End AIDS and global hunger…by feeding Senate staffers ice cream?
A D.C. source sends photos of an ice cream social that took place on the Hill today.
The event was held by the ONE Campaign, a popular Hollywood celebrity charity started by rock musician Bono that aims to end AIDS and global hunger. To help fight the world hunger crisis, they threw a lawn party schmoozefest and encouraged Senate staffers to indulge in Ben and Jerry’s.
Writes my source:
“I asked the organizers how this contributed to disease and hunger eradication, and how much of their donors’ money the event cost to put on, and needless to say, they were less than forthcoming. They have been aggressively haranguing a group of conservative Senators who are blocking a $50B global AIDS boondoggle of a bill because we, crazy us, just want some provisions that require most of the money to be spent on HIV treatment instead of an open-ended slush fund. Maybe we should also insert a provision in the bill to ensure that funds are not spent on ice cream for political hacks in Washington?”
You know the motto: Eat as they say, not as they eat!
Yes, it’s the Cindy Sheehan Weight Loss Plan: Better fasting through ice cream.
***
Read this interesting piece from last summer on how not all of the world’s poor are so eager to welcome the liberal celebs’ international aid. An excerpt:
Africans to Bono: ‘For God’s sake please stop!’
Arusha, Tanzania–Africa is a continent of despair and desperation. Here, eight year-olds toting AK-47s massacre whole villages and eccentric dictators feast on the organs of the opposition, believing it’ll boost their mojo. Tsetse flies nibble on the eyelids of starving children who sport distended bellies like it’s their birthright, not to mention the fact that by the time you finish reading this article, another six Africans will die from malaria, five from AIDS, and seventeen from poverty and hunger. Also, the wildlife is beautiful and the people like to dance and sing.
That’s Africa, and it’s in desperate need of our help. Luckily, a few enlightened megastars from America and Europe have come to save it.
Curiously, not all the natives are grateful.
Last month, world leaders and Bono met in Heiligendamm, Germany for the G8 summit to renew their commitment to increase aid to Africa. Vanity Fair’s special Africa issue, edited by the man himself, hit newsstands with 20 celebrity covers, a gaggle of celebrity writers, and a conspicuous shortage of Africans.
Many of Africa’s best and brightest become bureaucrats or NGO workers when they should be scientists or entrepreneurs.
Meanwhile in Arusha, Tanzania, at the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference, a group of the continent’s intellectual elite issued a very different plea: stop flooding Africa with aid. Since 1984, an assortment of Silicon Valley billionaires, child prodigies, ex-presidents, artistic geniuses, mad scientists, and movie stars have descended on Monterrey, California for TED, for an annual event The Economist called “Davos for optimists.” Three weeks ago, TED held its first-ever conference in Africa, bringing together trademark optimism with an even more humbling sort of A-list.
Eleni Gabre-Madhin, a World Bank economist, returned to her native Ethiopia to start a commodities exchange to prevent future famines. Daniel Annerose invented software in Senegal that allows farmers to track market prices via SMS text messaging. Alieu Conteh built the first cellular network in the Congo, Florence Seriki, Nigeria’s first computer manufacturing company.
Then there’s William Kamkwamba, the undisputed showstopper, a teenager from rural Malawi who, at age fourteen, built a windmill from plastic scrap and an old bicycle frame that generates enough electricity to light his family’s house.
These speakers were selected to support a thesis, painfully obvious but somehow radical in this age: Africa won’t be “saved” by aid, but by the ingenuity and determination of its own people.
Andrew Mwenda, an outspoken Ugandan journalist who was jailed last year for criticizing President Museveni, lambasted the Western world’s “international cocktail of good intentions” for robbing Africa of its future. After all, what country has ever gotten rich from aid? What Africa needs is investment.
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Sounds like the Cindy Sheehan diet.
There was a staffer named Horatio.
Who was fond of ice cream fe****io.
He dispensed with his favors.
In thirty two flavors.
Including his favorite, Pistachio.
Don’t forget the men raping 8-year-olds thinking it will cure AIDS.
Gaaaa… What ails these people, money cannot cure.
Yeah, but if they don’t have a clientele, on whose behalf are they going to fleece suckers of their hard-earned?
“Aid” is a massive scam, enriching charlatans, and preventing their clients from progressing.
We need to learn that paying people to fail only encourages them to fail more. Too bad the money’s so good.
as if we didn’t have enough fat “cats” in Washington
Yes, that’s it, give away more money that’s not yours to give. Thanks, Congress, you’re the best.
Michelle beat me to it, but rather funny how we’re not supposed to eat but give, give, give our money for whatever cause they say…
If South Park has taught us anything, it’s that only massive infusions of cash can cure AIDS.
“AIDS boondoogle” is so right. African governments like to attribute to AIDS many of the afflictions that have plagued that continent for centuries for the same reason Willie Sutton robbed banks: because that’s where the money is.
Believe it or not, malnutrition can cause immune system failure as sure as any retrovirus. Accordingly, investing in modern agriculture and sanitation will do more to keep Africans healthy than condom distribution. Also, and Al Gore will have a conniption fit over this, bring back DDT to eradicate disease-bearing insects.
