Bono asks Bush for billions to help poor

WASHINGTON (AFP) - U2 frontman Bono, quoting the Koran, the Bible and rock band Dire Straits, urged President George W. Bush to boost US aid to the world's poor by some 25 billion dollars.

"This is not about charity, it's about justice," the singer and activist told the annual US national prayer breakfast, which included Bush, members of Congress, and Muslim, Christian, and Jewish leaders.

"That's too bad, because we're good at charity," he said. "But justice is a higher standard. Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice it makes a farce of our idea of equality."

"There's no way we can look at what's happening in Africa and, if we're honest, conclude that, deep down, we would let it happen anywhere else," said the rock star, a champion of funding to fight AIDS and famine worldwide.

Glad to see everyone's on the same page here. To put things a bit in perspective, taxpayers here in Ohio fund WELFARE programs to the tune of some $700 MILLION(2004 stat). If the state could weed out those that don't deserve it(those that can work but don't cause the still can beat the system)all that taxpayer dollars saved could come back to us and maybe cause us to contribute to this(or any other) cause, by our choice, not the governments'.

W shouldn't allocate our dollars to this, it's our choice plain and simple.

Never seen so much demagoguery in one chat room in such a short chunk of time (ie., political speech designed to inflame people's emotions and prejudices). It looks like Mr. Hewson, quite the demagogue in his own right, has done his job well.

From a political perspective, the majority comments here are spot on. From a Christian perspective, which is the audience to which Mr. Hewson was speaking, his comments reflect the fundamental spirit of the Gospel - charity, love, giving, forgiveness.

We're all aware that giving relief aid to corrupt African kleptocrats is folly. But Bono's talk was specifically targeted at AIDS, and the 150,000 Africans dying of AIDS each month. Many of these deaths are young children. These deaths can be prevented. That's his message.

I suppose that quite of few of these AIDS kids are growing up in an Islamic culture, so maybe we should just let them die? After all, they're our enemy, right? Or maybe we can just sort out the non-Islamic AIDS kids and get the medicine to them?

This isn't about "welfare" - it's about human beings dying from AIDS when the drugs are available to prevent their deaths. That was the message given to the Prayer Breakfast. You want to assess the value of an African's life versus an American's life, go right ahead. But if you're going to argue with Bono's presentation on its own terms, you'll need to do it on Christian terms, not political.

>So, I would admit that he may have gone overboard in attempting to shakedown the US for more foreign aid, he did offer reals props to W and others for what has been done.<

He also made the point that it was important that the money not be thrown down a rat hole.He was of the opinion we would benefit as a nation from fighting starvation and AIDs in Africa.

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