Shades of Gray

Sir Bob Geldof's travels with George Bush

Had anyone other then Bob Geldoff written it, I would have dismissed it as PR. As it stands, it shows a part of pres. Bush we rarely hear of. At least it strengthens my believe in nuanced thinking :) I may not agree with everything he does (and has done) but I can't imagine anyone being so deeply evil and detestable as the media usually picture him. Glad the London Times showed his other other side! :)

Within minutes btw I had a very interesting chat with Ranoch! Glad to have spoken to him, happens to rarely... guess I need to visit Leuven again sometime soon.

ranoch: the daily show had a bit about africa work from Bush, they could hardly believe they had good news from Bush as well
sirvantc: hey :)
ranoch: but, as someone there said, it's making it worse. Bush is not incapable of doing good, he just chose not to ;)
sirvantc: thats not what Geldoff said :)
Geldoff basically wrote that if Bush had put the same ideas into pratice in the ME as in Africa, the world would have looked prettier
and considering the stuff he puts forward: before Bush got into office 50.000 ppl on HIV medicine who have to pay for it
and currently 1.3m people on provided medicine
just one example
I think it shows
ranoch: yeah, like I said, the Daily Show was suprised to mention something positive for a change :)
sirvantc: The feeling I had after reading it is pity
I pity Bush
his partial blindness
his attempts to the right american thing
in a world that doesn work like that
ranoch: I just pity the world, he's the president, he should have known what he was getting himself into
sirvantc: I agree with Geldoff that he looks at america as the shining city on the hill. Spread that and the world will become better and by doing so stuff happens that prove to everyone else that the city is crap
ranoch: veto-ing a law that forbids torture, challenging international law by beginning perpetual war, is that the shining city?
sirvantc: hey I dont agre with him ;P
ranoch: I don't even agree with the idea of shining city ;)
sirvantc: me neither :)
not anymore
well never have in such an idealistic way
it's a matter of you talk the talk
now walk the walk
America is not what it claims to be
and it doesnt see that
ranoch: no, but nothing is
it's just that america is most vocal about it ;)
sirvantc: yup :)
it's stg that has always bothered me, I agree in principle with everything that it claims to be standing for
I am very much a liberal
but what it does is nothing like it
ranoch: no, far from it...
sirvantc: so the question is do you cling to an idealistic version of what you want stg to be
or become a realist
ranoch: well, become more realistic anyways :)
dreamworlds are fine, but I'm not living in it
sirvantc: I have become in more than one way much more realistic the last couple of years :)
ranoch: as long that is not coupled by pessimism, that's fine :)
sirvantc: never