Activists Ask Bono to Help Shoot Down Video Game About Venezuela

[BayCityProgressive]

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2249
Bono has developed a reputation as a rock star with a conscience. The leader of the band U2 has cofounded two lobbying groups that raise awareness about Africa's afflictions, created a fair-trade clothing company, and brokered a deal with several major American companies to donate millions of dollars to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS. But now he is caught up in a controversy over one of his own ventures.

Dozens of organizations are asking Bono to stop production of Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, a violent video game in which players become hired mercenaries who invade Venezuela, where a tyrant has tampered with the country's oil supply. Once there, the player takes orders from the highest bidder, buying, stealing, and destroying anything in sight. Samples of the game available online show the mercenary driving through corrugated shacks in jungle villages, firing shoulder rockets from a city sidewalk, and destroying a replica of the state-owned oil company's headquarters. The game, developed by Pandemic Studios, is scheduled for release in the fall.

Bono is a cofounder and chief investor in Elevation Partners, a media and communications company that formed a $300 million partnership with Pandemic in 2005.

"You always hear about all of the humanitarian efforts that he does, so I was surprised he would be involved in a violent game like this," said Jorge Marin, a Venezuelan immigrant who is a coordinator of the Boston Bolivarian Circle, one of the groups that have signed on to the Venezuela Solidarity Network's second campaign to write letters to Bono.

[Ian David]

1. Please, won't somebody think of the OIL WELLS! Send in The Mercenaries! n/t

[sasha031]

2. that's disgusting, just what we need war game video's

does the fool ever conceder that sort of thing will inspire the young ins to join the army.and after we get through nuking Iran, they will be old enough to nuke Latin America.

his head is up his ass...

[Cha]

3. That would be productive if

Bono could stop the propoganda about Venezuela through a video game.