The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million,^[2] it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star. The Globe and Mail is widely described as Canada's English-language newspaper of record.^[3]

History[link]

The predecessor to The Globe and Mail was The Globe, founded in 1844 by Scottish immigrant George Brown, who would later become a Father of Confederation. Brown's liberal politics led him to court the support of the Clear Grits, precursor to the modern Liberal Party of Canada. The Globe began in Toronto as a weekly party organ for Brown's Reform Party, but seeing the economic gains that he could make in the newspaper business, Brown soon targeted a wide audience of liberal minded freeholders. He selected as the motto for the editorial page a quotation from Junius, "The subject who is truly loyal to the Chief Magistrate will neither advise nor submit to arbitrary measures." The quotation is carried on the editorial page daily to this day.

By the 1850s, The Globe had become an independent and well-regarded daily newspaper. It began distribution by railway to other cities in Ontario shortly after Canadian Confederation. At the dawn of the twentieth century, The Globe added photography, a women's section, and the slogan "Canada's National Newspaper," which remains on its front-page banner today. It began opening bureaus and offering subscriptions across Canada.

On November 23, 1936, The Globe (which had a circulation of 78,000 by this point) merged with The Mail and Empire (circulation 118,000)^[4], itself formed through a merger in 1895 between The Toronto Mail and Toronto Empire. The Mail was founded in 1872 by a rival of Brown's, Tory politician Sir John A. Macdonald. Macdonald was the first Prime Minister of Canada and the founder of the party that spawned the modern Conservative Party of Canada, and The Mail served as a Conservative Party organ.

Globe and Mail staff await news of the D-Day invasion. 6 June 1944.

With the merger, The Globe became The Globe and Mail. Press reports at the time stated, "the minnow swallowed the whale". The merger was arranged by George McCullagh, who fronted for mining magnate William Henry Wright and became the first publisher of The Globe and Mail. McCullagh committed suicide in 1952, and the newspaper was sold to the Webster family of Montreal. As the paper lost ground to The Toronto Star in the local Toronto market, it began to expand its national circulation.

In 1965, the paper was bought by Winnipeg-based FP Publications, controlled by Brig. Richard Malone, which owned a chain of local Canadian newspapers. FP put a strong emphasis on the Report on Business section that was launched in 1962, thereby building the paper's reputation as the voice of Toronto's business community. FP Publications and The Globe and Mail were sold in 1980 to The Thomson Corporation, a company run by the family of Kenneth Thomson.

In 2001, The Globe and Mail was combined with broadcast assets held by Bell Canada to form the joint venture Bell Globemedia. Nine years later, at the end of 2010, the Thomson family, through its holding company Woodbridge, acquired direct control of The Globe and Mail with an 85-percent stake. BCE continues to hold 15 percent.^[5][6]

The Globe and Mail has always been a morning newspaper. Since the 1980s, it has been printed in separate editions in six Canadian cities: Halifax, Montreal, Toronto (several editions), Winnipeg (actually printed in Brandon, Manitoba), Calgary and Vancouver.

In 1995, the paper launched its Web site, globeandmail.com; on June 9, 2000, the Web site began covering breaking news with its own content and journalists in addition to the content of the print newspaper.^[7] It later spawned a companion Web site, globeinvestor.com, focusing on financial and investment-related news. In 2004, access to some features of globeandmail.com became restricted to paid subscribers only. The subscription service was revised a few years later to become a service called Globe Plus, which offers an e-edition of the newspaper, access to its archives, as well as membership to a premium investment site.

Political stance[link]

Even before the Globe merged with the Mail and Empire, the paper was widely considered the voice of the Upper Canada elite—that is, the Bay Street financial community of Toronto and the intellectuals of university and government institutions. The merger of the Liberal Globe and the Tory Mail and Empire prefigured the paper's characteristically Red Tory editorial stance, as its support alternated between the two established national parties. In the past century, the paper has consistently endorsed either the Liberal Party or the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in every federal election. The paper had endorsed a third party on two occasions at the provincial level: it endorsed the social-democratic New Democratic Party in the 1991 Saskatchewan provincial election and British Columbia provincial election. The New Democrats won both elections and went on to form provincial governments.

While the paper was known as a generally conservative voice of the business establishment in the postwar decades, historian David Hayes, in a review of its positions, has noted that the Globe's editorials in this period "took a benign view of hippies and homosexuals; championed most aspects of the welfare state; opposed, after some deliberation, the Vietnam War; and supported legalizing marijuana." It was a 1967 Globe and Mail editorial that coined the phrase "The State has no place in the bedrooms of the nation," in defence of legalization of homosexuality. The line was later picked up by future Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to become one of his most famous slogans.

Under the editorship of William Thorsell in the 1980s and 1990s, the paper strongly endorsed the free trade policies of Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. The paper also became an outspoken proponent of the Meech Lake Accord and the Charlottetown Accord, with their editorial the day of the 1995 Quebec Referendum mostly quoting a Mulroney speech in favour of the Accord.^[8] During this period, the paper continued to favour such socially liberal policies as decriminalizing drugs (including cocaine, whose legalization was advocated most recently in a 1995 editorial) and expanding gay rights.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, the paper generally supported the policies of Liberal Prime Ministers Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin. In the 2006 federal election, the paper turned away from the Liberals to Stephen Harper's Conservative Party of Canada. In the subsequent 2008 federal election and 2011 federal election the paper's editorial board again endorsed the Conservatives.^[9]

Recent developments[link]

In recent years, the paper has made changes to its format and layout, such as the introduction of colour photographs, a separate tabloid book-review section and the creation of the Review section on arts, entertainment and culture. Although the paper is sold throughout Canada and has long called itself "Canada's National Newspaper", The Globe and Mail also serves as a Toronto metropolitan paper, publishing several special sections in its Toronto edition that are not included in the national edition. As a result, it is sometimes ridiculed for being too focused on the Greater Toronto Area, part of a wider humorous portrayal of Torontonians being blind to the greater concerns of the nation. (A reverse criticism is sometimes applied to The New York Times, with regards to its shrinking New York coverage in relation to its US coverage). Critics^[who?] sometimes refer to the paper as the Toronto Globe and Mail or Toronto's National Newspaper. Recently, in an effort to gain market share in Vancouver, The Globe and Mail began publishing a distinct west-coast edition, edited independently in Vancouver, containing a three-page section of British Columbia news.^{[citation needed]}

Other satirical nicknames for the paper include Mop and Pail or Grope and Flail, both of which were coined by longtime Globe and Mail humour columnist Richard J. Needham. The University of British Columbia's student paper, The Ubyssey published a parody issue titled Glib and Male. The spring 2008 issue of the Ryerson Review of Journalism referenced the nickname "Old and Male" for the paper's employee base and perceived target audience.

