Tell Me Why I Don’t Like This Man

I’ve never thought much of Bob Geldof and his chum Bono, never liked their music, actually I’ll go as far as saying I loathe their music, mildly talented tossers is a polite way to put it.

Sure U2 were the soundtrack of my first encounters with both alcohol and the opposite sex, not by my choice I can say, well up for the booze and girl action but the soundtrack, christ it’s a wonder I ever got a snog, let alone anything else. My friends at the time all thought U2’s Boy was the bees’ knees, back then, and play it they did. I’m actually being a bit uncharitable here, cause them same friends introduced me to The Verlaines and The Clean and for that I am eternally grateful.

My later experiences a few years later were more traumatising. When I moved to Mt Maunganui and had to endure Talking Head’s Stop Making Sense at every bloody party I went to, usually three or four times a night, couple that pup with Midnight Oil and you may start to see why I can be so very angry.

Now it’d be a lucky person indeed that missed Bob and Bono’s Live8 events this year and it’d be a small minded person, perhaps, who would begrudge them some sort of respect for the efforts they made to attempt to convince them that don’t care to do something positive about the plight of millions of our fellow humans. I didn’t watch the concerts – why would I its not like many of the acts appealed or that I thought they really were doing anything much that would convince the G8 to do anything concrete that might actually make a difference to anyone but the mega rich.

“If the words are followed through, 9 million people across the globe will have access to lifesaving AIDS drugs, which brings us to the most important lesson learnt over the past weeks. The world spoke, and the politicians listened. Now, if the world keeps an eye out, they will keep their promises. It is down to the hundreds of thousands - indeed millions - who have assembled on this issue to make sure they don't just sign the cheque, but that they cash it. If an Irish rock star can quote Churchill, this is not the end of extreme poverty, but it is the beginning of the end." Bono

"It is only time that will decide whether this summit is historic or not. What is true is that never before have so many people forced a change in policy onto the global agenda, and that policy has been addressed. The beginning of the end of making poverty history starts now. The summit at Gleneagles is a qualified triumph. A great justice has been done. We are beginning to see the lives of the poor of Africa determined not by charity but by justice. It's been a long walk from Live Aid's $200 million 20 years ago to Live 8's $25 billion today. This has been without equivocation the greatest G8 summit there has ever been for Africa. Today gives Africa the opportunity of beginning to end poverty over the next 10 years. We need Live 8's 3 billion people to make sure it gets done." Bob Geldof

Statements made post Live8 and the G8 summit.

Well on trawling through some news/opinion sites this morning my suspicions were aroused, maybe my gut instincts about these two weren’t far off the truth….

Two months have not elapsed since the G8 summit, and already almost everything has turned to ashes. Even the crustiest sceptics have been shocked by the speed with which its promises have been broken.

It is true that they didn’t amount to much. The World Development Movement described the agreement as “a disaster for the world’s poor.” ActionAid complained that “the G8 have completely failed to deliver trade justice.” Christian Aid called July 8th as “a sad day for poor people in Africa and all over the world.” Oxfam lamented that “neither the necessary sense of urgency nor the historic potential of Gleneagles was grasped by the G8.” But one man had a different view. Bob Geldof, who organised the Live8 events, announced that:

“a great justice has been done. .. On aid, 10 out of 10; on debt, eight out of 10 … Mission accomplished frankly.”

Now I’d like to Make Poverty History as much as the next person, probably more. Hell I’d like to see Bono stick his oversized hands in them tight trousers of his and see how many millions fall out, perhaps he could spare a bit…. dunno about Geldof, I guess he’s wealthy, though I can’t image how, based on his and his bands recorded output I’d think he’d be pretty bloody poor, but popularity and taste have never gone hand in hand as does earnings and talent. I guess he’s made a few pennies from the various Live8 and before it Live Aid concerts, merchandise and other associated money making ventures, I don’t begrudge him a earning from those ventures, though how much one must wonder….

I would like to think his grandstanding was intended for good and that now its over perhaps he could entertain us with some more of his intelligent discourse on conditions for those starving and dying each and every day, minute, hour, second. But where is he?

I did see him on Parkinson the other night – I’m not proud and I do have a problem with TV right now. I don’t remember him criticising the G8 or outcome of that summit, though to be fair I wasn’t concentrating nor am I about to research his every action since the concerts and conference, I’ll leave that to someone else. He did perform a god-awful new song, that’s when I turned off and instead indulged in some good ol fashioned flagellation, good for the soul they say and so much more rewarding.

So can we expect Mr Geldof to take the centre stage and criticise the uneventful outcome of the latest round of G8 talks? I somehow doubt it, I imagine he’s on permanent holiday for the next decade or two until he feels the urge to massage his ego and pockets once again.

In meantime, go visit his site, perhaps you’d like to purchase his book, or any one of the many things on offer.

I hope they make me eat my words, somehow I doubt it

What a couple of complete plonkers

On the stereo today I think I’ll place Burning Ambitions A History Of Punk as it includes a Boomtown Rats song, the only one I think I have anywhere. I feel it maybe unplayable as played it over and over and over again on a shitty turntable when I brought it in 1982. It was, by coincidence, my first ever vinyl purchase and import title to boot, it cost $25 if memory serves… and I borrowed the money off my Grandmother, a huge sum for me at the time. I had seen it in the local record store and the guy wouldn’t put it aside for me, I remember being very anxious that I may not get it.... I never did pay her back…. what a plonker.