all that you can't leave behind

Re-branding Bono - Charity doesn't always begin at home [lifted from popbitch]

Vanity Fair have invited "pop-humanitarian"
Bono to be guest editor of the July issue, to
try and "rebrand Africa". Some magazines
have been sharing some other facts about Bono:

* In the year since it was founded, his Red
campaign (licensed to Gap, Motorola, Apple etc)
has raised $18 million - but companies have
spent $100 million to market it.

* Bono doesn't invest his own money in Red.

* Apple sells a Special Edition U2 iPod. Its
profits are not donated to Red.

* U2 made $389m from the recent Vertigo tour.
Its revenue was then funnelled through
companies mostly registered in Ireland and
structured to minimize taxes.

* U2 moved its music publishing company to
the Netherlands from Ireland in June 2006, six
months before Ireland ended a tax exemption
on musicians' royalty income.

* Richard Murphy, adviser to lobbying group the
Tax Justice Network, says "This is somebody
who's exceptionally rich taking the opportunity
to shift his tax burden to somebody else, but
then asking governments around the world to
spend that tax take in the way that he would like."

More on this:
http://tinyurl.com/2ssocz
http://adage.com/article?article_id=115287

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"All learning, all teaching is for destructive purposes. You learn about the laws of nature to control and dominate your neighbor. It's a game of one-upmanship. I'm not saying anything against it. I'm just saying that's the way it is. All learning, all teachings are 'war games'. Winning all the time is all that you are interested in. Charity is the filthiest invention of the human mind: first you steal what belongs to everyone; then you use the policeman and the atom bomb to protect it. You give charity to prevent the have-nots from rebelling against you. It also makes you feel less guilty. All do-gooders feel 'high' when they do good." u.g.krishnamurti