Since the launch of the National Post as another English-language national paper in 1998, some industry analysts have proclaimed a "national newspaper war" between The Globe and Mail and the National Post. Thus far, however, The Globe and Mail has continued to outsell the National Post.^{[citation needed]}

On April 23, 2007, the paper introduced significant changes to its print design and also introduced a new unified navigation system to its websites.^[10] The paper added a "lifestyle" section to the Monday-Friday editions, entitled Globe Life, which has been described as an attempt to attract readers from the rival Toronto Star. Additionally, the paper followed other North American papers by dropping detailed stock listings in print and by shrinking the printed paper to a 12-inch width.

During the 2010 Winter Olympics, which were staged in Vancouver, The Globe and Mail published a Sunday edition, making it the first time that the paper has ever published on Sunday.^{[citation needed]}

Redesign and relaunch 2010[link]

On October 1, 2010, The Globe and Mail unveiled redesigns to both its paper and online formats, dubbed "the most significant redesign in The Globe's history" by Editor-in-Chief John Stackhouse.^[11] The paper version has a bolder, more visual presentation that features 100% full-colour pages, more graphics, slightly glossy paper stock (with the use of state-of-the-art heat-set printing presses), and emphasis on lifestyle and similar sections (an approached dubbed "Globe-lite" by one media critic).^[12] The Globe and Mail sees this redesign as a step toward the future (promoted as such by a commercial featuring a young girl on a bicycle),^[13] as well as a step towards provoking debate on national issues (the October 1 edition featured a rare front page editorial above the Globe and Mail banner).^[11][14]

Key people[link]

Senior editors[link]

• John Stackhouse, editor-in-chief
• Sylvia Stead, associate editor
• David Walmsley, managing editor, News and Sports
• Natasha Hassan, comment editor
• Tom Maloney, sports editor
• Andrew Gorham, arts editor
• Craig Offman, foreign editor
• Sinclair Stewart, national editor
• Elena Cherney, editor, Report on Business
• Derek DeCloet, managing editor, Report on Business
• John Geiger, editorial board editor
• Jill Borra, managing editor, features
• Adrian Norris, managing editor, presentation
• Anjali Kapoor, managing editor, digital

Foreign bureaux[link]

North America

• Paul Koring, Washington Bureau Chief
• Barrie McKenna, Washington Bureau

Europe

• Doug Saunders, European Bureau Chief (London)
• Elizabeth Renzetti, European Bureau (London)
• Eric Reguly, European Bureau (Rome)
• Graeme Smith, Istanbul Bureau

Middle East, Asia and Africa

• Patrick Martin, Middle East Bureau Chief (Jerusalem)
• Geoffrey York, Africa Bureau Chief (Johannesburg)
• Stephanie Nolen, South Asia Bureau Chief (New Delhi)
• Mark MacKinnon, China Bureau Chief (Beijing)

Staff columnists[link]

• Ian Brown
• John Barber
• Beppi Crosariol, Wine and Spirits
• John Doyle
• Eric Duhatschek, Hockey
• Marcus Gee
• John Ibbitson
• Brent Jang, Business Transportation
• Michael Kesterton, Social Studies
• Liam Lacey
• Roy MacGregor
• Gary Mason, British Columbia
• Leah McLaren
• Adam Radwanski, Ontario Politics
• Elizabeth Renzetti, Page 2
• Neil Reynolds
• Lorne Rubenstein, Golf
• Doug Saunders
• David Shoalts, Hockey
• Jeffrey Simpson
• Kate Taylor
• Margaret Wente
• Hugh Winsor
• Konrad Yakabuski

Web columnists[link]

• Rick Anderson
• Douglas Bell
• Norman Spector
• Andrew Steele
• Karl Moore
• Dwayne Winseck

References[link]

• David Hayes, Power and Influence: The Globe and Mail and the News Revolution (Key Porter Books, Toronto, 1992)
• "The Globe and Mail" in The Canadian Encyclopedia, Second Edition, Volume II (Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers, 1988)
• World Press Review online, "Canada: Newspapers and Magazines Online"

External links[link]