Yes, Hollywood elite and Senate staffers–collective I.Q.–ONE.
Ice-cubes still have chance to outwit them all.
weak
Same everywhere.
You would never believe our country is at war, economy in chaos and the oil companies are making the credit card companies rich, when our Reps have enough time to head out to the great outdoors for some Cherry Garcia.
Chillen Man, Straight Chillen.
It’s the colors.
Growing up I was told “Eat your peas,they are starving in Africa.”During my lifetime(over 50 yrs)there has been untold billions given to various countries in Africa to combat hunger and end poverty.I’ve heard these same tired lines over and over and the situation never changes.The people are still hungry and live in sewers and in 50 more years they still will.
I think that is already in the constitution……. I’m not real clear as to anything your “source” in DC is trying to say, but of all the lobbying efforts to attack, going after free ice cream in the park from those trying to push an extension to the Lantos/Hyde bill is pretty silly.
docflash:
Give a crackhead 10,000 dollars to feed his family, and he won’t. He comes back to you and says he promises this time he will.He doesn’t. Repeat 1,000 times.
Stop giving them money and start giving them mandates.
I hear McCain really likes Ice Cream too.
There, that’s positive, do I get ‘points’?
If someone else were to do what McCain is doing, they’d call it SPAM – and McCain would pass a law against it. He’s trying to do what Obama has done, but they did it through organizing with Digg, Stumble, Propeller, etc.
Keep up the good work MM.
Man, does this show the insensitive side of liberals, or what? They eat a fattening substance which is NOT a basic food item, to show how much they care for the poor starving minions? How about saving all those portions, and sending them to the dying children, so that they can see what they’re missing? Many have probably never even heard of ice cream, much less, tasted it.
Yeah, but they really do care…
Exactly r_o, they care just about as much as they do for our troops in Irag and Afganistan, as they attach a illegal amnesty amendment to the Emergency Funding Bill.
This is so weak, Hollywood and politicos pretending together to care whilst enjoying ice-cream (manufactured by leftists), all the while the people they pretend to care about continue to die of diseases and malnutrition. Somehow malnutrition as (docflash #14) aptly points out has yet to be dealt with and now, the elitists care. Phonies one and all–period.
The two “rights”#18/19–ditto from me.
Once again we have a painful example of the Celebrity In A Bubble syndrome. Running over with self importance and believing their own press, off they go to right all the wrongs that some corporation OBVIOUSLY caused ! They are surrounded by folks telling them that what they think, really matters. B.S. ! If the African people tell you to stay out, do it ! Just make movies or music and shut the Hell up ! Input from Hollywierd does not amount to a hill of Starbuck beans.
Can’t forget the millions who died from malaria tks to another well meaning(or controlling environmentalist)Rachael Carson and her ban on DDT, found to be harmless to humans after the fact and is still banned in some areas of Africa.
oh, and the ban is still killing Africans.
Bono, Geldopf and John Mellonhead can all go take a flying leap ! They all smoke from the same hooka-pipe. It makes them think they’re relevant. If they really want to help somebody, stay home…………
Teach a man how to fish and farm and he will no longer need aid give him a fish and beer money and he will ask again when he runs out. Africa has its serious problems but its not from lack of western aid, its more a result of kleptocratic dictators like Mugabe, etal feasting on the west’s largesse and China’s desire for oil.
Here is an inside peek into Sudan I found very interesting.
http://www.vbs.tv/shows.php?show=570487902
It is a several part series of short videos I highly recommend.
Blame Rachel Carson and her”Silent Spring” and the ban on DDT it inspired for the malaria epidemic.
This is what liberalism is all about. It’s not about self-sacrifice, but reducing the human population to scanty dozens so we can eat all the fattening food we want without feeling guilty….ugh.
Seriously, the second you ask any liberal to give something up, the response is along the lines of a high-pitched squeal.
DDT would have killed all the bald eagles and exotic birds, so let’s not get carried away. Mrs. Malkin and the rest of the conservatives on here have made their point, and so have I.
Want to reduce malaria?
STOP intruding into the rainforests and building dams in the tropics.
That myth has been proven false so try again, I am a bird lover especially raptors and conservationist so try sagain.
Biofuels are destoying more rainforest than anything else.
What rainforest?: It’s a jungle. I recommend this to handle it.
Oh, and about the birds… just put out some food in a feeder and they’ll be alright. Plus you’ll be able to watch them up close. They’re really cute!
I have a couple bird feeders, and get plenty of traffic since my yard is considered natural habitat by the World Wildlife Fund and live in the middle of the western flyway. I still support eating polar bears and drilling in ANWR.
Caribou are quite tasty as well.
Hey, goats…
I was just kidding you. Kudos for being a good sport.
JJ, I like to eat game and want it to have a healthy place to live while being a realist so I can hunt and eat it.
goatsbarnyard,
I applaud you for that. Forgive me, I haven’t read all of the posts… did you say that you live in Alaska?
