Bono invited to carry Olympic torch

EVERYONE from Bono to Jedward has been invited to carry it. But it looks like the GAA will be the biggest winners when the Olympic torch relay arrives in Dublin on June 6.
Despite the fact that Gaelic games are not Olympic sports, it will be a top inter-county GAA player who kick-starts the prestigious relay in the capital by carrying the torch across the roof of Croke Park's Hogan Stand. It will then spend a further half-hour at Croke Park before its two-hour tour around the city.
The GAA, along with other sporting bodies including the FAI and IRFU, has been asked to forward their nominee's name to the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) by Friday and the 40 participants will be announced a fortnight later.

Read more: here
http://www.independent.ie

See with New Eyes: Bono in Ethiopia,1985

"The girl with a beard", Bono, Ethiopia ,1985

Steve Reynolds,Marketing Director focusing on Child Health and Protection issues for World Vision remembers Bono and his visit to Ethiopia in 1985.

"...In 1985 I was working as communications officer for the World Vision Ethiopia relief in Addis Ababa...We received word that the lead singer of an Irish rock band called U2 was coming to  Ethiopia "on the quiet"...What was different about this visit was that Bono and his wife, Ali, wanted to work at one of our relief  camps...I knew what the conditions were like in these camps ...I remember thinking Well, they are certainly in for a shock. ..I was certain they wouldn´t last a week. But they did.In fact, they spent almost a month in Adjibar working with our staff, helping develop music and drama programmes for the children at the centre...

The staff praised Bono´s  energy ,spirit and creativity ...Upon the couple return to Addis Ababa,I had the privilige of touring with Bono  around Ethiopia to various camps...Something in him had changed...

Today Bono meets with presidents, prime ministers , and even the Pope, advocating for the poor and marginalized ."It´s not about charity, it´s about justice," he says.His vision is still strong more than 25 years later.

When God does eye surgery, you never see things the same way again.I saw this happen with Bono, and I smile  when I think about how this sharpened  vision is changing the world."

Bono and Steve

© World Vision Magazine 

Complete version of the article: World Vision Magazine, Spring 2012 issue.

http://www.worldvision.org 

African Well Fund Launches 10th Annual Build a Well for Bono's Birthday Fundraiser

www.africanwellfund.org 

 

The African Well Fund is pleased to announce the launch of the 10th Annual Build a Well for Bono's Birthday fundraiser. The organization is celebrating a "Decade of H2OPE" by raising funds to benefit a water, sanitation and hygiene project in Burkina Faso that will be implemented by African Well Fund partner Africare and aims to create a healthy environment for 257 schoolchildren.

More info about the project here.

From World Water Day, March 22nd, through Bono's birthday, May 10th, the African Well Fund invites U2 fans and others who are inspired by Bono's tireless activism on behalf of Africa to make a donation through the organization's website (link to BBW page) in honor of his 52nd birthday. The organization will also be raising funds by selling limited-edition prints through its website, T-shirts through its Zazzle store and by hosting a special eBay auction in May. All donors are invited to add their names and birthday wishes to a card on the African Well Fund website that will be sent to Bono in care of Principle Management.

"It's hard to believe that this is the 10th Bono birthday well fundraiser," said Diane Yoder, African Well Fund board vice chairman. "I still remember the very first fundraiser, our goal was to raise $1,000 to build a single well and we raised $10,000. We were so blown away by the response. It really hit home seven months later when we received our first well report from Africare. To realize that that $10,000 was really having a direct impact on so many people's lives was such an overwhelming feeling. I remember feeling very humbled and privileged to have been a part of the project."

Get on your boots: Adam steps into limelight for charity

Adam Clayton in his studded (and stunning) shoes! 

By Ken Sweeney Entertainment Editor


THESE shoes are made for rocking. Long known as the shyest man in music, U2's Adam Clayton let his footwear do the talking yesterday.

The bass player took time out from recording the group's 13th album to help launch 'Walk In My Shoes', a new initiative from St Patrick's University Hospital in support of positive mental health for young people.

Wearing a pair of eye-catching Christian Louboutin black studded shoes, the 52-year-old was following in the footsteps of his mother, Jo Clayton.

Mrs Clayton was a founding member of the Friends of St Patrick's and a tireless fundraiser for the Dublin hospital, located between Heuston Station and St James's Hospital, until her death last year.

Essential

"I think it is essential to take care of people with mental health problems. Money raised will be used to help put young people back on the road to mental health," Adam told the Irish Independent.

