BRITISH TO THE BONO

We've got snow! The vibrant (pop.45) village of Dwight, Ontario, proved itself yet again one of the world's great natural wonders, with actual snow in winter in Northern Canada. If that's a stunning surprise, as opposed to a stultifying one, and this being the season of giving, I have another one for you. Oh, joy! Can it be true? Does this great humanitarian do nothing but give? Oh that there were more like he, forsooth. Why did you say forsooth? Because I'm a sooth-sayer.

The other seasonal surprise is that one of the world's most famous and richest Irishmen has accepted an honourary knighthood from Britain. He, too, is a great humanitarian, a beacon for all those who cry out for social justice, equality, and an end to Aids in Africa. But it turns out that Bono has suddenly forgotten his Irish heritage and embarked on a voyage of cynicism and hypocrisy. This hurts.

U2's version of "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" is perhaps the most furious and rightful condemnation ever of the British massacre of 13 unarmed civil rights marchers in Londonderry in 1982.

Clearly Paul Hewson (that's his real name) has conveniently forgotten all that protest nonsense and the valourous men and women of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Irish Republican Army who died to free Ireland from five centuries of murder and starvation by the Protestant British. Clearly Sir Saint Bono has chosen to forget that the reason he and the Irish Republic are the greatest success stories in European Union precisely because the IRA drove the Brits out and allowed him and his country to develop into unfettered economic giants.

In the parlance of the time,only a Quisling would have accepted an honorary knighthood from the King Billy's Boys of the British Government. And where did that King William of Orange inflict a mighty defeat over the wretched Catholics of Derry? At a river called the Boyne. But don't we have a River Boyne here in Dwight? Ooops! It runs right through my backyard. Hmm. Better keep that one very quiet. Still, may be Sir Bono will bring U2 to Dwight now that he is a knight and pay homage to the dead of the Boyne. Yeah, right..

Pity Bono's ego couldn't resist the ride.
Ironic, too, his best-known hit is called"Pride."

P.S. I tried to email this panegyric to Sir Bono but I hit a snag. To log in as a member of the U2 club you first have to pay $US40.