Bono is a Twat
The only thing more annoying than Bono’s hypocrisy – and he *is* a hypocrite – is the annoying tendency for successful Irish people (and their apologists) to dismiss any and all criticism of them as plain old Irish begrudgery (especially when the person in question is a talentless illusionist like Ronan Keating).
Bono attracts criticism not because we Irish are a nation of begrudgers (and I don’t deny that we are, to a certain extent) but because he maintains such a high public profile and is so vocal about his pet issue, Third-world debt. It’s difficult to listen to the self-appointed spokesman for the right-on (from whom, exactly, does Bono get his mandate?) banging on about poverty in the developing world when his band – one of the most successful ever – has just collected royalties on yet another dull as ditch-water collection of mediocre songs. This is the same band that has signed lucrative deals to promote the Apple iPod and whose stage show costs a million bajillion euros to put on. And he’s banging on to World leaders, men and women who have to try to meet the impossible expectations of people like me that my standard of living will be maintained and that I’ll be able to drive my 10-litre hedgehog-crusher to the shops and back for the forseeable future, about giving money to charidee and wiping out debt? What a twat!
It reminds me of a line in a Primal Scream song – a line that nearly made me throw my copy of Evil Heat in the bin: a life of work is a life of crime\you pay your taxes, you do your time. That’s easy for you to say Bobbie, you eat 100-dollar bills on toast and snort ground diamonds off Kate Moss’s thighs.
But don’t listen to me, I’m just a begrudger.
Next week: a critique of Louis Walsh, the most successful hobbit in Irish music.