The heart and soul of Apple, Steve Jobs, who stepped down from his job as CEO of the world’s most popular computer company due to his life-threatening illness, has been rightfully lauded as one of the world’s greatest ever innovators, but he’s also gotten a bad rap in some quarters over his and Apple’s supposed lack of philanthropy.
Jobs, however, has a staunch defender in his old friend Bono, who took issue with a column in The New York Times last week and wrote a letter to the editor in defense of Jobs’s efforts to help those less fortunate.
Bono, who focuses his philanthropic efforts on fighting the AIDS and poverty epidemic in Africa, says that Jobs has been an amazing behind the scenes supporter.
“As a founder of (charity) (Product)RED, I’d like to point out that Apple’s contribution to our fight against AIDS in Africa has been invaluable. Through the sale of (RED) products, Apple has been (RED)’s largest contributor to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria — giving tens of millions of dollars that have transformed the lives of more than two million Africans through H.I.V. testing, treatment and counseling. This is serious and significant. And Apple’s involvement has encouraged other companies to step up,” Bono wrote.
“Steve Jobs said when we first approached him about (RED), ‘There is nothing better than the chance to save lives.’”
That’s high praise from a man who hasn’t been afraid to call out world leaders in the past for their lack of action on the African crisis. And Bono also pointed out that just because Jobs isn’t turning up for one photo op after another, it doesn’t mean his interest is absent.
“I’m proud to know him; he’s a poetic fellow, an artist and a businessman,” wrote Bono. “You don’t have to be a friend of his to know what a private person he is or that he doesn’t do things by halves.”
U2 and Apple have had an up and down relationship in the past. The band took part in a special U2 iPod launch in 2004 and promotion around the release of the band’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb CD, but in later years an equity firm that Bono has a major share in, Elevation Partners, funded the Palm line of phones that were a direct (and nowadays, very much defeated) competitor to Apple.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.GeorgeDillon | Oct 07, 2011, 02:23 AM EDT
"a man who hasn’t been afraid to call out world leaders in the past for their lack of action on the African crisis". More baloney and nonsense from Irish Central. Sure, he "called out" guys like Blair and Bush -- so much that he became the best buddy of these warmongers! It's easy for Bono to bluster, talk is cheap. He even deserted his own country in an attempt to save a buck. Bono is no philantropist, he's a selfish bastard. And that's entirely his own business. It only becomes a public issue when he is berating taxpayers for not paying more taxes in order to prop up corrupt Third World regimes.
mariedriscoll | Sep 09, 2011, 03:21 PM EDT
Why do I at 82 years have to pay 500EURO Taxes on my late husbands Pension. I live in the USA????????????????
GeorgeDillon | Sep 09, 2011, 12:37 PM EDT
Giuseppe, if you think the huge rate of unemployment in Ireland is cause for laughter and levity then all I can say is what kind of weird values do you have. I certainly don't take advice from weirdos, keep it for your psychiatrist.
brigidosull | Sep 09, 2011, 10:19 AM EDT
My daughters ipod was stolen at school. I wrote a letter to Mr Jobs asking if there was any type of tracking possible. We were not going to replace it right away due to the cost. Mr Jobs sent her a new one! Now some may say it was nothing to him..but it meant a lot to us. He didn't have to do it..he chose to do it. I thought it was very kind of him and our family thinks the world of him. It may have been just a small thing to him, but to us it was a big deal. He is always in our prayers....
cillowen | Sep 08, 2011, 09:21 PM EDT
a tax dodger and friend are like birds of a feather - gandy dancer types.
vincentruane | Sep 08, 2011, 08:59 PM EDT
Well Debbie: You are full of surprises, according to you, according to Bono...Steve Jobs has said...There is nothing better than the chance to SAVE LIVES and I whole heartly agree. However somebody needs to tell the journalists of the New York Times, The Daily News and the New York Post about Jobs noble and compassionate statement... Since 1973 over 83 millon weak and defenceful growing human beings have been killed in the American branch of the abortion holocaust. Why the silence about this evil? Why Debbie?
guiseppe | Sep 08, 2011, 05:21 PM EDT
George Dillon.........You sound or at lease you write in a most negative way. Is life that grim for you? Your comments.......never positive. Take a walk, get some sunshine.
gregoryny | Sep 08, 2011, 05:02 PM EDT
it seems there was some irish law protecting "artists" from taxes in Ireland. when this law was dismantled Bono and U2 quickly moved ALL of their assets out of the country to avoid paying irish taxes that is how much of an upright guy he is http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aef6sR60oDgM
LoyalCitizen | Sep 08, 2011, 04:16 PM EDT
Tax dodging over subsidised out of touch with too much access to the press.
GeorgeDillon | Sep 08, 2011, 01:16 PM EDT
A few years ago Bono was on a big Cancel the Debt kick, in which he asked taxpayers in wealthier countries to cancel the debt owed by African countries. But he's been very silent on canceling the Irish debt. Why isn't he campaigning for that, between his trips to the Riviera? And how come he doesn't organize some kind of Live Aid concert for the Irish unemployed? Answer--he's a sanctimonious hypocrite.
BGAndersson | Sep 08, 2011, 12:57 PM EDT
ENGLISH, people! If you're wrtiting for a newspaper, how did you ever come up with "DEFEND'S" as a verb? Who's editing this?? Is it so off-putting. There's no bloody apostrophe in the verb "defends"!
RedBranch | Sep 08, 2011, 10:49 AM EDT
His Cash, his Choice.
dinglebay | Sep 08, 2011, 10:36 AM EDT
He gave full time employment to thousands of people. That is his gift to society.
joma5004 | Sep 08, 2011, 10:18 AM EDT
Not every philanthropist wants to be on the cover of Time. Some feel that they work better behind the scenes