	Toronto portal
	Journalism portal

• The Globe and Mail

v t e   Editors-in-Chief of the ten largest Canadian newspapers Toronto Star Joseph E. Atkinson (1899-1948), Harry Comfort Hindmarsh (1948-1955), Beland Honderich (1955-1966), Peter Newman (1969–1971), Robert Nielsen (acting 1970s), Fred Kuntz (2006-2008), Giles Gherson (2004-2006), Michael Cooke (2009-present) The Globe and Mail George McCullagh (1936-1952), Oakley Dalgleish (1952-1963), R. Howard Webster 1963-1965, James L. Cooper (1965-1974), Richard S. Malone (1974-1978) Richard Doyle (1978-1983), Norman Webster (1983-1989), William Thorsell (1989-1999), Richard Addis (1999-2002), Edward Greenspon (2002-2009), John Stackhouse (2009-present) Le Journal de Montréal André Lecompte (1964-?), Paule Beaugrand-Champagne, Lyne Robitaille La Presse William-Edmond Blumhart, Guy Crevier (2001), Philippe Cantin, André Pratte (2001-present) Toronto Sun Peter Worthington (1971-1982), Barbara Amiel (1983-1985), John Downing (1985-1997), Lorrie Goldstein (1997-2005), Linda Williamson, Mike Strobel (1999-2001), Jim Jennings (2004-2006), Glenn Garnett (2007), Lou Clancy (2007-2009), James Wallace (acting 2009-present) National Post Kenneth Whyte (1998-2003), Matthew Fraser (2003-2005), Doug Kelly (2005-2010), Stephen Meurice (2010-present) The Vancouver Sun Neil Reynolds (2000-2003), Patricia Graham (2003-present) Montreal Gazette Norman Webster, Joan Fraser (1993-1996), Alan Allnutt (1996-2000), Andrew Phillips Ottawa Citizen Charles Herbert Mackintosh (1874-1892), Hugh Clark 1897-1898, Edward Whipple Bancroft Morrison (1898-1913), Keith Spicer (1985-1989), Gordon Fisher (1989-1991), James Travers (1991-1996), Neil Reynolds (1996-2000), Scott Keir Anderson (2000-2007), Gerry Nott (2009-present) Winnipeg Free Press William Fisher Luxton (1872-1893), Frederick Molyneux St. John (1893-1895), Arnott James Magurn (1898-1901), John Wesley Dafoe (1901-1944), George Victor Ferguson (1944-1946), Grant Dexter (1946-1954), Thomas Worrall Kent (1954-1959), Shane MacKay (1959-1967), Richard S. Malone (1967-1974), Peter McLintock (1974-1979), John Dafoe (1979-1993), Duncan McMonagle (1993-1996), Nicholas Hirst (1996-2005), Bob Cox (2005-2007), Margo Goodhand (2007-present)

Robert Adrian Scott (February 6, 1912 – December 25, 1973) was an American screenwriter and film producer. He was one of the Hollywood Ten and later blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses.

Biography[link]

Born in Arlington, New Jersey, Adrian Scott was the producer of the film noirs Murder, My Sweet (1944), Cornered (1945), and Crossfire (1947), all of which were directed by Edward Dmytryk. Crossfire was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

In October 1947, Scott was called to testify during the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) hearings on Hollywood but - as did nine others - refused to testify and was sentenced to jail. Edward Dmytryk, another of these Hollywood Ten, later, in 1951 testified before the HUAC that Scott pressured him to put communist propaganda in his films.

Scott was subsequently blacklisted and, while he was unable to work in Hollywood, wrote pseudonymously for the British television series The Adventures of Robin Hood.^[1]

He was married to the actress, Anne Shirley, who subsequently married another screenwiter, Charles Lederer. He later married Joan Scott (née LaCour), fellow screenwriter and producer. Joan sometimes served as Adrian's front when he was unable to publish under his own name, and later the surname LaCour was used by both when writing in Hollywood.

Adrian is the brother of screenwriter Allan Scott, who is the father of actress Pippa Scott, and also the uncle of Douglas Scott *(b. 1942), and Laurie Scott (b. 1945); and great Uncle of Adam Scott and Aemilia Scott.

Adrian Scott died in 1973 in Sherman Oaks, California.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Adrian Scott at the Internet Movie Database
• the Adrian Scott Archive

This article about an American screenwriter is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

This article about an American film producer is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Stephanie Nolen (born September 3, 1971 in Montreal) is a Canadian journalist and writer. She is currently the South Asia bureau chief for The Globe and Mail. From 2003 to 2008, she was the Globe's Africa bureau chief, and she has reported from more than 40 countries around the world. She is a six-time National Newspaper Award winner for her work in Africa, and a four-time recipient of the Amnesty International Award for Human Rights Reporting. Her book on Africa's AIDS pandemic, 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa^[1], was nominated for the 2007 Governor General's Literary Award^[2] and has been published in 15 countries. She is the co-founder of the Museum of AIDS in Africa.^[3] She currently lives in New Delhi.

Early life and education[link]

Nolen was raised in Montreal and Ottawa. She earned a degree in journalism from the University of King's College in Halifax, then earned a Master's degree in economic development from the London School of Economics. Fluent in French, she can also work in Arabic, Spanish and Hindi.

Journalistic career[link]

Nolen was a freelance journalist based in Jerusalem from 1994–97 and an investigative reporter at Maclean's 1997–98. She has been a freelance contributor to Newsweek, The Independent and other publications. Her career at The Globe and Mail began in 1993. She was an Arts Reporter from 1998-2000 and a National Reporter from 2000-2003. She served as its correspondent covering the invasion of Afghanistan and the fall of the Taliban. She continued this theme in covering the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In 2003, Nolen became the Globe's Africa Bureau Chief (2003-08). Her dispatches concerned the consequences of war and political instability in a variety of places within Africa, particularly Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Uganda (specifically the Lord's Resistance Army). However, the most recurring theme in her coverage was the health, social, and political consequences of the AIDS epidemic in Africa. She is currently The Globe and Mail's South Asia Bureau Chief.

Awards[link]

National Newspaper Awards

• 2003 – International Reporting, profile of Stephen Lewis and his dogged campaign to help Africa with its AIDS crisis.
• 2004 – International Reporting, for her story about Rwanda 10 years after the country was ripped apart by genocidal warfare.
• 2007 – Explanatory Work, for her story on how inexpensive vaccinations, mosquito nets and vitamins are saving the lives of children in the developing world.
• 2009 – Explanatory Work, for a piece on the paradox of newly prosperous India's malnourished children.
• 2011 – International Reporting for a series of stories, videos and interactive maps, profiling girls at the bottom of India's caste system attending a groundbreaking school.
• 2011 – Arts and Entertainment, Nolen gained access to the secretive set of Midnight's Children in Sri Lanka, where director Deepa Mehta – whose films have outraged Hindu fundamentalists in India – adapted the most celebrated work of Salman Rushdie.

