- Listen to Bono, in a speech for the TED conference, on Africa. “This is not about charity, this is about justice. And that’s too bad, because we’re very good at charity…. We like to give, and we give a lot. But justice is a tougher standard than charity.”
- Wear green, help reveal the origins the rainbow. ing‘d like you to show up in color on Sat. Jan. 20, 8 pm, to take part in this epoch story of science, magic, and color.
- Lovely, eco-friendly Valentine’s cashmere scarves. Get ‘em while they’re hot — and LA’s still freezing. What is up with the weather, yo? Our poor oranges!
- LACMA’s now offering talks via a podcast. The top one right now’s “A Dramatic Gesture” — John Baldessari on designing the Magritte galleries.
I have to say, I’m generally not that impressed with celebrity activism. Bono is exactly right, though: we aren’t talking about charity, but justice. I think a lot of people are uncomfortable with that, because it sets up a contrast we don’t want to face. If a call for justice goes up, that means that there currently isn’t any.
Comment by Steve — January 16, 2007 @ 10:40 am
Oh many non-celebrity activists have been talking about justice versus charity for years. I just heard a replay this morn on KPFK radio of a talk Ralph Nader gave at USC last fall. He mentioned it and you can bet he has been saying it for years.
It’s a good kick in the butt talk for students to use their college years wisely, the way they have grown up “corporate “, and how to develop civic activism: listen to it at
http://64.27.15.184/parchive/
Uprising show on Jan. 16, 2007
Lisa Taylor
Green Party activist
Comment by Lisa — January 16, 2007 @ 10:56 am
We like to give, and we give a lot.
AhBono. Complains that Ireland is not giving its full amount of state aid to Africa. Then when we change our tax laws that meant he couldn’t keep all his money from royalties and had to pay some tax. He moved his tax affairs to Holland so he could avoid tax.
http://www.u2achtung.com/01/articles/article.php?id=142
Comment by simon — January 17, 2007 @ 2:21 am
I too think that, v. often, celebrities get more attention than they merit regarding socio political issues. That said, I really thought these comments of Bonos were right on — and it seems you agree? Thanks for the link, Lisa :)
simon — I noticed that the post you linked to had no external links with proof for its argument. As I know you tend toward the pessimistic, with or without proof, I was wondering if you might have some more substancial support for your comments on this post?
Comment by Siel — January 19, 2007 @ 12:50 am
It is actually well documented. I could have provided more links but your comment spam thingy tends to swallow posts with many links. The piece I linked to was from the Irish Sunday Times a major newspaper. Here is the piece from their website that I could not find before. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2091-2310379.html
Anyway other sources.
From the Guardian newspaper.
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1840232,00.html
Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/08/08/nbono08.xml
International Healrd tribune.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/16/bloomberg/bxbono.php
Comment by simon — January 19, 2007 @ 9:31 am
Wow! It happened relatively recently too! Around Aug. last year, it seems. Here’s an article where U2 at least responds about the desire to be “tax efficient.” The bigger issue seems to be that Ireland puts a good amt of tax dollars toward aid in Africa, so there’s the sense Bono isn’t paying his share.
It’s an interesting argument, since U2 still pays personal taxes in Ireland — it’s only the music royaties stuff that’ve been moved to the Netherlands — and they’re arguing that, since their music royalties come from all over the place (prolly much more from the US than from Ireland), it’s okay to move it out of Ireland. Still, it leaves a bad taste in your mouth –
Comment by Siel — January 19, 2007 @ 9:46 am