Nope, the land of fruits and nuts California’s central valley.
Oh well. Close
I’m in Texas.
Instead of AIDS, why don’t they try to eradicate a disease more devastating than that…malaria. Of course, that would mean changing their environmentalist views and dumping Carson. AIDS is the PC disease of the day.
If there is one disease which I could wish away, being granted that one wish, it would be cancer …in all it’s forms.
The volunteers for the ONE campaign were doing the same thing that every group does in D.C. A corporate lobbyist, an NGO executive, a charity, they are there for cash and power through legislation. You can’t blame ONE for doing what it takes to stay in the money mix. (Although pigging out on ice cream on behalf of hunger in Africa should have caused a light bulb to go off in some organizers head)
I had the opportunity to spend a month in Malawi last year, with a variety of NGO’s and missionaries. World Vision impressed me, but most impressive were the local “aid” groups, such as one called “Somebody Cares” which was started by a Malawian woman with help from Canadian missionaries. I was there (on my own dime) to see what organizations or individuals had the best positive impact for the people of this country…one of the world’s poorest. One of the missionaries told me the U.N. or their government can promise a million dollars but no change ever happens, but $10,000 given in the right place can impact a whole village. But even more, he explained that money doesn’t solve problems, and that Malawi needed more of its own people to experience a change in their hearts and rise up as honest leaders of the country, whether the leadership was in politics or business or church. He begged me to find people to come to Malawi to serve as examples to the people, not money.
The people of the ONE campaign are good people. Bono’s heart is in the right place, and he uses his celebrity the best way he can to make an impact. The missionary I mentioned above met with Bono the day after the first day I met him in person, and when we met again he told me that he told Bono exactly what he told me, and Bono seemed to have a good understanding that money as welfare is more often harmful than helpful. He had also met with Madonna, who he felt had good intentions but a poor understanding of faith, and had turned to “this Hollywood version of Kabala” due to feelings of guilt, perhaps from things she has done in her past or because of her riches. But Madonna recently gave 1 million of her money to open a new Kabala center in Lilongwe, Malawi.
I’m a Christian, conservative, have never voted for a Dem save once for a mayor in my home town. This summer I’ll be attending an annual charity golf event that my sister started last year after losing her husband, Bruce, a youth pastor from Chicago, when he and his younger brother gave their lives and drowned over Memorial Day weekend 2006 while attempting to save a kayaker that had gone over a damn on the Fox river outside Chicago. Much of the money will be going some of the smaller, local groups we discovered while in Malawi…groups staffed by international and local people who have given their lives over to work each day in the slums outside the capital city, working to change the hearts of a people who have become dependent on foreign aid as welfare, groups that are trying to identify Malawi’s future leaders and help train them to change their country from the inside. I’ll be golfing on a nice country club course, even though I hate golf, and then attending a fancy dinner and auction of items like sports memorabilia or 1 week stays in vacation homes in Florida or Arizona, because that’s where the money is. And then that money will go to support people willing to walk away from our comfortable American lifestyle to spend their days in 120 degree disease and rat and sewage infested ghettos and slums. I’ll be golfing while wearing my ONE campaign bracelet, as I do nearly every day. My sister gave it to me at Bruce’s funeral. It had been Bruce’s.
So please, commenters and Michelle…it’s easy to complain on a laptop from your living room. Maybe instead, spend a moment to think about why it takes “free ice cream” as bait to get too many of us to take notice. And then think about spending your next vacation in Malawi. Contact me if you want information on an orphanage with about 100 kids run by one married couple…they could use a hand and welcome anyone willing. Or a relatively cheap and safe hotel in Lilongwe. Or a link to the ONE campaign website to read about what they do and the many Christian charities they partner with.
Dems & Nutroots:
“Let them eat Cherry Garcia!!!”
This is why I’m becoming an increasing fan of micro-finance. You’re investing, and amazingly it seems the poor in Africa who truly want to make things better can be trusted with the money (unlike certain California congresswomen). They do make things better for themselves and their families and then REPAY their loan.
But giving aid makes us feel better. That investment stuff is for people who have more time.
Rubbish. Nothing any celebrity says will make me do anything for him. I have relatives living in Africa. I have seen it firsthand too. Until Mr. Paul Hewson (aka ‘Bono’)gets his hands dirty and spends his own money on his little ideas, I will not give him the time of day.
Has anyone proven a correlation of throwing money at a disease and an actual cure? I doubt if one exists. Probably hundreds of billions of dollars has been thrown at AIDS and many more billions at cancer, and we are no closer to a cure today.
Nonesense, you would still have mosquitoes and malaria. To kill them you would need DDT. Also there is no proof whatsoever that DDT had anything to do with losing bald eagles. Lead shot is much more of a danger to the raptors.
Malaria became a big problem again in Africa when they were forced to quit using DDT.
Oh brother.
And those are just the UN Peacekeepers.
Imagine the hardship that the terrorists are inflicting!
Come on, can’t you people see how much they care?
Yes, and you as well.