THAT's tellin' 'im

[drwex]

Following one of r_ness's excellent pointers into the worldwide financial meltdown, I found Counterpunch's story on "Make Bono Pay Taxes".

The gist of the story is that U2 have joined a long line of super-rich who are using Irish tax loopholes and offshoring their income to avoid paying. All the while exhorting their countrymen to fund more charitable work in the third world, which makes for a special kind of savory hypocrisy. And then there was this bit:

The best response to one of those breathless Bono appeals for uplift came at a Glasgow gig when he hushed the audience to reverent silence before starting slowly to clap. "Every time I clap my hands," he whispered into the microphone, "a child in Africa dies..."

A voice responded in broad Glasgow accent: "Well, fucking stop doin' it then."

ETA: Dr Memory, via Snopes - it's apocryphal. Which is to say, not true.