September 2007 Archives

Bono Receives 2007 Liberty Medal

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9.28.07_tn.jpg

(AP) PHILADELPHIA - Irish rocker and activist Bono, accepting the Liberty Medal on Thursday night for his humanitarian work in Africa, exhorted Americans to keep working to solve the world's problems and spoke of those who are without freedom.

"When you are trapped by poverty, you are not free. When trade laws prevent you from selling the food you grew, you are not free," said Bono, wearing his trademark sunglasses even at night as he stood just steps away from Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.

"When you are a monk in Burma this very week, barred from entering a temple because of your gospel of peace ... well, then none of us are truly free," he said.

Bono and the organization he co-founded -- Debt AIDS Trade Africa received the award from former Liberty Medal recipient Pres. George H.W. Bush at the National Constitution Center.

The award comes with a $100,000 prize, which Bono said will be donated to the organization.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former finance minister of Nigeria who sits on the group's policy advisory board, accepted the award for the Washington-based group.

My Misadventures in Ireland; What's The Point?

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My Misadventures in Ireland, What's The Point?

By Brenda Clemons, Staff Writer

It would be several years before I returned to Ireland. During that time alot changed for me. I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma (a form of cancer closely related to leukemia). I endured eight months of intensive chemo therapy. My father was diagnosed with lung cancer almost a year to the day after I received my diagnosis. I survived but my father did not. He passed away only a month after I finished chemo therapy.

But, it wasn't all bad. I couldn't work during chemo and in order to keep myself from going insane I did volunteer work for a social justice organization in Washington , DC. On the days that I was able to get out of bed; I rode the train in to DC and did typing, filing, organization, helped with press conferences, and attended Congressional hearings.

It was through the volunteer work that I finally met Bono. Imagine that! I ran all over Ireland trying to meet this guy; when all I had to do was be myself. I have never mentioned to him the night I spent outside of his house but I bet he would laugh. At my volunteer job I must behave and pretend that I am not much of a U2 fan, because to do otherwise might very well cause me to lose the privilege of being able to work with him. Don't get me wrong; it's not that Bono doesn't want fans working with him, but it would not go over well if I went running into Senate chambers screaming, "Oh My God! Bono!".

Bono's tribute to Pavarotti

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U2 frontman Bono has paid tribute to the late tenor Luciano Pavarotti on the band's website. Here is his full message.

Some can sing opera, Luciano Pavarotti was an opera.

"No one could inhabit those acrobatic melodies and words like him.

He lived the songs, his opera was a great mash of joy and sadness; surreal and earthy at the same time; a great volcano of a man who sang fire but spilled over with a love of life in all its complexity, a great and generous friend.

Great, great fun, The Pavlova we used to call him. An emotional arm twister if he wanted you to do something for him he was impossible to turn down. A great flatterer.

When he wanted U2 to write him a song he rang our housekeeper, Theresa, continually so we talked about little else in our house.

When he wanted U2 to play his festival in Modena, he turned up in Dublin unannounced with a film crew, and door-stopped the band. His life and talent was large but his sense of service to the weak and vulnerable was larger.

We wrote Miss Sarajevo for him. He had worked on the humanitarian crisis that was the war in Bosnia.

Tenor Luciano Pavarotti dead at 71

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(CNN) Famed opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti, who appeared on stage with singers as varied as opera star Dame Joan Sutherland, U2's Bono and Liza Minnelli, died Thursday in Italy after suffering from pancreatic cancer, manager Terri Robson said in a statement. He was 71.

"The great tenor, Luciano Pavarotti, died today at 5:00 a.m. at his home in Modena, the city of his birth,"according to Robson.

"The Maestro fought a long, tough battle against the panceatic cancer which eventually took his life. In fitting with the approach that characterized his life and work, he remained positive untill finally succumbing to the last stages of his illness.

The porty singer retired from staged opera in 2004, but was on a "farewell tour" of concerts when he was diagnsed with pancreatic cancer in 2006 and underwent emergency surgery to remove the tumor.

Although the remaining concerts of his tour were canceled, his management said that he hoped to reume the tour in 2007.

But in early August, Pavarotti was hospitalized in Modena with a fever and released 17 days later after undergoing diagnostic tests.

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