Bono Supports the Rich and Powerful

 

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DUBLIN, IRELAND stan Since his first major foray into activism at the 1984 Live Aid concert (where much of the money raised reportedlywent to buy weapons for the Ethiopian military), Bono has become an almost ubiquitous face in the halls of power, being invited to speak at a host of elite events on poverty, including the Munich Security Conference, the G8 summit, the World Bank and at the World Economic Forum. There, he is usually treated as the voice of Africa and an intellectual and moral powerhouse helping to solve the world’s most pressing humanitarian problems. ”Yet critics would say that, far from helping the poor and challenging power, he has instead bolstered it. As Browne wrote:  Bono has been, more often than not, amplifying elite discourses, advocating ineffective solutions, patronizing the poor, and kissing the arses of the rich and powerful. He has been generating and reproducing ways of seeing the developing world, especially Africa, that are no more than a slick mix of traditional missionary and commercial colonialism, in which the poor world exists as a task for the rich world to complete.” In this line of work, Bono has gladly rubbed shoulders with many of the most notorious individuals the world has to offer. At the World Bank, he discussed poverty with Paul Wolfowitz, one of the chief architects of the Iraq War. At the World Economic Forum, he told Rwandangenocidaire Paul Kagame and International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde that “capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than any other ‘ism.’” Indeed, it is hard to find a powerful figure with whom he has not joined forces. In 2013, he met with the Obamas in Dublin, acting as their tour guide. Four years later, he was praising Vice-President Mike Pence as a champion of humanitarianism in Africa. Other controversial figures with whom he has been sure to be seen glad-handing include French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. war planner Henry Kissinger. Read my full Investigation In solidarity, Alan MacLeod