Muhammad Idrees Ahmad

 

Bono is at a U2 concert in Glasgow when he asks the audience for some quiet. Then in the silence, he starts to slowly clap his hands. Holding the audience in total silence, he says softly and seriously into the microphone …

“Every time I clap my hands, a child in Africa dies……”

A voice from near the front pierces the silence: “Well, fucken’ stop doin’ it then!”

It has been hard to avoid Bono today.

First there is his branded benevolence – (RED)  – that makes its third appearance as a special edition of the Independent. Appearing on products as diverse as mobile phones, i-pods, credit cards, designer sunglasses, fashionware and newspapers, the label seems to have less to do with philanthropy than an all-purpose image management solution for businesses known for some of the most unethical practices. (RED) is an ingeneous stratagem: in return for a few pennies to the charity, TNC’s responsible for the impoverishment of Africa buy Bono bestowed legitimacy for their continued plunder.

Second, there is U2 and Greenday’s cover of The Saints Are Coming  by the Scottish punk band The Skids. I must confess that it is an improvement on U2′s vapid and pretentious output of the past 10 years. The song has a harder edge to it (courtesy of Green Day) : the Edge’s (what kind of a juvenile name is that for a man in his mid-40s?)  superb guitar riffs, and Larry Mullen’s thundering drum rolls, especially in the interlude, make it one of the most uplifting songs of U2′s career.

The message in the video would be quite welcome were it not for the fact that it comes three-and-a-half years, 655,000 deaths, and over 2 trillion wasted dollars too late. Ever a believer in cost-free activism, Bono pointedly refused to risk record sales by making a statement on the war when it mattered (Take, for example, what happened to the Dixie Chicks when they chose to criticize the war). Instead, he cozied up with the architects of the murderous war against Iraq, and provided cover for the planned theft of Africa’s resources through the corporate bonanza, otherwise known as Live 8. G8 2005, Bush & Blair’s attempted diversion from the Iraq war, was was a charade aided by Bono & Geldoff’s circus. While Africa is worse off as a consequence of the decisions taken at the summit, Bono and his mate Geldof helped sustain the myth of generous concessions to the impoverished continent.

The video can hardly be considered an anti-War statement. The implied message is that the military, with all its resources, could have a better use – providing disaster relief in situations such as Katrina’s aftermath. It is a statement of relative merit, rather than a denunciation of the immoral and illegal war in Iraq. Despite the pointed swipe at Bush’s ‘Mission Accomplished’ stunt, there is no overt statement on the war itself. And then, of course, there is the troubling question of the video’s symbolism.

Despite its long history of aggression and interventions abroad, the United States has managed to retain an image of defective benevolence, atleast in popular imagination. One of the keys to this success has been its manipulation of significant symbols to create powerful subconsious assosciations between its instruments of oppression, and cherished values within its society. Foreign aggression is always given titles that include words that resonate with the public: Liberty, Freedom, Justice etc., and the military’s actions are always ascribed a humanitarian purpose. This image is merely reinforced in the U2 video. While the real atrocities committed by the US military in Iraq will soon depart public consciousness, the sheer power of repitition will ensure that the imaginary heroic role played by the military in this video survives as its enduring image.

Lest one think that this is merely an unintended consequence of an innocent idea it would be important to bear in mind that Bono’s lucrative venture capital enterprise, Elevation Partners, has been profiting from a computer game that promotes ‘a pathological culture of ill-will and military perversion and…a very pointed and insidious work of propaganda’.

Among others, the scenarios in the game include invading Venezuela and ‘profit[ting] from chaos’.

His top selling games have titles such as: Mercenaries™, Destroy All Humans™, Full Spectrum Warrior™, and Star Wars Battlefront™.

Fore nearly two decades now, Bono has been developing his image as a brand, where he has arrogated himself the role of the white man in the white-man’s-burden approach to philanthropy. His solution has no role for the African’s themselves; his proposals do not include empowering the Africans and releasing them from the clutches of the multilateral financial institutions which have plundered their resource rich continent. But that, of course, will eliminate the role of a white saviour who could dispense deliverance and earn the coveted Nobel Peace Prize in the process.

An Irish friend told me the following joke:

Queston: What is the difference between Bono and Jesus?
Answer: Jesus doesn’t think he’s Bono.

For now, I wish someone would give him that Nobel and stop him from doing further damage. After all, if Kissinger, Shimon Peres or Teddy Roosevelt could win it, why not Bono?

Here is a worthier cause people could sign up to: Make Bono History