want a good job? work for Bono's ONE organization
Pepe Silvia
Posts: 3,758
there are links at the site to the original article on this and others like his tax issue
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyy ... o-history/
There was a humdinger of a story about Bono in the New York Post earlier this week that the Mail has picked up on this morning. According to the Post, Bono’s anti-poverty ONE foundation received $14,993,873 in donations from philanthropists in 2008, of which just $184,732 was distributed to three charities. (ONE is an “advocacy organisation” whose main purpose is to change policies, not support charities, it says.) So what happened to the rest? More than $8 million was spent on executive and employee salaries.
This isn’t gossip. The Post’s figures are taken directly from the organisation’s 2008 tax return, the latest year for which records are available. This story follows hot on the heels of the revelation that Edun, Bono’s fashion label, has shifted some of its production base from Africa to China. A perfectly acceptable business decision, were it not for the fact that Edun is an “ethical” fashion house that was set up to aleviate poverty in … Africa.
This isn’t common-or-garden, run-of-the-mill hypocrisy, this is hypocrisy on an epic scale – stadium-filling hypocrisy. Bono browbeats Western governments for not spending more money on aid – taxpayers’ money – while doing his best to avoid paying tax himself. He chastises the private sector for not investing in African businesses, then moves his own business out of Africa. He persuades kind-hearted souls to donate money to charity, then stands by while his own foundation pays its employes 43 times as much as it gives to good causes.
Not long ago, I proposed to my writing partner Lloyd Evans that we write a modern version of The Man Who Came to Dinner, Kaufman and Hart’s classic comedy. In the original, a famous literary critic is invited to dine at the house of a rich industrialist, injures his hip on the front steps and ends up staying for several weeks. The tycoon and his family are initially tickled pink to have such a distinguished house guest, but the scales gradually fall from their eyes as they realise what a monstrous egotist he is. In our version, the literary critic would become a philanthropic rock star, but otherwise we would stick closely to the original.
We were quite enthusiastic about it for a while, but in the end concluded that sending up Bono was just too easy. It would be like writing a play in which we drew attention to Gordon Brown’s dark side or Ed Balls’s lust for power. Not exactly ground-breaking stuff. You can’t knock someone off their pedestal if they’re grovelling around in the dirt, looking for pennies to pinch.
Still, even we didn’t imagine he would stoop to something quite this low. ($184,732 to good causes, $8,000,000 on salaries!) If we do decide to revive our idea, at least we have an ending. It will consist of the gabby Irish chancer wagging his finger at the audience, urging them to make poverty history, as he descends into the fires of hell.
[Update: The ONE foundation has put out a statement saying that it does not fundraise from the public but is funded "almost entirely by a handful of philanthropists on our board of directors" to raise awareness to fight extreme poverty.]
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyy ... o-history/
There was a humdinger of a story about Bono in the New York Post earlier this week that the Mail has picked up on this morning. According to the Post, Bono’s anti-poverty ONE foundation received $14,993,873 in donations from philanthropists in 2008, of which just $184,732 was distributed to three charities. (ONE is an “advocacy organisation” whose main purpose is to change policies, not support charities, it says.) So what happened to the rest? More than $8 million was spent on executive and employee salaries.
This isn’t gossip. The Post’s figures are taken directly from the organisation’s 2008 tax return, the latest year for which records are available. This story follows hot on the heels of the revelation that Edun, Bono’s fashion label, has shifted some of its production base from Africa to China. A perfectly acceptable business decision, were it not for the fact that Edun is an “ethical” fashion house that was set up to aleviate poverty in … Africa.
This isn’t common-or-garden, run-of-the-mill hypocrisy, this is hypocrisy on an epic scale – stadium-filling hypocrisy. Bono browbeats Western governments for not spending more money on aid – taxpayers’ money – while doing his best to avoid paying tax himself. He chastises the private sector for not investing in African businesses, then moves his own business out of Africa. He persuades kind-hearted souls to donate money to charity, then stands by while his own foundation pays its employes 43 times as much as it gives to good causes.
