Why Poverty? Give Us the Money

As part of the Why Poverty? series being shown on various BBC channels there will be one programme called Give Us the Money, that looks at the involvement of celebrities in the fight against poverty.  It will examine the work over the last 30 years of Bono and Bob Geldof amongst others. It will include interviews with them and will be broadcast at 9pm on Sunday 25th November on BBC Four. The whole series sounds interesting and covers many aspects of poverty.  I just wish it was being shown on the mainstream BBC One rather than Four (as far as I can see only one programme in the series is being shown on BBC One). It is a very important series and should not be tucked away on Four.

More information about the Why Poverty? series can be found here. And specific programme info for Give Us the Money can be found  here.

Electric Burma

Aung San Suu Kyi was in Dublin yesterday to receive the most prestigious award that Amnesty International bestows,  Amnesty Ambassador of Conscience Award, Which was presented to her by Bono. For many, many years U2 has campaigned for her release from house arrest, yet Bono had not met Aung San Suu Kyi until Monday when she was in Norway to finally pick up her Nobel Peace Prize which was originally awarded in 1991, he accompanied her there and then on to Ireland. He admitted to being "starstruck" at meeting her.

You can watch her lovely acceptance speech for the Ambassador of Conscience here - I love her anecdote about the "Irish of the east". She is a amazing woman whose strength of mind and heart belies her small, petite stature. There aren't many "great" people around nowadays, who can truly inspire people, but she is one special lady. Also her English is soooo good, I know she was educated at Oxford, but her English barely has an accent.

She also received the Freedom of the City of Dublin while she was in the city. This was given to her in 2000 at the same time U2 received the same award.  My friends and I were there in Smithfield to witness this event and enjoy the accompanying concert, it was a great night. but there was also a bit of sadness as Aung Sang Suu Kyi was not able to be there as she was under house arrest in Burma. Her son accepted the award on her behalf.

There was a concert at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre in Dublin called Electric Burma after the award was given at which various artists such as Bono, Bob Geldof, Damien Rice, Declan O'Rourke, Riverdance amongst others performed.  Bono sang Walk On (along with a couple more songs) which was written specifically for Aung San Suu Kyi. It was an acoustic performance and it was simply fabulous! One of those tingly, thrilling moments that all you U2 fans will know about, beautiful, the words even more moving now that the bird in the cage was free and sitting there listening to those wonderful lyrics. It must have been amazing to be there live, I would have loved to have gone over but there was no way I could have at the moment. You can watch the video of this below.

And finally, Happy Birthday to Aung San Suu Kyi, 67 today, and despite her trials she certainly doesn't look it. She was in Oxford in the UK today where she studied and met and married her husband who has now passed away. When asked  about memories the city must have for her and her birthday she said "I feel a bit younger again." Touching, and let's hope there are many more birthdays for her as a free woman.

Bono 50 Today!

I don't normally mark U2 band member's birthdays but our favouite lead singer is 50 today!  Congratulations Bono, and may you have many, many more happy and healthy years to come.  @U2 has done a great article to mark the special day, most of which I wholeheartedly agree with.

50 Things to Love About Bono on his 50th Birthday

Bono was in Toronto yesterday where he was Bob Geldof were interviewed by the Globe and Mail newspaper.  Read the interview here

On his arrival at the newspaper's offices Bono stopped to meet fans and pose for photos, I especially liked the one below.  Apparently the car belonged to the fan and it was Bono's idea to sit on it!