Amnesty International Media Award, National Print category

• 2003 "Uganda's Child Soldiers" The Globe and Mail, 25 January, 2003.^[4]
• 2004 “The Next Rwanda? Sudan’s Neglected Nightmare” The Globe and Mail, 5 June, 2004.^[4]
• 2006 “From the bush, a harsh homecoming” about the children’s war in northern Uganda, The Globe and Mail, 8 July 2006.^[5]
• 2011 “From purdah to power – by many tiny steps” The Globe and Mail, 22 March, 2011.^[6]

PEN Canada Paul Kidd Courage Prize

• 2007 - For her coverage of the AIDS crisis in Africa.^[7]

Honorary degrees

• University of King's College^[8]
• University of Guelph^[9]

Personal life[link]

Nolen lives in New Delhi with her partner and two children.

Publications[link]

• Shakespeare's Face: Unraveling the Legend and History of Shakespeare's Mysterious Portrait, 2001, Free Press, ISBN 978-0-7432-4932-4.
• Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the Space Race, 2004, Thunder's Mouth Press, ISBN 978-1-56858-319-8.
• 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa:
  • Edition by Random House, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8027-1598-2.
  • Edition by Knopf Canada, 2007, ISBN 978-0-676-97822-3.

References[link]

1. ^ http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307366542
2. ^ http://www.canadacouncil.ca/prizes/ggla/2007/fk128365163611324574.htm
3. ^ http://museumofaidsinafrica.org/about-us/maa_finalbrochure_sept15_1pm-4
4. ^ ^{a b} "Amnesty International Canada || Resource Centre". Amnesty.ca. https://www.amnesty.ca/resource_centre/news/media_awards_previous.php. Retrieved 2012-05-05. 
5. ^ http://www.amnesty.ca/resource_centre/news/view.php?load=arcview&article=3839&c=Resource+Centre+News
6. ^ "Amnesty International Canada’s 2011 Media Awards | News Release". Amnesty.ca. http://www.amnesty.ca/media2010.php?DocID=1157. Retrieved 2012-05-05. 
7. ^ http://j-source.ca/article/nolen-wins-pen-courage-award
8. ^ "University of King's College Names 2009 Honorary Degree Recipients | University of King's College". Ukings.ca. 2009-05-14. http://www.ukings.ca/news/university-kings-college-names-2009-honorary-degree-recipients. Retrieved 2012-05-05. 
9. ^ "May 31: U of G, CME to Honour Simon Cooper | CME". Uoguelph.ca. http://www.uoguelph.ca/cme/may-31-u-g-cme-honour-simon-cooper. Retrieved 2012-05-05. 

External links[link]

• Stephanie Nolen's website
• The Globe and Mail authors page - Stephanie Nolen
• Stephanie Nolen audio interview 05/2007
• Stephanie Nolen - 2010 Dalton Camp Lecture
• Dr. Stephanie Nolen's University of King's College Convocation Address

Jan Wong (Chinese: 黃明珍; pinyin: Huáng Míngzhēn; born 1952^[1] in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian journalist. Wong worked for The Globe and Mail, serving as Beijing correspondent from 1988 to 1994, when she returned to write from Canada. She is the daughter of Montreal businessman Bill Wong, founder of Bill Wong's buffet which was the city's first Chinese restaurant to open outside of Chinatown.^[2]

Life after the Cultural Revolution[link]

Towards the end of the Cultural Revolution period, she left McGill University and flew to China. The Maoist became one of two foreign college students permitted to study at Beijing University. While at Beijing she denounced a trusting fellow student who had sought her help to escape communist China to the West. The student was subsequently shamed and expelled.^[3] "She suffered a lot ... she was sent to the countryside for hard labour. When she came back, she fought hard to clear her name." Long after, Wong takes comfort in having returned from her own escape to the West, and eventually found this person again, learning she had not been her confidante's only betrayer, and that she expressed no anger.^[4] Wong wrote another book, and did interviews on her own experience.^[5]

Wong met her future husband Norman Shulman while studying in China and married him in 1976. The couple have two sons: Ben (b. 1991) and Sam (b. 1993). Shulman, an American draft dodger of the Vietnam Era, had joined his father Jack Shulman in China and remained there when Jack and his wife Ruth left China during the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution. Shulman worked as a text-polisher for Chinese propaganda magazine China Reconstructs.

Journalism career[link]

In the late 1970s, Wong began her career in journalism when she was hired as a news assistant by Fox Butterfield, China correspondent for the New York Times. Wong became tired of Party ideology and returned to Canada from Beijing. She then studied journalism at Columbia, receiving a Masters degree, and found work with the Montreal Gazette, Boston Globe and the Wall Street Journal before joining the Globe and Mail as a business reporter.^[6]

In 1988, sent her to China where she worked for six years as its foreign correspondent among other things covered the Tiananmen Massacre.^[7] She later chronicled her Chinese experience in a book, Red China Blues, which was promptly banned in China. After a return trip in the late nineties, she produced a second book entitled Jan Wong's China, a somewhat less personal account of social life, the economy, and politics in modern-day China.

After China[link]

From 1996 to 2002, Wong was best known for her Lunch with... column in The Globe and Mail, in which she had lunch with a celebrity, who was usually but not always Canadian. Her Lunch columns were often noted for publishing her take on the private, titillating side of her lunch companions — Margaret Atwood was depicted as a prickly diva who refused to eat her lunch because she was unhappy with the table, and Gene Simmons revealed the size of his penis.^[8] In one of her most famous Lunch columns, Wong took a homeless woman to lunch.

After Lunch with Jan Wong was retired in 2002, Wong moved on to other journalistic roles with The Globe and Mail. In 2006, Wong attracted attention by imitating the work of Barbara Ehrenreich and going undercover as a cleaning lady in wealthy Toronto homes.^[9] While employed by the Globe and Mail as a reporter Jan Wong impersonated a maid and then wrote about her experiences in a five-part series on low-income living. The newspaper published the stories in the spring of 2006. Members of a Markham family sued the newspaper and Wong, alleging they suffered "significant embarrassment and mental distress."^[10]

Dawson College controversy[link]

Wong published the article "Get under the desk" in The Globe and Mail on September 16, 2006.^[11] In it, the author drew a link between the actions of Marc Lépine, Valery Fabrikant and Kimveer Gill, assassins of the shootings of the École Polytechnique, Concordia University and Dawson College respectively, and the existence in Quebec of bill 101, the "decades-long linguistic struggle". She implied a relation between the fact that the three were not old-stock Québécois and the murders they committed, since they were, according to Wong, alienated in a Quebec society concerned with "racial purity".

