June 22, 2005

Sir Wanker



Sir Wanker

"Tell me why? I don't like Mondays" or Bob Geldof. Or Bono, for that matter.

Here's why:
(Sir) Bob Geldof has reportedly warned a top recording artist not to publicly criticise the White House during the worldwide television broadcast of the Live 8 concerts next month.

The warning came after Geldof insisted that President George W. Bush had done more for Africa than any other American leader.

The manager of the singer was quoted as having been told: "Please remember, absolutely no ranting and raving about Bush or Blair and the Iraq war. We want to bring Bush in, not run him away."

(snip)

Geldof, often the most trenchant critic of politicians, was sympathetic towards Mr Bush in an interview published by Time magazine. He sat with the U2 singer Bono, who recently publicly shook hands with the president.

Bono was exceedingly pro-Bush, calling him "the most important and toughest nut", a stance that has annoyed singers such as Billy Bragg and Sinead O'Connor, who think he is risking his credibility by getting too close to the leader.

(snip)

The musician who was reportedly warned by Geldof to "stay on message" was anxious not to be identified, possibly noting the backlash that followed a comment by Natalie Maines, of the Dixie Chicks, at a London concert, when she announced: "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."

Radio stations boycotted the band's music and their CDs were smashed by bulldozers before Maines publicly apologised to Mr Bush.
Geldof and Bono have obviously bought into the Bush Administration's bullshit which includes the old bait and switch when it comes to African aid as well as a strict policy of "you're either with us or against us so watch what you say."

Here's how that tough nut Bush has "helped" Africa:
When President Bush introduced his global AIDS initiative in January 2003 -- calling it "a work of mercy beyond all current international efforts" -- the plan certainly sounded promising. Bush pledged to spend $15 billion over five years to provide life-saving drugs to at least 2 million people with HIV, prevent 7 million new infections, and care for the sick and orphaned in fifteen countries. Most of the money, the president declared, would go to sub-Saharan Africa, home to the majority of the world's 40 million people living with HIV and AIDS. In the hardest-hit countries, nearly forty percent of the population is infected, and 12 million children across the region have lost at least one parent to the disease. "I believe God has called us into action," Bush declared during a trip to Uganda in 2003. "We are a great nation, we're a wealthy nation. We have a responsibility to help a neighbor in need, a brother and sister in crisis."

Dubbed the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the ambitious agenda provided the administration with some much-needed PR at the very moment it was preparing to defy international will by invading Iraq. But from the start, Bush has failed to deliver on the funding he promised -- and what little money he has provided is being used to promote a right-wing agenda that undercuts international efforts and puts millions of people in AIDS-ravaged countries at greater risk of infection and death.

Thanks to the president's foot-dragging, his "emergency plan" took its sweet time getting going. Bush requested only $2 billion for PEPFAR in its first year -- a billion less than one would expect. Then, when Congress decided to approve $400 million more than the president asked for, Bush unsuccessfully fought to block the increase. By the time the first relief funds arrived in Africa, nearly a year and a half had passed since the president announced his plan -- a costly delay in fighting an epidemic that claims 8,500 lives every day.

The administration insists it will meet its goal by 2008, saying it planned all along to gradually "ramp up" the program. But public-health experts say it looks increasingly unlikely that Bush will fulfill his promise -- and that even if he does, the money will fall far short of what is needed. According to UNAIDS, a partnership involving the World Bank and nine other international aid groups, the world needs to spend $20 billion a year by 2007 to wage an effective war against AIDS. What Bush proposes to spend annually, if funding remains constant, is less than half the $6.6 billion that America would be expected to contribute based on the size of its economy. "The fact that the United States can spend $300 billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but cannot find a relative pittance to rescue the human condition in Africa -- there is something profoundly out of whack about that," says Stephen Lewis, the secretary-general's special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa.

The president's AIDS initiative, like his invasion of Iraq, is a go-it-alone affair that ignores the clear global consensus on how to fight AIDS. In launching his own initiative, Bush has shifted the bulk of U.S. money away from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, an international organization that has funded projects in 128 countries and is widely recognized as the best way to distribute AIDS funds. "Bush is starving the fund," says Dr. Paul Zeitz, executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance. "It's despicable, frankly."

In addition to shortchanging international relief efforts, Bush is using AIDS funds to place religion over science, promoting abstinence and monogamy over more effective measures such as condoms and sex education. Before overseas groups can receive U.S. funding, for example, the Bush administration requires them to take a "loyalty oath" to condemn prostitution -- a provision that AIDS workers say further stigmatizes a population in need of HIV education and treatment.

(snip)

Nowhere is the effort by conservative Republicans to turn back the clock on sex education more pronounced than in Uganda. By aggressively promoting condom use and sex education, Uganda has managed to cut its HIV rate from fifteen percent of the population to barely six percent during the past decade, making it Africa's biggest success story. But under pressure from the Bush administration, Uganda has taken a dangerous turn toward an abstinence-only approach. In April, the country's Ministry of Education banned the promotion and distribution of condoms in public schools. To make matters worse, the government has even engineered a nationwide shortage of condoms, issuing a recall of all state-supplied condoms and impounding boxes of condoms imported from other countries at the airport, claiming they need to be tested for quality control.
Soothsayer Bono "has a hunch" that Bush will step up his efforts:
"It's hard for (Bush) 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."
And you know this because...? Man, what an incredibly stupid statement, Mr. Vox. America wouldn't have "the expense of the war and the debts" if your new hero hadn't decided to be such an arrogant ass. What makes you think he's going to stop being an ass?

And as far as "ranting and raving" against Bush is concerned, has Sir Bob forgotten this little comment from three months ago?
Rock star Bob Geldof urged Tony Blair yesterday to tell President George Bush it would cost the US "f***-all" to help to relieve African poverty.
I guess Bob has changed his tune and decided a little "thought control" is a good thing...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

well the prick has basically called the cops on guys selling the proper desired full off the tv live aid, 16 hours.

If dick head had been selling a decent quality version i would have bought it from him. But he authorised some edited crap on 4 dvds. he doesnt offer the real version, so whats his problem........

Former admirer of dick head

Scotland