Said Bono from his private plane.

OK, much as I think Bono is a meddlesome, sanctimonious prick, I'll give him mad props for that statement. Kudos to you, sir, and may you live a long and healthy life.

$1 million per child per day? I think they need to root out some inefficiencies in their aide packages.

I always thought the third world governments wouldn't let the aid get to them anyway, no matter how much you gave them.

He's talkin' bout the starviin' chil'ren

This guy is still spouting his crap? Does anyone really care what some Irish musician thinks?

rotsky: I always thought the third world governments wouldn't let the aid get to them anyway, no matter how much you gave them.

You give the children food, you don't give the government money.

aw you go bono

$25 billion can buy a *lot* of designer yellow sunglasses.

fark Bono.....

F*ck that asshole. Those starving children need to start taking a little personal responsibility.

To all you Bono haters....
suck it

Yes he is very wealthy. Yes he gives a lot of money to charity. If he just sat on his money and didn't give a sh*t you would give him sh*t for not giving a sh*t. He is a humanitarian and one of the greatest musicians alive.

To all the Bono haters.....do you hate Oprah too?

At least they are trying to help others who are in pain or dying or are oppressed. What the hell do you do? biatch and hate?
STFU and GBTW

Load those guns and start the tirade in my direction.

Didn't you know, Bono? Wealthy white guys are more important than starving third world (or even first world) children!

/the nerve of some people
//goossshhh!
///maybe they could eat a liger

While I applaud his intent, throwing money at african dictators is unlikely to make anything good happen.

I was going to post a hotlinked pic of Sally Struthers, but she ate the pixels.

Flooding Africa with more aid accomplishes nothing. While obviously aid can be helpful in responding to specific crises, as a way off lifting the region out of poverty it's at best useless and most likely counter-productive.

I'm with Bono. Why not print off a few extra billion for the kids in Africa?

truth_is_stranger_than_fishin: To all the Bono haters.....do you hate Oprah too?

Unless I actually started stalking her with intent to do bodily harm I don't think it's possible to hate Oprah more than I do.

You poor housewives no one appreciates you. You're parents failed. Your kids suck. Your husband is a lout. None of it is your fault. It's them! Your parents didn't love you enough! Your husband is a bastard1 No one loves you enough but me, Oprah. Here have a sandwich and some perfume I stashed under your chair.

Why does anyone watch that show anymore?

$1 million per child per day? I think they need to root out some inefficiencies in their aide packages.

I went to Google to check aid levels and found Bono has been saying the same thing for years -- send more money. The article I found said that a large fraction of aid to Africa is stolen by governments.

As of 2006 Bush had increased aid to $4 billion per year and was aiming for $10 billion per year by 2010. He's very popular in Africa.

Churchill2004: Flooding Africa with more aid accomplishes nothing. While obviously aid can be helpful in responding to specific crises, as a way off lifting the region out of poverty it's at best useless and most likely counter-productive.

Thats just it... so much of Africa had been under the colonial boot for so long, the normal mechanisms people have used for thousands of years to differentiate themselves according to language and culture have never really had a chance to develop.

For an example of this, look at a map of the east coast of the United States and at Europe... the states in the US and the countries of Europe have very few straight lines as borders... most are separated by mountain ranges and rivers. This is where, through either war or treaty or just because, the peoples on either side basically said, "this is mine, and that is yours" and that was that.

Now look at the continent of Africa... the only countries that don't have mostly straight lines as borders are either in the heart of the continent (where europeans couldn't get at the resources) or along the coasts, where these places were countries anyway. It looks more like the western half of the united states, where wealthy men from back east just sliced it up into neat parcels with straight lines with no regard to the needs or desires of the people already living there. Manifest destiny, indeed.

Even now, many countries on the continent have only been independent since I was born (1962), and then in name only... first world multinational corporations have kept a firm grip on their resources, and made sure corporate-friendly leaders were put in office when they could be.

Many of these corporate installed leaders see no benefit to letting the people share in the wealth of the nation, since their allegiance is not to the people. If somehow Africa could re-sort itself according to cultural, social, and natural boundaries without interference from the first world, I believe they could take care of themselves - and then some.

Did he ever find what he was looking for?

Not that I especially agree with the Bush plan because it's definitely flawed (badly), but you know what? If the US economy continues it's nose-dive and we enter a for-real depression, the ripple effects will ensure that ain't NO ONE gonna have any money to send to those poor starving kids in Africa.

I'm not for bailing out the idiots who made the bad decisions, but I am definitely for doing what it takes to keep this house of cards from coming down. Bono can shut the f*ck up and get back to making pop songs.

If we provide food for these countries, doesn't it just sit there ant rot on the pier while the corrupt governments try to figure out what to do about it? Let's just send them mosquito nets instead.