Public outcry and political condemnation, and publicity soon followed. The Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society lodged a complaint to the Press Council of Quebec and Quebec Premier Jean Charest called the article a "disgrace" and, in an open letter to the Globe, wrote that it was a testimony of her ignorance of Canadian values demonstrating a profound incomprehension of the Quebec society.^[12] Charest demanded an apology from Wong to all Québécois. Prime Minister Stephen Harper denounced Wong's article in a letter to the newspaper published on September 21, 2006 saying that her "argument is patently absurd and without foundation."^[13] On September 20, the House of Commons unanimously passed a motion requesting an apology for the column.^[14]

Globe and Mail editor Edward Greenspon responded to the controversy by publishing a column asserting that Wong's opinion should not have been included in the piece, which Wong viewed as a betrayal by her employer as Greenspon had previously read and approved her story.^[15]

Wong descended into a long period of deep depression following the controversy and, unable to work, went on sick leave. The Globe ordered her back to work,^[6] withdrew her sick pay and ultimately negotiated her dismissal with an undisclosed monetary settlement.^[16][17][15] According to Wong: "I wrote a feature story that sparked a political backlash, my employers failed to support me and later silenced me, and after I became clinically depressed, they fired me.”^[15]

Recent work[link]

As of 2009, Wong was an occasional Friday host on The Current on CBC Radio 1.^[18]

In 2010, Wong was Visiting Irving Chair of Journalism at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, N.B. She now writes a column for Toronto Life magazine about such topics as mixed marriages, monster houses and Mayor Rob Ford's mysterious wife. She also writes for Chatelaine. A British documentary company is planning a film based on her book, Beijing Confidential (published in the U.K. under the title, Chinese Whispers).^[19]

She is also a columnist for the Halifax Chronicle Herald, the largest independently owned newspaper in Canada.^[20]

Her new book, Out of the Blue: A Memoir of Workplace Depression, Recovery, Redemption and, Yes, Happiness, is a memoir of her experience with clinical depression where Jan Wong described in detail the backlash she received immediately after her article published and how the Globe and Mail management, in her view, abandoned her in front of the torrent of negative reactions from all sides. She found the 'exact moment I began my descent into depression' when she was shattered by racial attack. ^[21] This book was self-published after Doubleday, the publisher of her previous books, pulled out mere days before print although Doubleday denied any legal interference from The Globe.^[15]. It was released May 5, 2012.^[22][23]

Published books[link]

• Red China Blues: My Long March from Mao to Now, Doubleday, 1997, trade paperback, 416 pages, ISBN 0-385-48232-9 (Contains besides extensive autobiographical material an eyewitness account of the Tiananmen Massacre and the basis for a realistic estimate of the number of victims.)
• Jan Wong's China: Reports From A Not-So-Foreign Correspondent, Jan Wong, Doubleday Canada, 1999, trade paperback, 320 pages, ISBN 0-385-25939-5
• Lunch With Jan Wong, Jan Wong, Bantam, (June, 2001), trade paperback, ISBN 0-385-25982-4
• Beijing Confidential: A Tale of Comrades Lost and Found Doubleday Canada, 2007, hardcover, 320 pages, ISBN 978-0-385-66358-8 US edition: A Comrade Lost and Found: A Beijing Story (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2009). ISBN 978-0-15-101342-5.
• Out of the Blues - A Memoir of Workplace Depression, Recovery, Redemption, and Yes Happiness Self Published, May 5, 2012, Paperback, 264 pages, ISBN 978-0-9878685-0-3 .

Notes and sources[link]

This article uses bare URLs for citations. Please consider adding full citations so that the article remains verifiable. Several templates and the Reflinks tool are available to assist in formatting. (Reflinks documentation) (October 2011)

External links[link]

• Book Excerpt from "Red China Blues"
• Be nice but get them Now Magazine
• www.janwong.ca
• Toronto Life columns by Jan Wong
• Chatelaine article by Jan Wong
• Jan Wong On Her Book 《Beijing Confidential》 (Allan Gregg Interview)
• Jan Wong On Her Battle With Depression (Allan Gregg Interview)

Bob Geldof KBE
Bob Geldof in 2009
Background information
Birth name	Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof
Born	(1951-10-05) 5 October 1951 (age 60) Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin, Ireland
Genres	Rock, pop
Occupations	Musician, singer-songwriter, activist, philanthropist, actor
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, saxophone, harmonica
Years active	1975–present
Labels	Polydor Atlantic (US)
Associated acts	The Boomtown Rats, Band Aid, USA for Africa, Live Aid, Live 8, Pink Floyd
Website	www.bobgeldof.com

Robert Frederick Zenon "Bob" Geldof, KBE,^[1] (born 5 October 1951) is an Irish singer, songwriter, author, occasional actor and political activist. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band The Boomtown Rats in the late 1970s and early 1980s alongside the punk rock movement. The band had hits with his compositions "Rat Trap" and "I Don't Like Mondays".^[2][3] He co-wrote "Do They Know It's Christmas?", one of the best-selling singles of all time.^[2][4][5] He starred as Pink in Pink Floyd's 1982 film Pink Floyd The Wall.

