Posted on 01/23/2008 4:15:39 PM PST by ECM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U2 lead singer and activist Bono visited the Pentagon to discuss Africa and the fight against global poverty with U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates, representatives of the two men said on Wednesday.
Among the topics at the 20-minute meeting on Tuesday afternoon were U.S. plans to set up a new U.S. military command for Africa, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said.
"I think this was a chance for two people who care about the problems facing the continent of Africa to talk about their shared interest in solving those problems," Morrell said of the meeting that was not publicized in advance.
A spokeswoman for DATA, the group co-founded by Bono to fight poverty and AIDS in Africa, said the singer had been in Washington to meet members of budget committees in Congress.
"He also met with Secretary Gates to discuss global poverty and the connection between fighting poverty and peace and stability," Kathy McKiernan said.
(Excerpt) Read more at uk.news.yahoo.com ...
The naivety of the vast majority of Americans when it comes to Africa is staggering.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1952167/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1954387/posts
And while you are at, fire Hesham Islam and have the JCS reinstate Stephen Coughlin.
This is an unfounded rumor!
No, African nations starve because of the continued inertia of 19th century imperialism/colonialism and globalist mega corporations who build infrastructure only to serve the needs of raw materials and food commodity extraction, paying fire sale prices to tin horn dictators they put into power. Read a freaking history book. Start with Carrol Quigley’s “Tragedy and Hope”. Oh, and find out what sort of globalist monopolist power the following foodstuffs companies wield- Cargil, Bunge, Continental, Dreyfus, Nestles.
Here goes....How does Bush get any oxygen with his head firmly planted...? Globalist, he.
Why does anyone give this tard any attention?
A familiar paradox about leftist celebrities in the entertainment industry is that their embrace of progressivism almost never includes a wholehearted embrace of progressive taxation, i.e., the principle that the richer you get, the larger the percentage of your income you ought to pay in taxes.
The latest example is U2's Bono, a committed and unusually sophisticated anti-poverty crusader who is taking surprisingly little heat for the decision by his band, U2, to relocate its music-publishing business from Ireland to the Netherlands in order to shelter its songwriting royalties from taxation.
The irony was stated in admirably stark terms by Bloomberg's Fergal O'Brien, who reported on Oct. 16:
Bono, the rock star and campaigner against Third World debt, is asking the Irish government to contribute more to Africa. At the same time, he's reducing tax payments that could help fund that aid.
Now I know we have gone nuts and the kooks are winning.
That was my first thought as well. Had to go back to the headline and make sure it did indeed say, Sec DoD.
Ummm....ok. I guess the long range plan is to take over Africa, eliminate all the tribal crap, tin-pot dictators, thugs, etc. Then make sure the food gets distributed, give them some help with infrastructure, growing stuff, etc.
Why else would the Sec DoD be involved?
This is just too weird.
In related news, Britney Spears is scheduled to meet with the Queen of England to discuss the serious matter of global cooling/warming/change (what ever name fits the day they meet). Stay tuna'd.
This was not the “Compassionate Conservatism” I voted for in 2000.
Good God, don’t I hear DU, KOS and MoveOn.org playing in the background? Have the common decency to turn down your carma when you come over here will ya!
I guess he’ll meet with Bill Gates next week to discuss suppressing brutal thugs that are the root cause of poverty in Africa?
Only in our myopic dreams is that a reality
In truth Gates, is a politician first, then U.S. Defense Secretary
Why do you think Donald Rumsfield was vilified in DC.
They never could squeeze him into their template
I’ve been to the Pentagon but once and we were made to enter through the rear and to sleep on the floor. Opinions were not solicited.
This bites.
I'll see you Quigley and raise you George Ayittey. You can also read the new book by Robert Calderisi.
And unlike Quigley, they lived through a large portion of the post-colonial era and worked in Africa trying to rebuild it's economy.
The cries of "Colonialism" and "Globalists" come apart when you stop treating Africans as ignorant children. Africa can not get on it's feet until the type of useless aid being poured into the treasuries of the warlords comes to an end.
Bono. what a stupid name.
Sometimes I think the world has gone just plain nuts.
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