I do have to say that when our government can come up with $600 billion to bomb Arabs and $700 billion to bail out moneylenders, it's pretty f*cking infuriating to hear damn near any proposal for education or health care initiatives - let alone foreign aid - being met with "yeah, but where's the money gonna come from OMFG UR GONA RAIZ MAH TAXES U DIRTY COMMY..."

Just saying.

Shows what you know Bono, we don't even have the $700 billion anyway. So there. Check and mate.

truth_is_stranger_than_fishin To all the Bono haters.....do you hate Oprah too?

Yes, all of us do. Every one of us.

Seriously, though, we have fallen so far that Bono is almost right. We're taking money from working class and middle class Americans to shore up the rich. OTOH, he's still incredibly wrong about what we should do to help the truly poor in Africa and Asia. Not that that is surprising, as he is truly a stupid coont. But he is right that we should be doing more to help them, even if he has no clue how we could do it.

We can get by just fine with 25,000 less children in the world every day, Wall Street not so much.

Bono probably gives more to charity each year than everyone in this thread does in a year combined. And then multiply it by a lot.

/not a U2 fan

I hate your music Bono, but you have good priorities.

He's full of crap!

Spend a few a billion on condoms, and we won't have so many starving children.

That idea only weighs about 6.3 Kurics...

YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH!!!!

ubermensch: Spend a few a billion on condoms, and we won't have so many starving children.

Are you from Utah?

I don't understand why so many people hate Bono. He's done far more good for the world than 99% of other celebrities. While other filthy rich rockstars are snorting coke off the asses of hookers, Bono is spening much of his time traveling the world trying to make a positive difference in the world. I just don't see how he's such a bad guy to so many people.

ubermensch: Spend a few a billion on condoms, and we won't have so many starving children.

THAT. Food is a bandage, contraception is a permanent solution.

<b><a>Adremelech</a>:</b> <i>I don't understand why so many people hate Bono. He's done far more good for the world than 99% of other celebrities. While other filthy rich rockstars are snorting coke off the asses of hookers, Bono is spening much of his time traveling the world trying to make a positive difference in the world. I just don't see how he's such a bad guy to so many people.</i>


He also moved U2's publishing company out of Ireland to avoid paying taxes, which I can only assume would have gone to helping people.

http://www.slate.com/id/2152580/

The answer is;

Take care of your own. Then take care of others.

BigDumbGuy: This guy is still spouting his crap? Does anyone really care what some Irish musician thinks?

Does anyone here really care about what some lazy farker thinks?

How many millions of dollars have you personally raised to help the poor?


I don't care for Bono's music, and I think he's a bit of a prick, but the man has a valid point. Why are we bailing out bankers and letting the poor starve?

That's One Million Dollars per kid. Which, coincidentally, is about the cost of an enemy kill in war.

Throwing money at Africa has failed for 50 years. How is this money different?

700 billion is like 700 million Louisiana tubal ligations...now that sounds like a good idea...

That's because it's just money on paper.

ok ok so i'll post the story/rumour...

"Halfway through the concert, Bono stood in a spotlight on stage and asked the audience for complete silence.

Gradually the auditorium fell quiet.

Then Bono began slowly clapping.

The audience was spellbound and silent.

He took the microphone and said: 'Every time I clap my hands, a child in Africa dies'.

Suddenly, from the front row of the venue, a voice shouted out to Bono: 'Well stop F***ing doing it, then!!!' "

/ paraphrased / stitched together from two versions from the site Snopes.com

Where's the article that pretty much say native farmers can grow food for their country, but since we dumps free food over there they go broke and become poor?

Isn't this the guys who bought a plane seat for his hat and then flew it across the country? Ya, I'm gonna listen to this d-bag about wasting cash.

As for the starving kids in Africa, I think Sam Kinison put it best when he said, "MOVE WHERE THE FOOD IS!! YOU LIVE IN THE FARKING DESERT!! NOTHING GROWS OUT HERE!! Come here you see this, this is sand, you know it's gonna be 100 hundred years from now? IT'S GONNA BE SAND!!"

EatHam: While I applaud his intent, throwing money at african dictators is unlikely to make anything good happen.
Oooooo very astute observation... I am sure that Bono has never considered this idea... oh wait they learned this in the 80's after Live Aid. Oh well, for a person 28 years late with an observation I give you mad props.

To be fair it's not the same 25000 kids that are dieing every day. So in a few years 25 billion would be like 25 cents a kid. Which is a pretty good deal if you think about it.

All that happens is the leaders of those third world countries profit from us trying to help them.

Bono's done more today to actually relieve world hunger and AIDS than any Farker will do in a lifetime.

You go, Bono.