Eimear Keohane, fundraising manager of St Patrick's, praised the guitarist for taking on the role as ambassador for 'Walk In My Shoes'.

She revealed he was carrying on the good work done by his late mother who passed away, aged 77, last August after a battle with cancer.

"We are honoured today that Adam is continuing in his mother's footsteps by promoting the 'Walk In My Shoes' campaign," she said.

Brent Pope, Daithi O'Shea, Ken Doherty, Adam Clayton, John Murray, DJ Carey, Norah Casey at the launch of Walk In My Shoes 

"Jo Clayton was a valued fundraiser for the St Patrick's Hospital Foundation for many years, from the early 1970s."

Sarah Surgenor, communications manager of St Patrick's University Hospital, said the presence of the famous rock musician at the launch would help raise awareness of the need for funds to support young adults in need of mental health services.

Mr Clayton last wore his black studded Louboutin shoes, worth €500, at a party he hosted to celebrate his 52nd birthday last week.

RTE's John Murray and Daithi O Se, rugby pundit Brent Pope, snooker player Ken Doherty and 'Dragon's Den' member and publisher Norah Casey were among others who took part in the launch.

Snooker player Ken Doherty, who wore striking spats, said his motivation for getting involved was the loss of so many young lives. "I have been to eight funeral in the last two years, and seven of those were suicides. The most important thing is that people in difficulty talk and don't bottle it up," said Mr Doherty who said there was a lot of "pressure" on sports stars.

'Dragon's Den' star Norah Casey, who walked into the Four Seasons wearing two odd shoes, said that as CEO of Harmonia, Ireland's largest magazine publishing company, she made a point of taking on employees who were open about suffering from depression.

"I think it's brave of them to own up to it, and therefore I should be brave as an employer. But I think sometimes employers are scared of taking on people with mental health issues," said Ms Casey, who at one point in her career nursed in a psychiatric hospital.

John Murray of RTE Radio One, the official radio partner of the campaign, said life had grown "more difficult" for young people in recent years.

"Young adults once moved from school to college to work but things aren't like that any more, which has a lot of parents worried. Any campaign that helps to raise awareness of how young people cope with issues they may be struggling with is worth highlighting"

The campaign name originated from a young service user at St Patrick's University Hospital who said he wished his "friends could walk in my shoes" so they could understand his mental illness.

Taking place on April 26, 'Walk In My Shoes' will see people all over Ireland wearing unusual or mismatched shoes while donating €2 to provide mental health services to young adults aged 18 to 25 years.

 

John Murray and Adam Clayton at the launch of the Walk In My Shoes campaign 

John Murray interviewed Adam for his show in RTE Radio One where not only did he talk about the campain but also about the fact that U2  are recording in Dublin. Listen to the podcast here.

More details can be found on www.walkinmyshoes.ie

- Ken Sweeney Entertainment Editor

Irish Independent
http://www.thejournal.ie/ http://www.independent.ie/http://www.rte.ie

Achtung Baby Best Album of the Past 25 Years

 

Spin magazine´s  editors rank the top releases since the magazine's beginning in 1985. In mumber 1, they have chosen Achtung Baby , among other albums by so different artists such as Queen Latifah, Blur, Nirvana, Green Day and R.E.M. U2 has another album into the list: The Joshua Tree is ranked N° 62.
But why has AB been chosen?
Here are the editors´ reasons:


With the middling reaction to last year's better-than-you'll-admit No Line on the Horizon, U2's chest-heaving big-box spectacle seems to be fatiguing more of pop's body politic than it's inspiring. Weirdly, this was exactly the case more than 20 years ago. After the critical and commercial sweep of Joshua Tree, the Irish conglomerate followed its bombastic muse with the ponderous 1988 docu-fiasco Rattle and Hum, which featured a Bono mot that would haunt many of us for years to come: "Okay, Edge, play the blues!" Flailing and directionless, the band retreated and reconsidered whether it was time to fold up their flag for good.

Instead, three years later they emerged with the album — Achtung Baby, cheekily titled as a nod to German reunification — that would energize their career and genetically engineer rock music into the hybridized mutant we know today. Initially recorded at Hansa Studios, a former SS ballroom near the reopened Berlin Wall (and later completed back home in Dublin), Achtung was an effort, stoked primarily by Bono and the Edge, to "deconstruct" the band and rewire it with jolts of beat-generated clutter and collage, nicked from industrial music, hip-hop, dance remixes, and the Madchester scene. That method almost collapsed the band — bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr., as well as coproducer Daniel Lanois, were left bewildered and cranky.

