Following George Harrison's lead in the fiasco that was The Concert for Bangladesh--remember that one? Where twenty or so recording artists played that 'benefit' for the starving masses of the new nation of Bangladesh, 1971, and come to find out that the nation's leader, Mujibur Rahman, absconded with the money? And that the whole Bangladesh deal was a machination of the Indian CIA out to ruin its enemy, Pakistan? It was even rumored that former Beatle Harrison was an Indian CIA agent? And so on...

Well, anyway! Following George Harrison's lead, the world has been subjected to the likes of Band-Aid, USA for Africa, Farm-Aid, AIDS-Aid, etc., none of which actually benefited anyone except the artists (who gained a lot of unearned prestige) and promoters, who wound up with most of the money, the rest of it going to corrupted agencies that handled it, and, of course, misused it. And now we have U2's Bono, having been seen with the Pope in shades no less, being a poster-boy for Jubilee 2000, one helluva misguided effort to get America and the other so-called "rich" nations to forgive the debt of twenty of the world's poorest nations. As with The Concert for Bangladesh and others, it is nothing but a scam.

"Oh, come on, Caine," you say, "enough of your bad-mouthing conscientious rockers and other entertainers who, having been given so much, now want to give some of it back."

First of all, these rockers and others do this kind of thing onlyto assauge their guilt at having made so much money--no one the likes of which should be legally allowed to make a rock star's income especially when rock stars really are so unimportant to the world. (Want proof of this? Play the 5 Surviver's game: Their are ten people in a plane and it crashes on a deserted island. You only have provisions for five. Which five should be allowed to survive? Chances are if there is an entertainer among the ten, most people will not choose an entertainer to survive--folks like doctors, teachers, pregnant women, children, hunters, etc. who can contribute to the survival of the others will be chosen to survive--isn't that the way it goes? Therefore, rock stars, deemed so important by today's celebrity-worshipping society, really are totally unimportant to the survival of a society.) Another aside here--much of a rock star's income is not legal but comes from the distribution of drugs, which is why drugs are so endemic at rock concerts and which is why rock stars, universally known to use drugs, almost never get caught--rock stars are under the protection of the world's Mafias and controllers of same, one of whom is the Queen of England. (Don't believe this either? Then try reading up on the history of the Opium Wars in 1848.)

And just what are these leeches on society giving back? Other than perhaps their share of any benefit concert take, they give back nothing. Not a dime or pence or whatever they make duting their regular concert tours or record royalties. But, of course, they do get a lot of photo ops pretending to. In fact it wouldn't surprise me if average "little people" like us gave more (percentage-of-income-wise) to worthy causes than these parasites, who remind me of that parable of the rich folks of the temple who give a small fraction to the temple whereas a poor widow gives all she has. Further, whatever they do give back is misused or worse. Want proof? Then I will cite Debbie Schlussel's wonderful article in Jewish World Review called "Stardumb":

"President" Warren Beatty aside, while celebrity political activism is, again, ill-advised, to say the least, there are far too many examples of its vibrant continuation. In Wild in the Woods, author Robert Whelan writes that, in 1991, rock singer Sting helped Brazil's Kayapo Indians wage a successful battle for ownership of a 25,000-square-mile rain forest reserve, allegedly to preserve it from destruction by business.

The Kayapos, then, completely logged and mined the tract, using the money to buy planes and cars for tribal chiefs, while most villagers lacked basic medical care.

And:

Then there's Irish singer Sinead O'Connor. Remember her? She's the one who ripped up a picture of the Pope on "Saturday Night Live." O'Connor told Irish newspapers that the American Senate should stop wasting time on Bill Clinton¹s impeachment because "Clinton is the sexiest man in the universe. I would bring my own cigars. My mouth is watering at the prospect. Does impeachment mean they're gonna [sic] turn him into a peach? If so, can I eat him?"

This is the same Sinead O'Connor who has repented her ravaging the Pope--the same Pope Bono was seen with, BTW--and now supposedly lives in a convent in Spain! Of course, since O'Connor doesn't live in the US what the "f" does she care what the Senate does with Clinton? (The same Clinton, you know, who "told" the IMF to relieve the debt of these poorest nations. See Bloomberg.com. Come to think of it--doesn't Clinton sometimes act like a rock star?)

And who could forget ZZ-Top's "Concert" for Al Gore? (When I stop laughing I'll continue.)

Now then... Suffice it as well to say--thank God!--not all rock stars are that stupid, and one that Schlussel mentioned comes to my mind as being as much as a shock to me as his music is to anyone over the age of twelve: Gene Simmons of KISS. (BTW, I hate KISS's music and even moreso their idiot action figures, but what the hey. Simmons, a former school teacher and now bass player, is no dumb-star when he says:

"We don't comment on whales and the rain forest. We don't try to be ambassadors to Bosnia. Duh. You need a rock star for that? Some idiot who couldn't tune a guitar six months ago is now an environmental specialist? I blame media for giving rock stars more credence than they deserve. Why don't they ask Al Gore how to play bass?"

AMEN to that!

But back to Jubilee 2000 and what I might rightly call "Bono's Boondoggle," as he is the person most associated with the scam:

Just let me ask you--the thinking person who reads OmegaZine!--how the wiping out of the debts of the poorest 20 or so nations will be carried out? Poof! the debt is gone off the books? Poof! the money to repay this debt comes out of the taxpayers of the world's richest nations so that now everyone in the world lives third world (heck--fourth world)? Anyone who knows the ways of banks knows that a debt, no matter how large, must be repaid.

Then again, if you've been on the 'net long enough you've probably heard of the "land for debt swap," whereby those in deep debt must hand over their land to their creditors, which in this case is the IMF and the World Bank (aka the Rockefellers, Rothschilds, Lazard Brothers, and four or five other families who, BTW, own the Federal Reserve--yeah, I know, you don't believe this one either. Then go read Dr. Coleman's great work, The Conspirator's Hierarchy: The Story of the Committee of 300, published by American West Publishers, 1992.) So, who forks over the land? For example, let's take one of those 20 poorest nations, Haiti. Now, in case you didn't know it, Haiti is, landwise, already owned by various banking/Mafia/Committee of 300 interests. Thus, the banksters can't swap for something they already own--right? So, my friends, who gets to fork it over?

Did you say the American people?

BINGO!

In short, Jubilee 2000 is a scam. Pure and simple. It is one of the many ways the world's power elites will "legally" try to grab what little land and possessions we have, and, that way, their cherished goal of equality of peoples of all races and cultures will come about. When we are all reduced to third (fourth!) world poverty--and of course, slavery.

After all, can we really expect these rich, stupid rock stars to fork over what they have to reduce the world's debt?

Of course not! They may be rich and stupid, but they certainly aren't forthright.

Thanks for reading my rant--BD Caine.