The Monday morning quarterback trend in the blogger community is getting tired.

Let’s get past the way things should be and acknowledge the way things are.

The RED campaign is expanding the pie and raising awareness.

The people who have written a check to the Global Fund did it because they recognized the need and the merits of a multilateral approach to funding.

Don’t be confused, these are NOT the same people who are buying red iPods or cell phones.

>> Re-branding Bono < <
Charity doesn’t always begin at home

Vanity Fair have invited “pop-humanitarian”
Bono to be guest editor of the July issue, to
try and “rebrand Africa”. Some magazines
have been sharing some other facts about Bono:

* In the year since it was founded, his Red
campaign (licensed to Gap, Motorola, Apple etc)
has raised $18 million – but companies have
spent $100 million to market it.

* Bono doesn’t invest his own money in Red.

* Apple sells a Special Edition U2 iPod. Its
profits are not donated to Red.

* U2 made $389m from the recent Vertigo tour.
Its revenue was then funnelled through
companies mostly registered in Ireland and
structured to minimize taxes.

* U2 moved its music publishing company to
the Netherlands from Ireland in June 2006, six
months before Ireland ended a tax exemption
on musicians’ royalty income.

* Richard Murphy, adviser to lobbying group the
Tax Justice Network, says “This is somebody
who’s exceptionally rich taking the opportunity
to shift his tax burden to somebody else, but
then asking governments around the world to
spend that tax take in the way that he would like.”

More on this:
http://tinyurl.com/2ssocz
http://adage.com/article?article_id=115287