But the frisson found expression in U2's most immediately dynamic music since 1982's War, and its most emotionally frank songs to date, capturing that particular early-'90s rub of boundless possibility and worn-down despair. Bono's lyrical flights had a battered grit, like a defrocked cleric stirred to regain his flock without the usual trick bag of bullshit. "One" became an indelible anthem because it admitted "we're not the same" but urged that we've gotta "carry each other" nonetheless. The squalling swagger of "The Fly" resonated due to the rock star at its center confessing he's a liar and a thief. And for "Mysterious Ways," the Edge somehow concocted a jubilantly snarling riff that transformed Bono's gospel come-on so it didn't feel gross the morning after.

Daniel Lanois Discusses Achtung Baby

Ahead of his induction into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame, CBC Music asked Daniel Lanois to sit down and reflect on five albums that he's worked on over his acclaimed career.

Lanois walks us through the making of U2's Achtung Baby and how Bono and company took to Berlin to mix "flesh and machine" for their new record:






http://music.cbc.ca

Happy Birthday, Adam!

Today Adam Clayton turns 52. Hope he had the best of days together with friends and family. We wish him the best because he has given us the best these last years!!

A good idea to celebrate his birthday may be to join  the  "Walk in My Shoes" campaign , to support mental health services  for young people in Ireland.
More information and donations: here.
Support Mental Health on April 26th by Wearing Unusual Shoes!

http://www.walkinmyshoes.ie/

Bono comments on Invisible Children’s Kony 2012 campaign

ONE co-founder Bono commented on Invisible Children’s “Kony 2012” film and campaign in Ireland’s edition of the Sunday Times yesterday. The campaign, which aims to raise global support for Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony’s arrest, has caught the attention of the worldover the past few days, and the filmmakers have urged public figures to speak out in response. Here’s is Bono’s full comment on the campaign:

“Having just been in Gulu with Edun and Jolly, this is particularly pertinent for me…Spreading like wildfire, and sparking a heated, fascinating, much needed debate, this is brilliant campaigning. Not only does the public now know about Kony and his most despicable atrocities, they also know what a huge range of experts think about it, even if they all don’t agree. I salute a strategy that generates this much interest if it¹s targeted towards lasting meaningful solutions owned and directed by the people of the region on their journey from the trauma of these atrocities towards stability and development. Is there an Oscar for this kind of direction? Jason Russell deserves it.”

 To read the full article, click here.




http://one.org/blog

Bono Participated in a Documentary about Victor Jara

"The Resurrection of Victor Jara"  is a  film that documents the life and work of iconic Chilean songwriter Victor Jara, executed in 1973 by a coup de etat government. 

The film chronicles the outrageous efforts of Jara´s widow, Joan, to return the censored singer to the cultural life of his country. It also explores his profound  impact on artists, activists, and musicians of all ages inside and outside Chile.

Bono together with other musicians, activists and singers all  over the world participate  in the documetary that will be premiered on 28th September when Jara would have been 80 years old.

   

http://www.resurrectionofvictorjara.com

Happy 25th Anniversary, The Joshua Tree

Desert sky
Dream beneath the desert sky
The rivers run, but soon run dry
We need new dreams tonight...
In God´s Country

On March 9, 1987, U2 released The Joshua Tree, its fifth studio album and one that would catapult the Irish rock quartet from popularity to international superstardom.

Rolling Stone named it the third best album of the '80s and   the magazine critic Anthony De Curtis wrote: 

"The wild beauty, cultural richness, spiritual vacancy and ferocious violence of America are explored to compelling effect in virtually every aspect of The Joshua Tree — in the title and the cover art, the blues and country borrowings evident in the music ... Indeed, Bono says that 'dismantling the mythology of America' is an important part of The Joshua Tree's artistic objective."

One of the most influential and influenced albums by U2, The Joshua Tree is and was a jewel in the discography of the Irish band (and in any other who would die to have their own "Joshua Tree"). More history of the album here

It produced the hit singles “With or Without You”, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”, and “Where the Streets Have No Name”. The album won Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1988.

"I just think the album takes you somewhere," bassist Adam Clayton told the magazine. "It's like a journey. You start in the desert, come swooping down in Central America. Running for your life. It takes me somewhere, and hopefully it does that for everyone else."

And it has takes us many places for sure...Happy Anniversary, TJT!!! 