Geldof is widely recognised for his activism, especially anti-poverty efforts concerning Africa.^[6] In 1984 he and Midge Ure founded the charity supergroup Band Aid to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.^[4] They went on to organise the charity super-concert Live Aid the following year and the Live 8 concerts in 2005.^[7] Geldof currently serves as an adviser to the ONE Campaign, founded by fellow Irish humanitarian Bono.^[8] A single father, Geldof has also been outspoken for the fathers' rights movement.^[9] Geldof has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, was granted an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II, and is a recipient of the Man of Peace title which recognises individuals who have made "an outstanding contribution to international social justice and peace", among numerous other awards and nominations.^[10][11]

Early life[link]

Geldof was born and raised in Dún Laoghaire, Ireland, the son of Evelyn and Robert (known as Rob) Geldof, and attended Blackrock College.^[4][12] His paternal grandfather was a Belgian^[13] immigrant, Xenon (sometimes mistakenly spelt Lenon) Geldof (born 1881), who was a hotel chef,^[13] and his paternal grandmother, Amelia "Minnie" Falk, was a Jewish^[13] English woman (born 1873 in London). Zenon Geldof and Amelia Falk were married in 1906 in Westminster and also had two daughters, Cleo Zenobie Geldof (born 1906 in Grantham), and May Geldof (born 1909 in Dublin).^[14]

At the age of 41, Geldof's mother complained of a headache and died shortly thereafter, having suffered a haemorrhage. Geldof attended Blackrock College in Dublin, whose Catholic ethos he disliked. He was bullied for his lack of rugby prowess and over his third forename, Zenon.^[15][16] After work as a slaughter man, road navvy and pea canner in Wisbech, he started as a music journalist in Vancouver, Canada, for the weekly publication Georgia Straight.

Musical career[link]

The Boomtown Rats[link]

Upon returning to Ireland in 1975, he became the lead singer of the band The Boomtown Rats, a rock group closely linked with the punk movement.

In 1978, The Boomtown Rats had their first No. 1 single in the UK with "Rat Trap", which was the first New Wave chart-topper in Britain. In 1979, the group gained international renown with their second UK No. 1, "I Don't Like Mondays".^[17] This was equally successful, as well as controversial; Geldof wrote it in the aftermath of Brenda Ann Spencer's attempted massacre at an elementary school across the street from her house in San Diego, California, at the beginning of 1979.

In 1980, The Boomtown Rats released the album Mondo Bongo. Its single "Up All Night" in 1981 was a hit in the U.S. and its video played on MTV with heavy rotation.^{[citation needed]}

Geldof quickly became known as a colourful interview. The Boomtown Rats' first appearance on Ireland's The Late Late Show saw Geldof as deliberately brusque to host Gay Byrne and during his interview attacked Irish politicians and the Catholic Church which he blamed for many of the country's problems at the time, and responded to nuns in the audience that had tried to shout him down by saying they had "an easy life with no material worries in return for which they gave themselves body and soul to the church". He also criticised his old private school Blackrock College. The interview caused uproar across the country, making it impossible for the Boomtown Rats to play in Ireland again thereafter (apart from one gig at Leixlip Castle in 1980).^[18]

After Boomtown Rats[link]

Geldof performing as a solo artist in 1987

Geldof left the Boomtown Rats in 1986, to launch a solo career and publish his autobiography, Is That It?, which was a UK best-seller.

His first solo records sold reasonably well and spawned the hit singles "This Is The World Calling" (co-written with Dave Stewart of Eurythmics) and "The Great Song of Indifference". He also occasionally performed with other artists, such as David Gilmour of Pink Floyd and Thin Lizzy. A performance of "Comfortably Numb" with David Gilmour is documented in the 2002 DVD David Gilmour in Concert. In 1992, he performed at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert with the surviving members of Queen at the old Wembley Stadium, singing a song he had co-written with Mercury, called "Too Late God".

Geldof has also worked as a DJ for XFM radio. In 1998, he erroneously announced Ian Dury's death from cancer, possibly due to hoax information from a listener who was disgruntled at the station's change of ownership.^{[citation needed]} The event caused music paper NME (who had been involved in a running feud with Geldof since his Boomtown Rats days primarily due to his disparagement of The Clash) to call Geldof "the world's worst DJ".^{[citation needed]}

Along with U2's Bono, he has devoted much time since 2000 to campaigning for debt relief for developing countries. His commitments in this field, including the organisation of the Live 8 concerts, kept Geldof from producing any more musical output since 2001's Sex, Age & Death album.

After Live 8, Geldof returned to his career as a musician by releasing a box set containing all of his solo albums entitled Great Songs of Indifference - The Anthology 1986–2001 in late 2005. Following that release, Geldof also toured, albeit with mixed success.

In July 2006 Geldof arrived at Milan's Arena Civica, a venue capable of holding 12,000 people, to play a scheduled concert to find that the organisers had not put the tickets on general sale and that only 45 people had shown up.^[19] Geldof refused to go on stage once he found out how small the attendance was. To offer some compensation for fans, Geldof stopped to sign autographs to those who had shown up. He then played a well-attended free "Storytellers" concert for MTV Italy in Naples in October 2006.

Controversy[link]

At one point during his charity work, Geldof swore on CD:UK appearing to think he could get away with it, when he said 'Fuck the tape' whilst concluding his chat with Cat Deeley. At the NME awards in 2006, when accepting an award, Geldof referred to the host Russell Brand as a 'cunt'. Brand responded by saying 'It's not surprising that Geldof is such an expert on famine: he has after all been dining out on "I Don't Like Mondays" for thirty years'.^[20]

In mid-July 2006, he infuriated many New Zealanders by criticising the New Zealand government's foreign aid contribution as 'shameful' and 'pathetic'.^[21] Winston Peters, the Minister of Foreign Affairs responded that Geldof failed to recognise the 'quality' of New Zealand aid as well as other New Zealand contributions.^[22]

During mid-November 2008, a local for-profit organisation Diversity@Work invited Geldof to Melbourne, to speak about the tragedy of Third World poverty and the failure of governments to combat the crisis. However, it was subsequently revealed that he was paid AU$100,000 for his one-off speech which included a luxury hotel room and first-class airfares. Criticism has been raised at the contradiction of demanding such fees to speak on world poverty and human misery.^[23]

Charity work[link]

Your Voice Against Poverty concert in Rostock, Germany on 7 June 2007

Geldof's first major charity involvement took place in September 1981, when he performed as a solo artist for Amnesty International's benefit show The Secret Policeman's Other Ball, at the invitation of Amnesty show producer Martin Lewis; he performed a solo version of "I Don't Like Mondays". Other rock artists had 'planted a seed' and appeared to have affected Geldof in a similar manner.^[24]

Band Aid[link]

In 1984, Geldof responded to a BBC news report from Michael Buerk about the famine in Ethiopia by mobilising the pop world to do something about the images he had seen.^[25] With Midge Ure of Ultravox he wrote "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in order to raise funds. The song was recorded by various artists under the name of Band Aid.

