revolutionary Vanguards being adored by the Workers. Or the Nuremburg rallies. I don’t know whether Bono was trying to harness that crowd and make them do Good, or if he was just getting off on the power he had over them. The punters were definitely getting off on his revolutionary posturing – which was even more scary.
But that was the 80s. You werent cool back then unless you were all worked up about Bloody Sunday, Soweto, and a variety of other international outrages. Musicians were all about the Third World. Going to a U2 concert was one way to save the Third World without messing up your hair. It showed you were concerned.
“…or if he was just getting off on the power he had over them.”
Bingo. Power over others trumps greed. No good ever comes of it.
We have a rich and long history of mountebanks, snake oil salesmen, fast talking swindlers, do-gooders and other self-serving shady characters and charlatans. The most recent incarnation of the species seems to be the ‘morally superior celebrity’. The trick is to enjoy the slick patter and side show without getting sucked into the con.
I used to love their music. Today, I don’t bother with any of it. Has anybody stopped to consider why anybody would think that kings and presidents take their advice on world matters from minstrels and court jesters?
If you attack the left, they will respond with lies. The more vicious the lies, the closer to their core beliefs you have struck.
No one should be surprised at this sequence of events. It has been SOP for the left since, roughly, Lenin’s day.
So effectively Bono’s organization spends millions from others just to put up billboards saying there’s trouble in Africa. That’s an awesome charity model as is the idea of eternal food supplies to so people can breed even more unlucky rocket scientist to starve.
The thing I love about all this is as you have written: if anyone says they don’t want people from the Third World in America cuz they’re clueless idiots from Africa who can’t control themselves or people from Pakistan who marry first cousins and end up with mutant kids, then it’s racist.
Basically that is what do-gooders are saying but only with their actions while with words saying they’re fully equal. They’re not fully equal – if they were we wouldn’t have to hold their hands in virtually every aspect of their lives. It’ll never solve their problems and an immigration ocean cruise won’t raise IQs.
The Third World is a failure. It will always be a failure because of the people in it and not historical currents against which they are helpless. People who are truly equal and competent create their own historical currents and it doesn’t include squatting by a dirt road and hoping something good will happen while selling Bic pens and razors on a tarp. It’s projected Nigeria will have 450 million people in 50 years. Can anyone say “disaster of unprecedented proportions?”
A clue to all this can be seen in the idea of putting a small palm tree in a hole in the road so you don’t hit the pot hole on your motorcycle. In the Third World: problem solved.
Can anyone tell me if they’re still using glue pots to seal letters in Rio de Janeiro’s post offices? They were a few years ago. Be a nice way to send a souvenier from the Olympics.
Everyone’s equal: that’s why sleepy Egyptians sitting on top of buried monuments had to be woken up and today have all this pride and insist the people who woke them up give back all the treasures stolen and put in European museums. Apparently “gratitude” is not a word in the Arabic language.
Look what waking up the Palestinian Arabs did: they’re still in sleepy-time mode but now they shake their fists alot. Inside brain pan: empty.
CBC News June 2007:
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper snubbed U2 singer and activist Bono at the G8 summit, saying he is too busy to discuss the African AIDS crisis with him.
“My priority here this week is to meet with other leaders,” Harper told reporters in Heiligendamm, Germany, where the summit is being held.
“Meeting celebrities isn’t my shtick,” he added. “That was the shtick of the previous guy.”
By the “previous guy,” Harper was referring to former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin, who met with Bono several times.
” … it’s not fashionable to help America, you see, because America is not perceived as helpless.”
And it is perceived as GUILTY — that’s the big thing.
Yeah but as always the U.S.A. is the first to give and the last to ask. We are SUCH bastards. Why can’t we just massively under-perform like everyone else? Oh, wait, our president Will Not Rest until that goal — his highest objective — is achieved.
Where did the 1% actual donation go? To another K-street lobbying firm? Or did they use it to throw themselves an awards banquet? I wonder as well what proportion of these ONE salary earners are anything less that lily white? (Liberals being the committed “one-droppers” that they are.) I bet it’s even higher than at CBS/CNN/MSNBC.
U WHO? bono is like the rest of the communist left… America sucks everyone else is great ,America does nothing everyone else is pulling their weight America ..bla bla bla ………….screw U2 AND THE REST OF THE COMMIE LEFT
Imagine if St. Bono and St. Angelina had babies together! It would be so awesome! It would be like getting a really pretty Jesus who could go on tour!
I saw through this phoney years ago. I never, ever bought a U2 album.