"Original of the Species" in Every Mother Counts

A new benefit project for model Christy Turlington Burn’s Every Mother Counts program will include tracks from a bevy of big names in rock. Among those featured are U2′s Bono and the Edge, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, Paul Simon and Edie Brickell, Dave Matthews Band, Sting, David Bowie, Beck, Rufus Wainwright and Coldplay, among others.

Highlights include an acoustic version of Coldplay’s early hit “Yellow,” an acoustic take on “Original of the Species” by Bono and the Edge, and Vedder’s “Skipping.” Also participating: Sade, Faith Hill, Diana Krall, Seal, Alanis Morrisette and Patti Smith, among others.

Starbucks is co-sponsoring the project, which will be called Every Mother Counts, Volume 2. Turlington Burn’s charity seeks to raise awareness in reducing the maternal mortality rate. The compilation will be available from May 1-29 in America; release dates in the UK have not yet been set.

“Bono and (Coldplay’s) Chris Martin were great supporters of the project the first time around,” Turlington Burns told Rolling Stone magazine, “and when I knew I wanted to include men on this album, they were obvious choices. They are also both fathers to daughters. I generally wanted a diverse group of artists who were parents.”

Tracklist:

Bono  and The Edge: Original Of The Species
Eddie Vedder: Skipping
Paul Simon  and  Edie Brickell: Pretty Day
Faith Hill: Wish For You
Sade: The Sweetest Gift
Lauryn Hill: I Remember
Rita Wilson: Baby I’m Yours
Diana Krall: Don’t Fence Me In
Seal: Secret
Dave Matthews Band: Sister
Sting: Fragilidad
Alanis Morissette: Magical Child
Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros: Mother
David Bowie: Everyone Says Hi
Cedella Marley: Get Up Stand Up
Beck: Corrina, Corrina
Rufus Wainwright: Instead Of The Dead
Patti Smith: Somalia
Coldplay: Yellow


http://everymothercounts.org/

Happy International Women´s Day!!!

And as Bono would sing: "Women of the future hold the big revelations"...so, women, Get on your boots! and Celebrate!!!

AMP Visual On U2´s Logos

AMP Visual   talks about their work for U2.

"We’ve worked with U2 for a long time as their graphic designers and through the years we’ve made quite a number of design pieces for the band. So we thought we’d do an occasional blog called U2 x 5. The idea is simply for us to take 5 related graphic pieces we’ve designed for the band and comment on them. This blog is about U2 logos.


Logos, they’re absolutely all around us. They are the shorthand and visual idiom of our age. We have always enjoyed making these little marks and symbols for U2. We’ve picked just five logos out of the many we’ve made for the band and say a few words about each."

The Joshua Tree

The isolated silhouette drawing of the Joshua tree was the first U2 logo to appear that people recognised globally. It works both literally and figuratively and it is highly memorable. People connect it intrinsically with the U2 masterpiece album and as such the icon has inherited the characteristics of integrity and a certain kind of honesty and beauty. The tree itself has a lovely very individual shape with its unusual branches and leaves. The logo represents all that that album means to people, so much so that some people have it as a tattoo.

Zooropa – Astrobaby and ring of stars

The ZooTV tour had a fantastic hi-tech connection with satellite technology and the notion of being a TV station on the road. By the time of Zooropa’s outdoor shows, it was incredibly in your face. The icon drawing of the astrobaby surrounded by 12 stars in imitation of the European flag came to represent the tour and subsequently appeared on the cover of the Zooropa album. The logo has a whimsy and intrigue that is appealing. It can be understood without words and somehow its human smallness nicely represents the largesse and technicality of the Zooropa tour.

Pop – Lemon-planet logo

The PopMart tour had a multitude of references – a kind of celebration of 60s kitch and Americana, pop-art, and shopping were all in there. The stage featured an enormous yellow arch almost in homage to the golden arches of the McDonald’s restaurant sign and the band emerged out of a huge chrome lemon during the set. So somehow this logo – made for the tour merchandising – of a shopping trolley traveling around a lemon like a satellite made good sense.

How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb – Chevrons, target and blast

While the How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb warning chevrons, the target and the ‘blast’ shape isn’t just one visual icon, it is still a visual language that worked in the same way as a logo for the album and tour campaign. The icons worked especially well on the cover of the special edition ‘handbook’ version of the album. These black and red-coloured components featured heavily as the album’s identity in promotion and advertising and through the singles from the album and consequently in the tour stage and merchandise.

