"Beavering away to shape public opinion – and policy – about Africa are the likes of Angelina Jolie and Bono.
In their capacities as U.N. goodwill ambassadors, or Time magazine "Persons of the Year," in the free access they enjoy to popes and presidents, Brangelina (Jolie + the pug-faced Pitt) and Bono, and their enablers in the media (CNN's Anderson Vanderbilt Cooper), are dictating the cultural and political script vis-à-vis Africa. To use a Peggy Noonan refrain, "These people have read an article and now want to tell us the truth, if we can handle it.""
C'mon Ilana! Bono's done a lot more than read the article, he's practically written it. I'll agree that a lot of aid money sent to Africa has been wasted and many of their problems are their own doing....so? So we as Americans, as Christians, should simply refuse to help the poorest of the poor? I imagine Jesus would have a different opinion. I'm amazed when folks like Ilana tear down people who are trying to help the poorest people in the world. And she doesn't even offer any alternatives....if you're gonna tear down people who are trying their best to help Africa's poor, at least take the time to make some suggestions yourself. What should we do? Seems to me she thinks we should let them all starve and die, that the world would be a better place without them.
Ilana mentions Jesse Helms saying foreign aid is "money down a rathole". Well, Ilana, even Jesse Helms agrees with Bono now, so you'll have to find another arch-conservative to quote next time.