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Tom
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 10353

Posted 11/2/2009 2:29 PM (GMT -6)

Interesting post on Boyd's support of Bono:

In a recent comment Matt pointed me to a blog post by theologian and pastor Greg Boyd in which he endorses Bono’s Product (RED) campaign. In his post Boyd asserts, “It seems to me that the One Campaign, which includes Product (RED), is one of the most beautiful and powerful Kingdom movements being carried out right now.” Boyd suggests that God is using Bono to show the church what it ought to be doing. According to Boyd, “Our job is to manifest God’s love by using our God-given time, talent and resources to serve the world. See a need and meet it with your gifts.” I’m sure most everyone is familiar with the Product (RED) campaign, but if you’re not familiar with it you can watch Bono and Bill Gates talk about it here and you can watch one of their awful commercials aired during the Super Bowl here. I’ve also written on this particular issue before and have argued that Bono actually hurts poor children here. And, if you’re looking for laugh about this particular topic watch this.

In a nut shell, Product (RED) is a campaign put on by Bono and sponsored by major transnational corporations to help people in Africa who are living in poverty and dying of HIV/AIDS. The idea is that if you buy specific products that are (RED) products from major corporations like Reebok, GAP, Apple, and more recently Dell Computers, then a portion of the money from your purchase will go to Africa to help dying people. So, it is what the corporate cats call creative capitalism. Essentially, it is a way to get Americans to help some poor people by exploiting what Americans already do best: buy and consume. It is a method of…

Continue if you’d like at rainandtherhinoceros.wordpress.com/category/theologians/greg-boyd/

"Man is a person not by nature but by spirit. By nature he is only an individual." Nicolas Berdyaev

Corey
Five with a Four-wing

Date Joined Feb 2003
Total Posts : 1893

Posted 11/5/2009 1:46 PM (GMT -6)

I've been thinking a lot about topics concerning poverty and what to do about it. Here's one perspective I found particularly interesting.
http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2008/02/easterly_on_gro.html

"... West has spent a mere $2.3 trillion in hopes of ending worldwide poverty. Very little of it actually reached the poor. Nearly $600 billion of aid went into Africa, but economic growth per person has been 0 over that period. No change in standard of living. Where did it go?"

Post Edited (Corey) : 11/5/2009 12:49:09 PM (GMT-6)

Similitude
Registered Member

Date Joined Apr 2004
Total Posts : 4968

Posted 11/6/2009 7:16 AM (GMT -6)

It takes a lot more work than most are apparently willing to do to get the help to the actual needy. Or, more probably, it's not even politically possible to do that in most cases.

Post Edited (Similtude) : 11/6/2009 6:52:33 AM (GMT-6)

Sahid
Megistered Rember

Date Joined Jun 2004
Total Posts : 2013

Posted 11/6/2009 4:19 PM (GMT -6)

The money the West spends in programs like the IMF goes to "development." Development means building infrastructure (paying Western contractors to do this) so that the poor country can extract resources and sell them back to the West (at reduced prices) to pay off the debts they now owe. The indigenous people are either ignored or made to relocate when they get in the way of this process.

Mob-rule/democracy at work.

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