Posted on 10/30/2012 4:18:58 AM PDT by trueamerica
Bono has learned much about music over more than three decades with U2. But alongside that has been a lifelong lesson in campaigning — the activist for poverty reduction in Africa spoke frankly on Friday about how his views about philanthropy had now stretched to include an appreciation for capitalism.
The Irish singer and co-founder of ONE, a campaigning group that fights poverty and disease in Africa, said it had been “a humbling thing for me” to realize the importance of capitalism and entrepreneurialism in philanthropy, particularly as someone who “got into this as a righteous anger activist with all the cliches.”
“Job creators and innovators are just the key, and aid is just a bridge,” he told an audience of 200 leading technology entrepreneurs and investors at the F.ounders tech conference in Dublin. “We see it as startup money, investment in new countries. A humbling thing was to learn the role of commerce.”
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
And to think that I didn't even have stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night to know that......
Good for him. Better late than never. Obama STILL hasn’t gotten it.
Thanks trueamerica. Without profits, there are no non-profits.
This is the tax dodger, right?
If he means it, and isn’t just smelling the things to come.
And another lightbulb goes on... Welcome back to reality. I wonder if that means his style of music will change? For their first several albums U2 was my favorite band. But right around “The Joshua Tree” they started to get weird, and I stopped following them closely...
30 of rehabilitation and he’s just seeing the light. Better late than never, hippie!
This sanctimonious, pompus ass finally realizes capitalism is a good thing? After 30+ yrs in the music BUSINESS? Either he’s naive or full of **** and I don’t think he’s naive simply because of what it takes to make it in the music biz.
Now if these people will see that the money actually goes to the betterment of the people; not some dictator. Much like our government has not done.
Without profits, there are no non-profits.
And to be REALLY CLEAR, “non-profit” is a tax term.
It has nothing to do with morality. A lot of people go broke in “profits” and a lot of people get rich working for “non-profits”.
How about corruption? That bloke could really stir some pots if he wanted to do some hard and boring work.
Good to see. He has acknowledged Christ so it was only a matter of time.
Amazing what a kick of reality will do.
Of course, those who advocate ‘sharing the wealth’ mean sharing YOUR wealth, not theirs.
Give Bono a break. He’s been doing good things throughout his career and has helped a lot of people even though he was misguided. Imagine how much more good he can do now that he has seen the light.
I am happy that Bono is now wiser, but will he repay all the donors who he talked into financing his foolish projects?
One of the benefits of being a liberal is that you never have to pay for your mistakes, nor for all the snarky names you called people who knew better while you were on your crusade to bring the secular utopia.
Looks like Bono is finally having is John Lennin moment.
My favorite quote from Lennin:
“America has poured billions into places like that. It doesn’t mean a damn thing. After they’ve eaten that meal, then what? It lasts for only a day. After the $200 million is gone, then what? It goes round and round in circles.”
Wow, a liberal who actually admits when he’s wrong!
And I remember him defending Bush a few years back too.
I have loved U2 since the early 80’s, now I respect the man in front of the band.
Look, at least Bono was/is actively trying to help, and nice of him to admit his learning was a humbling thing.
Unlike Springstein or Streissand et al. (I don’t care about the spelling, ok?), these suckers depended on capitalism for their success, but never learn anything.
I have yet to see either one physically trying to DO GOOD in Africa or anywhere else.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.