I saw through this phoney years ago. I never, ever bought a U2 album.
Ya know charity begins at home. Maybe he should go home and solve all their problems before he takes on any others?
After reading this article, my 16 year old son now understands wht I keep calling Bono a “Pinhead.” Well, that’s not really what I call him. As this is an open forum, I don’t think that it would be appropreate
It is true many Africans could do more to elevate their own situations. However, from what I have seen, it appears to me many of their problems are centered around groups who advocate all sorts of solutions, that only require Africans to do w/o under the guise of saving them from development or western civilization or whatever. If Africans had access to DDT, many millions would not have died from malaria & in fact many more millions would not die. Then again, that would mean the population would increase & to some, thats a bad thing. Apparently its OK for westerners to have used DDT & eradicated malaria, but its not OK for uneducated black Africans to do so. Its OK for westerners to use up to date farming equipment, but we must have uneducated black Africans use 15th century methods. One NGO person said, “its quaint!” Looks more like some do-gooders want uneducated black Africans to stay mired in those gwat villages. rather than progress out of them to enjoy many of the advantages westerners enjoy when they go home, after those rallies to protest westerners ruining that continent.
More damage has been done to Africa by westerners looking to promote their supposedly altruistic operations & ideals, than just about any other way, other than wars. Advocating for others money to be spent is not a charitable action. Its robbery using government edicts!
I only have one disagreement with Patterson, it’s not that Bono feels ‘guilty’ about being wealthy, he doesn’t. Nor is it that Bono wants to help Africans, he DOESN’T. Bono seeks to exploit Africans, as a prop. The programs Bono, and Bill Gates as well, ‘support’, aren’t programs intended in any way to feed, heal or help Africans in any way, shape or form. Bono and Gates view our aids programs as an vein to tap, for their own personal enrichment. Bill Gates gives little to none of his Foundation funds to help the causes he claims to champion, Bono has given ZERO to the causes he champions, not ONE penny, not ONE Irish penny to any of them. If anyone wishes to see these strutting monsters for what they are, one only has to look at their ‘programs’, they all involve a drug trial, or some such thing, that Bono and Gates invest in, not average investments, but special investments, not the kind that are available to the general investor. The product, ie vaccine that wass used in trials in Africa, US tax dollars paid for the entire set of trials, US tax dollars actually funded the pharmaceutical company’s entire cost, as well as paid for the untested, and as was found, extremely dangerous and failed vaccine. US tax dollars, still untold millions of them, were funneled into the pockets of corrupt African government officials, as bribes to allow their people to be used as guinea pigs, lied to, falsely diagnosed with HIV to justify using them as the human equivalent of a lab rat. No rules, no protections and no oversight. False positive reports were put out there, and the pharmaceutical company’s stock in the drug boomed. Bono and Bill Gates, knew in advance when to sell their stock, but the public weren’t being informed about what was going on with those trials, so while Bono and Gates made a huge profit off a vaccine trial that ended up increasing the spread of AIDS, average investors, duped by those two frauds, and the US MSM which refused to report what was going on, unlike the African and some European journalists, who made sure the truth got out, average investors lost their investments.
Bono and Gates knew what was going on, they were part of the group that paid the bribes and cut the deals with African leaders, they didn’t speak out after the fact and address what happened, they were already onto their next scam. Bono views us as a victim to bleed dry. Just as in Ireland, Bono demanded Ireland’s taxes be raised, including for those in his income bracket, this was deliberate. He knew that wealthy Irish people would move their money out of Ireland, he like other corrupt leftists want to push the wealth out of western countries, because he wants to help impose globalism, impose slavery upon western countries that he feels he can exploit even further. Bono, like his friend Bill Gates, are greedy, no amount of wealth is enough for them.
This author is so self- inflated and self-involved, that he cares more about protecting his own defaming of a artist, than acknowledging that this artists attempts are making more of a difference in the world than his defaming efforts.
This is sad. Yes, I bet that money is going to lobby the big wigs in governments here and abroad. However, if it influences people to be ‘aware of a problem’ it has done a tremendous good.
I think people who write this crap should get there head out of there ass and stop protecting thier precious reputation and become part of the solution. Such doomsday BS. Africa has issues, America has her issues and yes we are all to blame. It does not mean another country should not help out one that is politically in a turmoltulous hard place. If we were to help mend some of Africa’s problems, maybe another country would help us fix our financial woes.
I suppose ‘love thy neighbor as thyself’ would not apply to this at all.
Such a waste of time was this article