Many of you know my disdain for the work of U2’s front man, Bono. Some of you think I’m just a little too cynical and can’t follow me on this point. To clarify, it was never my intention to highlight Bono in particular, but all at once a few years back, so many people started forwarding me his “prayer” in front of Bush and his great humanitarian work on behalf of people suffering from AIDS in Africa. In the wake of hurricane Katrina and the disasterous response of the US, I wrote a song that had chorus that began like this: “my country doesn’t give a sh** about New Orleans…” In the song I not so implicitly critique Bono’s Product RED campaign. I attempt to bring to light the irony of so-called humanitarian work that is built on cooperation with corporations like the Gap and Reebok. The campaign went something like this: if people buy RED Gap products (or Reebok,etc.), Gap will give X amount of dollars to help alleviate the AIDS epidemic in Africa. To me and I’m sure others, it was obvious that these corporations were simply taking advantage of Bono. When the Product RED campaign was first set into motion, Bono was at the peak of his career as a humanitarian; this was certainly a good marketing campaign for Gap and others. Ironically, many of the corporations had a history of accusations for human rights abuses.The reason why a raise this again is because I just came across an article in the UK’s Guardian which reveals that
“Child workers, some as young as 10, have been found working in a textile factory in conditions close to slavery to produce clothes that appear destined for Gap Kids…Speaking to The Observer, the children described long hours of unwaged work, as well as threats and beatings.”
The article goes on,
The Observer discovered the children in a filthy sweatshop working on piles of beaded children’s blouses marked with serial numbers that Gap admitted corresponded with its own inventory. The company has pledged to convene a meeting of its Indian suppliers as well as withdrawing tens of thousands of the embroidered girl’s blouses from the market, before they reach the stores
The Guardian even mentions the Gap’s connection with the Product RED campaign,
With endorsements from celebrities including Madonna, Lenny Kravitz and Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker, Gap has become one of the most successful and iconic brands in fashion. Last year the firm embarked on a huge poster and TV campaign surrounding Product Red, a charitable trust for Africa founded by the U2 lead singer Bono.
Of course, the Gap was totally unaware that they had been outsourcing manufacturing jobs to the children of India, and they promise to fully investigate and close down all such factories. Give me a break! Unaware? Sure.I hope this article serves to highlight my concerns with Product RED and Bono’s humanitarian efforts. If one responds by saying that Bono had good intentions, I would reply by calling him utterly naive to think that these companies supported healthy work environments.
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i read that article too, and immediately thought of you. haha. way to censor yourself by the way.
great talking to you guys on the phone the other day.
cheers*
Comment by steph October 29, 2007 @ 6:52 pmWhat I think of Bonno’s social work can be seen here.
Comment by Halden November 2, 2007 @ 7:14 pmHalden, that is hilarious!
Comment by roflyer November 2, 2007 @ 9:22 pmOK, fair enough… umm, I guess.
Comment by Brent December 28, 2007 @ 9:51 pmIt’s ridiculous to expect any celebrity to know exactly how their notoriety may be abused….At least Bono appears to me to be making an effort to do something about social issues that many world governments cannot or will not do anything about. I could care less that some poor child is actually working and earning a living. At least that child is not being forced to be a prostitute or sex slave….Sometimes you have to choose the lesser of two evils. I’m guessing that those children work very hard and long hours for very little pay but what are their options ? With 6.7 Billion people on the planet, not everyone is going to have a cushy office job and make 6 figures…..Please, spare me your righteous indignation. Bona and U2 make great music, arguably one of the greatest musical acts ever. At least Bono is raising awareness of social issues. US President Bush simply keeps lying to everyone about everything….
Comment by Michael January 22, 2008 @ 8:36 pm[...] Posts Why Bono Hurts Poor Children Calvin and Hobbes Comic Strip Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer InterviewThe Weight of RacismAbout R.O. [...]
Pingback by The U2charist: Why Anglicans Aren’t Catholic « rain and the rhinoceros February 7, 2008 @ 6:46 pmIn MY opinion, if a celebrity is going to associate his/her name with a humanitarian cause, they need to research every single aspect of this cause before any publicity is done.
Bono should be working hand-in-hand with humanity associations to get these sweatshop working children out of the shops and into decent schoolrooms and/or outside playing with their friends, while finding out how to educate the adults on how to grow their own food and create their own jobs for a better economy.
In the words of Billy Joel:
Honesty is such a lonely word.
Comment by badthing February 19, 2008 @ 11:06 pmEveryone is so untrue.
Honesty is hardly ever heard.
And mostly what I need from you.
i think that you need to research your stuff a little better before you go attacking someone like Bono. Have you ever read up on Bono’s DATA program? Did you know that he got the world’s richest countries to cancel over forty BILLION dollars of debt so the African governments could use that money for schools, hospitals, roads, etc? Before you go criticizing his work, think of your own. How much humanitarian work do you do every day? It’s easy to say shit about other people…not so easy to follow your own advice. I am one person that does not buy clothes from companies that use sweat shops to make their products, but think of it this way: those kids, at least, have jobs. They need the jobs to help out their families. They have an opportunity to put food on the table - kids in Africa do not have the same ability. Yeah, there is no doubt that sweat shop conditions SUCK but the sad truth is that regardless of whether or not people know Gap uses sweatshops, they are still going to shop there. At the very least, people in Africa have the ability now to benefit from the mindless consumerism that Americans wallow in.
Comment by ignoranceisnotbliss April 7, 2008 @ 1:26 ami agree. please read my blog below.
http://koulflo.wordpress.com/tag/bono/
Comment by koulflo April 30, 2008 @ 6:25 pm