Is the liberal icon a closet economic conservative?
Seemingly surprising even himself, the lead singer for the Irish super group U2 was captured on video speaking before students publicly endorsing entrepreneurial capitalism, as reported by the Tucson Citizen on Aug. 16, 2013.
Giving a speech to students at Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown University, Bono stunned more than a few people when he plainly stated:
Commerce, entrepreneur capitalism takes more people out of poverty than aid. Of course we know that.
Long known to have a history of raising money for various African charities, the man born Paul Davis Hewson sounded more like Ronald Reagan or Herman Cain when he said:
So some of Africa is rising and some of Africa is stuck. It’s a question of if the rising bit will pull the rest of Africa up or whether the other Africa will weigh the continent down. Which will it be? The stakes here aren’t just about them.
Imagine, for a second, this last global recession, but without the economic growth of China and India, without the hundreds of millions of newly minted middle class folks who now buy American and European goods. Imagine that. Think about the last five years.
Rock star preaches capitalism. Wow. Sometimes I hear myself and I just can’t believe it. But commerce is real. That’s what you’re about here. It’s real. Aid is just a stopgap.
Born on May 10, 1960, the singer/songwriter was given the nickname of “Bono Vox” (Latin for “Good Voice”) by friends as a child, which he eventually shortened to simply Bono.
Widely ignored by most of the American media, Bono’s interview with the president of the conservative Evangelical Protestant organization Focus on the Family, Jim Daly, was reported by Fox News on June 24, 2013. Referencing the hugely successful American-led HIV/AIDS prevention program, the straightforward Irishman stated:
I am here to thank the American people for that, and I also want to thank the evangelical community for that, because it wouldn’t have happened without their leadership, because they, like myself, pestered George Bush and the administration, who actually deserve praise for starting this out.
Daly himself had a few things to say of the singer after the interview concluded:
Does he use a bad word here and there? Yeah, probably. Does he have a Guinness every now and then? Yeah, probably.
When you look at it before the throne of God, I think (God will) say, ‘You saved so many children.’
Due to his Irish citizenship, Bono was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth for his humanitarian efforts in combating poverty, especially in Africa.