In its first week of release the single became the UK's fastest seller of all time, entering the chart at number one and going on to sell over three million copies, making it the biggest-selling single in UK history up to that point, a title it held for almost 13 years. The single was also a major US hit, peaking at #13 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Do They Know It's Christmas?" returned to the UK chart a year later, reaching number three, and eventually it raised over £8 million.

Following this massive success preparations were started for the biggest rock concerts the world had ever seen, the following summer.

Live Aid[link]

As Geldof began to learn more about the situation, he discovered that one of the main reasons why African nations were in such dire peril was because of repayments on loans that their countries had taken from Western banks. For every pound donated in aid, ten times as much would have to leave the country in loan repayments. It became obvious that one song was not enough.

On 13 July 1985, Geldof and Ure organised Live Aid, a huge event staged simultaneously at the Wembley Stadium in London and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. Thanks to an unprecedented decision by the BBC to clear its schedules for 16 hours of rock music, the event was also broadcast live in the UK on television and radio.

It was one of the most monumental stage shows in history, with Phil Collins flying on Concorde so that he could play at both Wembley and Philadelphia on the same day.

During the broadcast of Live Aid, Geldof shocked viewers into giving cash by not only twice mouthing profanities but also by slamming his fist on the table and ordering them not to go out to the pub but to stay in and watch the show.

Nearly seven hours into the concert in London, Geldof gave an infamous interview in which he used the word 'fuck'. The BBC presenter David Hepworth, conducting the interview, had attempted to provide a list of addresses to which potential donations should be sent; Geldof interrupted him in mid-flow and shouted: "Fuck the address, let's get the [phone] numbers!" It has passed into folklore ^[26] that he yelled at the audience, "Give us your fucking money!" although Geldof has stated that this phrase was never uttered.^[27] After the outburst, giving increased to £300 per second.

The harrowing video of dying, skeletal children that had been made by photo-journalists setting their films to the tune of "Drive" by The Cars, contributed to the concert's success.

In total, Live Aid raised over £150 million for famine relief. Geldof was subsequently knighted, at age 34, for his efforts. His autobiography, written soon after with Paul Vallely, was entitled Is That It?.^[28] This book achieved further fame for being featured on the GCSE examination syllabus in a following year.

Much of the money raised by Live Aid went to NGOs in Ethiopia, some of which were under the influence or control of the Derg military junta. Some journalists have suggested that the Derg was able to use Live Aid and Oxfam money to fund its enforced resettlement and "villagification" programmes, under which at least 3 million people are said to have been displaced and between 50,000 and 100,000 killed.^[29] However in November 2010 the BBC formally apologized to Geldof for misleading implications in its stories on the subject of Band Aid, saying it had 'no evidence' that Band Aid money specifically went to buy weapons.^[30]

Commission for Africa[link]

In January 2004, on a visit to friends in Ethiopia, Geldof came to believe that more people were at risk of starvation there than had died in the famine of 1984/85 which had prompted Live Aid. He rang the British Prime Minister Tony Blair from Addis Ababa. According to the Live 8 programme notes by Geldof's biographer and friend, Paul Vallely, the Prime Minister responded: "Calm down Bob. . . And come and see me as soon as you get back.^[31] "

The result was the Commission for Africa. Blair invited Geldof and 16 other Commissioners, the majority from Africa and many of them politicians in power, to undertake a year-long study of Africa's problems. They came up with two conclusions: that Africa needed to change, to improve its governance and combat corruption, and that the rich world needed to support that change in new ways. That meant doubling aid, delivering debt cancellation, and reforming trade rules. The Commission drew up a detailed plan of how that could be done. It reported in March 2005. In the months that followed it became clear that world leaders were not taking its recommendations seriously. To force the issue Geldof decided to create a new international lobby for Africa with eight simultaneous concerts around the world to put pressure on the G8. He called it Live 8. The Commission's recommendations later became the blueprint for the G8 Gleneagles African debt and aid package.

Africa Progress Panel[link]

Geldof is a member of the Africa Progress Panel (APP), an independent authority on Africa deriving its origin from a key recommendation of the Commission for Africa. The Panel launched in April 2007 with the aim of focusing world leaders’ attention on delivering their commitments to the continent. The Panel launched a major report in London on Monday 16 June 2008 entitled Africa's Development: Promises and Prospects.^[32]

DATA and the ONE Campaign[link]

Bob Geldof worked closely with DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa), an organisation founded by U2's Bono in 2002 to promote debt-relief, third world trade and AIDS relief in Africa. It merged with the ONE Campaign in 2008, where Geldof also is very active. In June 2009, on behalf of the ONE Campaign, he co-edited a special edition of the Italian newspaper La Stampa with a view on 35th G8 summit.^[33]

One Young World[link]

Geldof has signed up to be one of the Counsellors at One Young World a non-profit organisation which hopes to bring together 1500 young global leaders of tomorrow from every country in the world.

Live 8 concerts[link]

Geldof at a Live 8: DVD signing

On 31 March 2005, Geldof and Ure announced the Live 8 project, to raise awareness of issues that burden Africa, including government debt, trade barriers, hunger, and AIDS issues. Geldof organised six concerts on 2 July 2005 in large cities throughout the industrialised world. They featured musicians from different genres and locations around the world. The cities where Live 8 concerts were played were in industrialised countries, and drew huge crowds. The locations were London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Philadelphia, Barrie, Chiba, Johannesburg, Moscow, Cornwall and Edinburgh.

