So I just read a report that U-2 lead singer Bono's anti-poverty foundation ONE has made the news. This time the pub is not so good.

The New York Post is reporting that just a little over 1% of ONE's budget has actually gone to actual need. In 2008 ONE received 9.6 million British pounds in donations and dispersed 118,000 pounds to good causes. Salaries for the foundation were 5.1 million pounds.

ONE responded to the reports that they are not chartered to actually meet needs, but to raise awareness and to promote advocacy for the world's poor.

High profile, high-style, high-toned rhetoric about injustice among the worlds' haves toward the have-nots has been the way Bono rolls.

The staff of his foundation seems to be doing well with that.

I have stopped apologizing for my sketicism when the entertainers and pop-culture elites of the world take up 'noble causes' and heap guilt and disdain upon 'rich westerners.' It requires no courage for a Hollywood headliner or a rock star to champion a 'progressive cause.'

But week in and week out I live and serve with real people who regularly sacrifice real time and real dollars to make a difference in other people's lives. It may be in a housing project in New Britain or among orphaned children in Wakiso, Uganda. It may be in a grass-roots effort to fight an indifferent town council in Southington to root out a glitzy porn shop from their town. It may just be one single woman helping an older woman to navigate life and stay in her own home following a major injury.

These are my heroes.

Bono has his millions of fans. For his music--they are well deserved. But the ONE foundation is about 98.8% short of genuine.

That's all I'm gonna say about that.