What about Bob?

We're not sure how we'd explain the Kevin Myers phenomenon to our vast international readership. Prolific Irish Times columnist (4 days a week). Certainly some overlap in themes with the Vast Rightwing Conspiracy. But enough idiosyncracies to be worth reading, if also enough of a hothead to land himself in trouble every so often. We last mentioned him when the Irish Times spiked his column predicting that the IRA would be shown to be involved in the Northern Bank job.

Anyway, Wednesday's column (subs. req'd) is somewhere between a tirade and a gloat -- but, as they say on Passover, Mah nishtanah. Myers notes that the Irish government has come around to his position of two years ago, which is to withhold aid from the government of Uganda, even though the relevant minister had been very dismissive of his position at the time. As usual, Myers has a point -- anyone who suggests any change in aid policies usually gets hit with the "why do you hate poor people?" question, the analogy of the "why do you hate America?" response to any doubts about what might be going on at Gitmo.

But then Myers tries to suggest that when he takes on an issue like aid to Uganda, he's up against not just the political establishment, but also "Sir" Bob Geldof and Bono:

Virtually all discussion on this issue has effectively been monopolised by those who are in the business of funnelling money out of the Irish economy into Africa. On the one hand there are the Third World charities, whose existence and jobs depend on the entire process, and on the other, celebrities, such as Bob Geldof or Paul Hewson, aka Bono, who have - in image terms - very profitably incorporated Africa into their public personas.

Moreover, I surely cannot be the only person who has grown rather tired of hearing Bob Geldof telling us mean f***ers in the f***ing West how f***ing selfish we are towards Africa. ... the way things are, no one, no matter how rational and well-informed, would ever dream of taking him on in public; for the only certain reward is a Boomtown rant and personal humiliation.

But as we pointed out not so long ago, Geldof is actually a hate figure in Uganda right now for his criticisms of the government, to the point where it wouldn't be a good idea for him to go there. So not the first time, we have to give Myers the curate's egg: he's right about the sanctimoniousness of government ministers, but a bit lacking in the specific facts of his cause.