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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>The real deal for 2007</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Jean Lowrie-Chin
Monday, January 01, 2007
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<P class=StoryText align=justify>Bono was at the microphone but it wasn't a U2 concert. He was addressing the rich and powerful at the USA's National Prayer Breakfast last February. I saved his riveting speech from the "ONE" website. Today, the first day of the New Year, I offer you his challenging words.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=80 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Jean Lowrie-Chin </SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>Who is this Bono, who received an honorary knighthood a couple of weeks ago? Why has this pop star chosen to spend his time walking amongst and working for the poorest of the poor instead of living the high-flying life of the jetsetter he is well qualified to be?<P class=StoryText align=justify>He is the product of a Catholic mother and a Protestant father, and grew up in a time when his native Ireland was riven by religious differences. "I remember how my mother would bring us to chapel on Sundays. and my father would wait outside. One of the things that I picked up from (them) was that religion often gets in the way of God."
Bono remarked on the self-righteousness of various religions. "I was cynical," Bono confessed, "not about God, but about God's politics."<P class=StoryText align=justify>But Bono reported happily that "a couple of eccentric septuagenarian British Christians ruined my shtick, my reproach" when they advocated successfully that the year 2000, the Jubilee Year, should see the cancellation of debts of the world's poorest.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Then the church took on AIDS, said Bono: "conservative church groups hanging out with spokesmen for the gay community. soccer moms and quarterbacks. hip-hop stars and country stars. this is what happens when God gets on the move: crazy stuff happens!"
But even as Bono praised the charity of the church and the government, he gave them cause to pause. "It is not about charity," he said tersely, "it is about justice."<P class=StoryText align=justify>And he focused the eyes of the crisply dressed gathering on the sorrowful face of Africa. "Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice; it makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties, it doubts our concern, it questions our commitment."
He asked them to reflect on the tragedy of the Asian tsunami that took 150,000 lives. "In Africa 150,000 lives are lost every month. A tsunami every month. And it's completely avoidable."<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=130 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Bono... 'The Lord will watch your back.'</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>Bono must have shaken that room when he pointed out that "preventing the poorest of the poor from selling their products while we sing the virtues of the free market . that's a justice issue. withholding life-saving medicines out of deference to the Office of Patents . that's a justice issue."<P class=StoryText align=justify>Bono remembers his moment of awakening. "I was always seeking the Lord's blessing. and this wise man said: 'stop . get involved in what God is doing because it's already blessed'."
Bono's big appeal was for more aid to save Africa. And I reflected on Ken Jones' account of the positive influence of Marcus Garvey's works on the movement for independence among several African nations in the 50s. I remember the passion of Pablo Moses
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Jean Lowrie-Chin
Monday, January 01, 2007
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P class=StoryText align=justify>Bono was at the microphone but it wasn't a U2 concert. He was addressing the rich and powerful at the USA's National Prayer Breakfast last February. I saved his riveting speech from the "ONE" website. Today, the first day of the New Year, I offer you his challenging words.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=80 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Jean Lowrie-Chin </SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>Who is this Bono, who received an honorary knighthood a couple of weeks ago? Why has this pop star chosen to spend his time walking amongst and working for the poorest of the poor instead of living the high-flying life of the jetsetter he is well qualified to be?<P class=StoryText align=justify>He is the product of a Catholic mother and a Protestant father, and grew up in a time when his native Ireland was riven by religious differences. "I remember how my mother would bring us to chapel on Sundays. and my father would wait outside. One of the things that I picked up from (them) was that religion often gets in the way of God."Bono remarked on the self-righteousness of various religions. "I was cynical," Bono confessed, "not about God, but about God's politics."<P class=StoryText align=justify>But Bono reported happily that "a couple of eccentric septuagenarian British Christians ruined my shtick, my reproach" when they advocated successfully that the year 2000, the Jubilee Year, should see the cancellation of debts of the world's poorest.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Then the church took on AIDS, said Bono: "conservative church groups hanging out with spokesmen for the gay community. soccer moms and quarterbacks. hip-hop stars and country stars. this is what happens when God gets on the move: crazy stuff happens!"
But even as Bono praised the charity of the church and the government, he gave them cause to pause. "It is not about charity," he said tersely, "it is about justice."<P class=StoryText align=justify>And he focused the eyes of the crisply dressed gathering on the sorrowful face of Africa. "Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice; it makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties, it doubts our concern, it questions our commitment."
He asked them to reflect on the tragedy of the Asian tsunami that took 150,000 lives. "In Africa 150,000 lives are lost every month. A tsunami every month. And it's completely avoidable."<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=130 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Bono... 'The Lord will watch your back.'</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>Bono must have shaken that room when he pointed out that "preventing the poorest of the poor from selling their products while we sing the virtues of the free market . that's a justice issue. withholding life-saving medicines out of deference to the Office of Patents . that's a justice issue."<P class=StoryText align=justify>Bono remembers his moment of awakening. "I was always seeking the Lord's blessing. and this wise man said: 'stop . get involved in what God is doing because it's already blessed'."Bono's big appeal was for more aid to save Africa. And I reflected on Ken Jones' account of the positive influence of Marcus Garvey's works on the movement for independence among several African nations in the 50s. I remember the passion of Pablo Moses
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