U2360 – Logo

This icon represented the U2360 tour and in much the same way as The Joshua Tree logo, it’s a literal interpretation, with the logo’s simple curvilinear lines conveying the stage’s iconic shape rather than the other featured logos, which are more about representing an idea. It works well perhaps as its shape is not dissimilar to the elegant streamlined logos as seen for the likes of 60s automobiles with their reminiscence to the golden age of rockets and spacecraft.

AMP Visual work in a number of design disciplines in areas of cultural, entertainment, identity and corporate design and in assorted mediums and platforms from online to print, packaging to promotion. 

http://www.ampvisual.com

Winners of the AB Contest

U2.com has announced the winners of the competition launched to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Achtung Baby 
The winner is called 'without' and the artist is Jana Beier and she's won her very own Trabant in the competition to celebrate the 20th anniversary edition of Achtung Baby.

'The original painting is from 1991. I was 12 years old, just left behind my safe but also restricted childhood in East Germany, facing future with the new 'west'. I felt like drowning from all the new impulses in that time. The painting had stayed in the cellar until today, colours faded but the theme is more present than ever... ' 
While Jana from Germany was the 'Host's Choice' in the competition, the People's Choice award - winning the popular vote went to Ukrainian photographer Zoya Shu with 'On The Fly', an eye-catchingly surrealist perspective on the fall of the Wall. 'So pay attention, the babies that were born in 1991 are now the adults and still going strong. It's no secret...' 

Also named winners were Ana Coello; Roman Soloviev; Olga Bannikova; Gene Jimenez: Lucie Bascoul; IIona Muis; Ryan O'Neill; Eugenio Gonzalez; Julian De Angelis; Susan Hamilton Peterson; Lilit Simonyan; Irmak Akcadogan; Keri Huber and Jacob Baldwin:  

www.u2.com

Edun Hosts First Runway Show in L.A.

Colin Farrell, Claudine Farrell, Bono and Ali Hewson.

Photo By Brandon Clark/ABImages

Garden of  EDUN: Ali Hewson and Bono touched down in Beverly Hills on Saturday night for Edun’s first Los Angeles runway show, held to celebrate the line’s launch at Neiman Marcus. “It’s been a huge learning curve,” Hewson said of getting into the fashion business seven years ago. “Had I known how hard it was going to be, I would have stayed home and had four more kids.”

After the rooftop runway show, which was also attended by Colin Farrell, Gela Nash-Taylor and John Taylor, Hewson shared Champagne and dessert with shoppers in the store. ‘We’d eventually like to expand into accessories, but we’ll continue to focus on clothes a while longer. It’s just getting to the point where it’s running like a Swiss watch.”

By MARCY MEDINA

http://www.wwd.com

Adam Clayton supports Walk in my Shoes

Get Involved!!


Join Imelda May and U2’s Adam Clayton and support mental health services for young adults in Ireland on April 26th!


What can I do? click here.   Donate.

Edge on Homelessness and What He Is Listening Now

The Edge, producer of Friday night's MTV special on youth homelessness, "The Break," says he, too, sometimes finds himself at a loss about how to help people on the street.

"There's that awful thing where you realize there's nothing you can do, right at that moment, so you kind of pretend they're not there," he told TheWrap. "And I think for somebody who's homeless, particularly someone who's panhandling, that's the most emotionally difficult thing, is to become like a non-person. Like you literally do not exist to someone walking by.

"And I understand both sides," he added. "The person passing by just doesn't know what to do. So they end up blanking the homeless person. And it's a terrible thing to see happen. I've been guilty of it myself from time to time."

The musician and activist, who says he usually does give money to the homeless people he encounters, has spent three decades working on social causes like African famine relief as a member of his band. U2, the biggest touring act of 2011, has campaigned for causes and organizations from Make Poverty History to Amnesty International.

With "The Break," the Edge and host Anne Mahlum, an advocate for the homeless, profile three young people on the street and try to help them rebuild their lives. They include a woman who was involved in abusive relationships, a gifted drummer who suffered a downward spiral, and a woman who left home because her parents objected to her lesbianism. The Edge also wrote a song for the show, "There's No Home Like Place."

The Edge said U2 is "slowly starting to think about work," but the band is in no rush to get back to the studio, despite a wealth of material. Instead, it's listening to a lot of music. After we talked about the special, he told us what he's playing lately.

What interested you about this project?

