Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Fuck Bob Geldof
(UPDATE: Luke from wotisitgood4 thinks I was a little harsh in this post. Maybe he's right. I'm not going to make any changes to it, but let's just say I've calmed down a bit since writing this.)
It sucks when your heroes let you down.
Bob Geldof's been a hero of mine since he co-wrote "Do They Know It's Christmas?" with Midge Ure back in 1984 to help raise money and awareness for the widespread famine in Ethiopia (one of my all-time favorite lines in a song: "Where the only water flowing there is the bitter sting of tears..."). I've read his autobiography - "Is That All?" - a few times and I have all of his records including his stuff with The Boomtown Rats and his overlooked classic "Deep In The Heart Of Nowhere."
The other day I heard about some approving comments he made about George Bush in an interview with Time Magazine (link):
"Actually, today I had to defend the Bush Administration in France again. They refuse to accept, because of their political ideology, that he has actually done more than any American President for Africa. But it's empirically so."
In the same interview, Bono added this:
"The most important and toughest nut is still President Bush. He feels he's already doubled and tripled aid to Africa, which he has. But he started from far too low a place. He can stand there and say he paid at the office already. He shouldn't, because he'll be left out of the history books. But it's hard for him because of the expense of the war and the debts. But I have a hunch that he will step forward with something. And it'll take somebody like him ..."
Understandable. I don't particularily like the fact that Bono has pretty much kissed Bush's ass the last few years but since he's done a lot to try and combat world famine I've kind of let him and Geldof slide.
Until today.
Before I get to what I read...I guess I should maintain a degree of doubt considering I'm basing my anger on a quote from an unnamed source from an untrustworthy blog. But it rings true. So, unless it's denied by Sir Bob I'll consider it factual.
From The Drudge Report:
"Please remember, absolutely no ranting and raving about Bush or Blair and the Iraq war, this is not why you have been invited to appear," Geldoff said to the manager of a top recording artist, who asked not to be identified. "We want to bring Mr. Bush in, not run him away."
"Bob wants no attention on global warming, or the war," the manager warns, "He is very determined, he does not want to lose control of the message... But we have the most unpopular American president since Nixon, soldiers are dying... you are going to see some righteous anger on stage."
How could you, Bob? How could you say such a thing? Has the silicone chip inside your head been switched to overload?
Perhaps Sir Bob just doesn't give a shit about the thousands of lives that have been lost in an unjust war waged for "sexed-up" reasons.
I'm all for doing something about Darfur. I'm all for helping the starving people all over the world.
But staging a love-fest for President Bush is a little too much for me to take. I hope you get your money, Sir Bob. But I hope you also spend a little time thinking about the ramifications of appeasement.
I'm sure there are plenty of folks with the last name of bin Laden who would be happy to donate some blood money to get people to shut up. Why not try to bring them in, as well?
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