Bono and Christ

This is all from the new interview book “Bono on Bono” courtesy of andy and shonas blog…

Bono comments: My understanding of the Scriptures has been made simple by the person of Christ. Christ teaches that God is love. Love here describes itself as a child born in straw poverty, the most vulnerable situation of all, without honour... those of us who are trying to figure out our Christian conundrum, is that the God of the Old Testament is like the journey from stern father to friend. When you're a child, you need clear directions and some strict rules. But with Christ, we have access in a one-to-one relationship, for, as in the Old Testament, it was more one of worship and awe, a vertical relationship. The New Testament, on the other hand, we look across at a Jesus who looks familiar, horizontal. The combination is what makes the Cross... It's a mind-blowing concept that the God who created the Universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people, but the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between Grace and Karma. I really believe we've moved out of the realm of Karma into one of Grace. You see, at the centre of all religions is the idea of Karma... what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth... And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that "As you reap, so will you sow" stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions... I'd be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge... It doesn't excuse my mistakes, but I'm holding out for Grace. I'm holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don't have to depend on my own religiosity... Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death... It should keep us humbled... This man was strapping himself to a bomb, and had "King of the Jews" on his head, and, as they were putting him up on the Cross, was going: "OK, martyrdom, here we go. Bring on the pain! I can take it.

Bono and his dad

Bono writes of his dad:

The spiritual journey was interesting to him. Because he wasn't a believer; he didn't believe in God towards the end. He was a Catholic, but he lost his faith along the way... I think the Church wore him down, all the scandals, and all that stuff. I would give him a Bible, or I would offer up, if he was interested, any kind of insights I might have had to some of the Gospels, or the way they were written, or the context of a particular passage. But finally he didn't buy into it. Yet he seemed to think this was the most important thing I had to offer. In fact, it was what he liked best about U2: our faith.

Occasionally, he would ask about my belief in God: "There's one thing I envy of you.  I don't envy anything else," he said to me one time... "You do seem to have a relationship with God." And I said: "Didn't you ever have one?" He said: "No." And I said: "But you have been a Catholic for most of your life." - "Yeah, lots of people are Catholic. It was a one-way conversation... You seem to hear something back from the silence!" I said: "That's true, I do." And he said: "How do you feel it?" I said: "I hear it in some sort of instinctive way, I feel a response to a prayer, or I feel led in a direction. Or if I'm studying the Scriptures, they become alive in an odd way, and they make sense to the moment I'm in, they're no longer a historical document." He was mind-blown by this.

Bono adds: 

I wish I could live the life of someone you could describe as pious. I couldn't preach because I couldn't practice. It's plain to see I'm not a good advertisement for God. Artists are selfish people.

 

stupid western economists

One of the most frustrating interviews I’ve seen

 

On SBS dateline show post Live8.  The interview was between a Global Justice activist and a “know it all” western economist.  Probably the below excerpt best typifies his attitude of “the west knows everything and the only way Africa is going to improve is if they doe everything like we do”.  Forget the idea that it is actually the west who is part of the problem for them being in the position they are currently in…

GEORGE NEGUS: Let me bring Alan in there. Short of regime change, ala Saddam Hussein, how do we deal with corrupt dictators where the current system is concerned? ALAN OXLEY: What should we do with the money, all this aid money? I think what we should do is set up the world's biggest scholarship fund and bring every young African who's interested on a scholarship to train in countries that work, let them see how it's done, let them go back to their own countries and build a new moral leadership for their countries.

Raaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

The open letter from Live8 to G8

It was always going to be a complicated feeling after Live8. A big noisy day, followed by the inevitable sense of "what was that all about?"

We just thought it was worth writing a reminder of what it was all about.

The very simple fact is that thousands upon thousands of people are still dying each day, in one damn way or another, as a result of extreme poverty.

No one, absolutely not one person in the world, thinks this is a good state of affairs. And yesterday millions and billions of people took part in an event that was meant to say that. They don't know how to stop the dying. But they are desperate and passionate that something should be done right now.

And so in their millions they sent a message to the G8 leaders that you must treat the situation as what it is -- a desperate crisis, a rolling tragedy totally unacceptable at the start of the 21st century. A child dies every three seconds. Millions are dying of preventable and curable diseases every year. There are countries in Africa where life expectancy is now below 40.

The hugeness of Live8 was the best that we normal citizens can do to send our leaders a message.

For God's sake, take this seriously. Don't behave normally. Don't look for compromises. Be great. Do more than expected, not the least you can get away with. You know what will really make a difference, what will turn extreme poverty around. What will actually begin to save the lives of millions of men, women and children.

Do it. Please, do it. The world is watching.

Bob Geldof, Bono, Richard Curtis and everyone at Live8

 

Bono's Live8 quote

So, this is our moment. This is our time. This is our chance to stand up for what's right. We're not looking for charity. We're looking for justice. We can't fix every problem, but the ones we can, we must.
3,000 Africans, mostly children, die every day of a mosquito bite. We can fix that. We can fix that. 9,000, 9,000 people dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease like AIDS. We've got the drugs. We can help them. We've got the drugs. Dirty water, death by dirty water. Well, we can dig wells.
If you want to join us, go down on the streets of Edinburgh, or anywhere else. Text us. Call us. There's phones, they're dangerous little devices.
Eight of the most powerful men on earth are meeting on a golf course in Scotland. There's a lot a stake. We have a message for them: This is your moment, too. Make history, by making poverty history.

Americas Aid

Here is a great article from Jeffery Sachs about Americas Aid and what it actually does. It effectively outlines that we need to stop looking at the gross figures countries give and look at proportionally how much is it costing them (per capita) and are they using it effectively. It also show how important it is to actually give the money – promising it is one thing, getting it to the people is another