It was something that just inspired me early on. I was questioning myself about some of my own ways of relating or not relating to homeless people, and it just started me on kind of a journey to answer some questions for myself. And in the process I started thinking about the way that the homeless are really completely marginalized, and in many cases disenfranchised.

They suffer through a lot of stereotypical views about how they got there. What I've learned is there is a myriad of reasons why someone might become homeless. No two stories are the same. I thought that it was time that there was a little bit more of an intelligent sense of inquiry into this problem. It's particularly serious at the moment with the economic downturn.

I thought if we could really make a difference in somebody's life with an intervention, it could be a reality TV kind of thing that would be very uplifting and inspiring, instead of making people view the show and feel better because they see a lot of bad behavior.

But also if somebody's in a position of being homeless, in could be hopefully an inspiring thing to see.
The question of how to help is a particularly interesting dilemma for you. As part of U2 and singularly, you're one of the most approached people in the world to help contribute to causes. And you're also in a unique position to help a lot of people. How do you choose what you're going to do?
I think it's down to feeling like you can move the needle, that you can make a difference. And of course we can't do everything, because then you'd be so diluted that there wouldn't be any kind of impact to your support or involvement. That's an important thing.


And the things that inspire you and the things that you feel moved to become involved with. As with Bono and his Africa work. He happened to be in Africa at a very pivotal time in his life and witnessed a lot of the problems with famine. And it's stayed with him. For me, there was something about the homelessness issue that was like this voice just saying, you've got to try to find some way of getting involved here.


There were a couple of stories as well that sort of inspired me. One Irish homeless man, in Dublin, quite famously rescued the driver of a bus that had plunged into the River Liffey. And he and a passer-by actually climbed down though this wrecked bus because the front of it was in the water but the back of it was accessible from the bridge. And they climbed down through the broken rear window and dragged the bus driver out and saved his life. But he ended up wandering into the night with his wet clothes to sleep rough.


And it just struck me as a kind of really tragic scenario – I wasn't the only one. It was a big story in Ireland.

Not that you've ever suffered through the kinds of struggles that homeless people do, but as a child or when you were trying to get U2 started, was there a time when you felt like you lived close to the margins?

I mean, friends of ours, during the early days, we would hang out in derelict buildings … and all that stuff, which was kind of almost a rite of passage, particularly if you were coming out in a punk band, the punk movement. But no, personally, I can't lay claim ever having had to deal with not having a home. Although there are people I know who've had phases of being homeless, I'm not putting myself forward as an expert in homelessness.

Peru: Bono writes letter to President Humala

Bono wrapped up his visit to Peru yesterday after visiting Lima, Machu Picchu, and the Tambopata Natural Reserve. But before leaving the country, Bono took the opportunity to write President Ollanta Humala a letter.

“Thank you for sending my family and I your best wishes. We are very aware of your committed fight to end extreme poverty in Peru […] we applaud this and are delighted to be travelling in this enchanting country at a time of positive change,” Bono said, in his hand written letter.


“We know you have bigger obstacles to climb than Machu Picchu! But we will be there to cheer you when you ‘take the summit’.”


The Irish singer added that he hoped to visit Lima again, “next time you see me I hope I will have a guitar in my hand […]”
"Maybe then we could have a coffee or tea or something stronger!"

Bono closed the letter saying he had heard Humala was “an open man” with fine people working alongside him, like Finance Minister Luis Castilla.

Full letter here. 

http://www.peruthisweek.com

'There are over 1.5 million homeless youth living on the streets, in shelters and couch surfing, in America. Despite the stereotypes, many of them are not addicts, hardened criminals or mentally ill. They come from families who didn’t understand them, some are runaways who could no longer tolerate the abuse in their own homes and some have aged out of the foster care system with no place to go....'


In an MTV documentary, 'The Break', the personal vision of Edge, viewers meet Ava, Nancy and Rob, all without a home to call their own and in desperate need of a change. Like many homeless young people they face a struggle for food and shelter, the dangers of crime and illegal drug use. 


Every day, strangers turn a blind eye, telling themselves the problems are too big to fix. But homeless advocate Anne Mahlum knows different and the documentary reveals what's possible when people find the tools to build a new life.


'I wanted to find the right answer to the question, 'How do we respond to homelessness?' Edge told U2.com, in Dublin to talk about his vision for The Break. 'I wanted to get an intelligent audience to think differently about homeless people, to realise that so many of the cliches are untrue...'


More from Edge, and a clip of the show, in the video below. The Break airs in the US this Friday. Details.


http://www.u2.com/news/title/the-break


www.u2.com/MTV