Not long ago, I proposed to my writing partner Lloyd Evans that we write a modern version of The Man Who Came to Dinner, Kaufman and Hart’s classic comedy. In the original, a famous literary critic is invited to dine at the house of a rich industrialist, injures his hip on the front steps and ends up staying for several weeks. The tycoon and his family are initially tickled pink to have such a distinguished house guest, but the scales gradually fall from their eyes as they realise what a monstrous egotist he is. In our version, the literary critic would become a philanthropic rock star, but otherwise we would stick closely to the original.
We were quite enthusiastic about it for a while, but in the end concluded that sending up Bono was just too easy. It would be like writing a play in which we drew attention to Gordon Brown’s dark side or Ed Balls’s lust for power. Not exactly ground-breaking stuff. You can’t knock someone off their pedestal if they’re grovelling around in the dirt, looking for pennies to pinch.
Still, even we didn’t imagine he would stoop to something quite this low. ($184,732 to good causes, $8,000,000 on salaries!) If we do decide to revive our idea, at least we have an ending. It will consist of the gabby Irish chancer wagging his finger at the audience, urging them to make poverty history, as he descends into the fires of hell.
[Update: The ONE foundation has put out a statement saying that it does not fundraise from the public but is funded "almost entirely by a handful of philanthropists on our board of directors" to raise awareness to fight extreme poverty.]
don't compete; coexist
what are you but my reflection? who am i to judge or strike you down?
"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank." - Barack Obama
when you told me 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em'
i was thinkin 'death before dishonor'
what are you but my reflection? who am i to judge or strike you down?
"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank." - Barack Obama
when you told me 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em'
i was thinkin 'death before dishonor'
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
thats just what we need.. another organisation that raises awareness of poverty. how about we just cut out the middle man and FIGHT poverty without all the bullshit and posturing? we already know poverty is there.. we dont need to be made aware of it.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
i can't believe the news today....
really bono????
overheads... what can you do?
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
Contrary to the suggestion in the New York Post yesterday, ONE does not fundraise from the general public and we are not a grant-making organization. We are funded almost entirely by a handful of philanthropists on our board of directors to raise awareness and pressure political leaders to fight extreme poverty through smart and effective policies and programs, like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, which is saving 4,000 lives a day.
ONE has nearly 120 staff in the US, UK, Germany, Brussels, France, Nigeria and South Africa whose job it is to fight for funding for effective programs like the Fund and the US global AIDS program PEPFAR. As a result of those programs, today more than 4 million Africans have access to life-saving AIDS medication, up from only 50,000 people in 2002. Malaria deaths have been cut in half in countries across Africa in less than 2 years.
As other examples of our work, ONE helped successfully press for debt relief for Haiti after the devastating earthquake there and we recently played an important role in the passage of a law in the US requiring oil companies to report any payments to government officials – an effort to end backhanded deals between energy companies and corrupt politicians that hurt people in poor countries.
ONE has been a relentless advocate for these programs and policies and we have used the media spotlight to ensure world leaders keep their commitments. The media kits that were mentioned in the New York Post article, which were produced for far less than was cited and delivered by staff and volunteers, not a messenger service, were an effort to focus reporters on the Millennium Development Goals, a set of promises world leaders made to cut poverty, hunger and disease by 2015.
In hindsight, the kits were not the best way to gain attention for the issues and we regret that sending them distracted from the work we are trying to do and the issues we care about.
Fargo 2003
Winnipeg 2005
Winnipeg 2011
St. Paul 2014
well, I would argue that part of the problem is that there isn't ENOUGH awareness out there. You won't cut out the middle man and fight it without the required army. And for that, you need to recruit people and make them aware. Believe it or not, I would say that the majority of the industrialized world don't have a fucking clue how good we have it.
Fargo 2003
Winnipeg 2005
Winnipeg 2011
St. Paul 2014