The concerts were free, and were scheduled just days before world leaders gathered in Gleneagles, for the G8 economic summit, on 6 July. Ure organised the 'final push' Live 8 concert at Edinburgh. 'The boys and girls with guitars will finally get to turn the world on its axis,' Geldof said in a statement.^[34] Pink Floyd's performance in London was its first since 1981 to include original bassist, Roger Waters.

Criticism of his charity work[link]

Criticism of Band Aid/Live Aid[link]

In 1985 singer Morrissey was heavily critical of the song Do They Know It's Christmas?:

'I'm not afraid to say that I think Band Aid was diabolical. Or to say that I think Bob Geldof is a nauseating character. Many people find that very unsettling, but I'll say it as loud as anyone wants me to. In the first instance the record itself was absolutely tuneless. One can have great concern for the people of Ethiopia, but it's another thing to inflict daily torture on the people of England. It was an awful record considering the mass of talent involved. And it wasn't done shyly it was the most self-righteous platform ever in the history of popular music.'^[35]

In 1986, the anarchist band Chumbawamba released the album Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records, as well as an EP entitled "We Are the World", jointly recorded with US band A State of Mind, both of which were intended as anti-capitalist critiques of the Band Aid/Live Aid phenomenon. They argued that "Do They Know It's Christmas?" was primarily a cosmetic spectacle, designed to draw attention away from the real political causes of world hunger.

A cartoon in Private Eye showed two emaciated Ethiopians, with one of them saying "We're having a famine, in aid of fading rock stars."

Criticism of Live 8[link]

Although part of the campaign "Make Poverty History" (MPH), Live 8 was then accused of hijacking MPH by planning its concerts on the same day as the giant MPH march in Edinburgh, which was said to be the biggest social justice march in Scottish history.^[36]

Geldof was also criticised for the lack of African acts performing at Live 8.^[37] Geldof responded that only the biggest-selling artists would attract the huge audience required to capture the attention of the world in the run-up to the G8 meeting. Geldof added that there was insufficient public interest in African music among the concert's target markets in Europe and the United States. Including African artists at the expense of recognised artists would have been tokenist, he said, and would have undermined the effect of the concert.^[38]

In the lead-up to the G8 summit, Geldof, who had been a member of Tony Blair's Commission for Africa on which the Gleneagles recommendations were largely based, labelled critics of the summit 'a disgrace'. Some leading African campaigners have asked Geldof to stand down from the global anti-poverty movement, and the New Internationalist (between January and February 2006) said 'It would be long overdue if he did.'^[39]

There were also accusations that Live 8 gave unqualified support to the personal and political agendas of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, particularly in the lead up to an election. Though many felt that it was the British politicians who had accepted Geldof's agenda, rather than the other way round, this led to accusations that Geldof had compromised his cause.^[40] In contrast with the media support given to Live Aid, Live 8 was subject to criticism by some sections of the media.^{[citation needed]}

The promises made for Africa at the Gleneagles summit, were widely praised: "the greatest summit for Africa ever" (Kofi Annan), "an important, if incomplete, boost to the development prospects of the poorest countries" economist (Jeffrey Sachs) or "a major breakthrough on debt" (Kevin Wakins, until recently head of research at Oxfam). But many aid agencies pronounced their disappointment with the outcome, feeling that the strict conditions imposed on African countries for accepting debt relief left them little better off than before. Some critics have claimed that Live 8 had been more about rehabilitating the careers of ageing rock stars, including Geldof himself, than it was about the poor people of Africa. Geldof himself has made no attempt to revive his music career, although, as the New Internationalist points out, since becoming prominent in the salvation of Africa, "Geldof has re-released the entire back catalogue of the Boomtown Rats."^[41]

Oasis's Noel Gallagher became one of the more vocal sceptics about the impact of Live 8, citing his belief that rock stars have less influence over world leaders than popular culture may believe. His explanation was:

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but are they hoping that one of these guys from the G8 is on a quick 15-minute break at Gleneagles and sees Annie Lennox singing "Sweet Dreams" and thinks, 'Fuck me, she might have a point there, you know?' And Keane doing "Somewhere Only We Know" and some Japanese businessman going, 'Aw, look at him… we should really fucking drop that debt, you know.' It's not going to happen, is it?"^[42]

Other humanitarian initiatives[link]

In 2009 joined the project "Soldiers of Peace", a movie against all wars and for a global peace.^[43][44]

Businessman[link]

By 1992 Bob Geldof had established himself as a businessman through co-ownership of the TV production company Planet 24, which pioneered early morning television with The Big Breakfast. Planet 24 was sold to Carlton TV in 1999. TV production company Ten Alps was founded the next day by Geldof and business partner Alex Connock. In April 2011 a new entertainment formats company, Pretend, was launched.^[45]

As of 2009, he has been patron of the Exeter Entrepreneurs Society, at the University of Exeter.^[46]

Political views[link]

Bob Geldof adopted an anti-euro stance by appearing in an advertisement against the single currency,^[47] in 2002. Geldof also criticised the European Union (EU) in 2004 for what he called its 'pathetic' response to Ethiopia's food crisis,^[48] although one MEP has claimed he is "misinformed".^[49]

During a visit to Ethiopia, Geldof also praised President George W. Bush's proposal to fight AIDS in Africa.^[50] This proposal has received criticism from some aid groups due to its heavy emphasis on Christian morality and sexual abstinence.^[51]

Geldof has recently spoken out about environmental issues, taking some positions that may be considered unusual compared to many other prominent artists and performers, such as advocating for the increased use of nuclear power, saying that, "In the UK, we'll soon have to scramble for more nuclear power. On this issue, I don't care what anyone says: we're going to go with it, big-time. We may mess around with wind and waves and other renewable energy sources, trying to make them sustainable, but they're not. They're Mickey Mouse."^[52]

Geldof has also called for the industrial development of developing nations such as China and India to be taken into account when negotiating greenhouse gas emissions targets, and has suggested that the developed world has a role to play in assisting these nations to roll out non-fossil energy systems.^[53]

Some on the political left have charged Geldof with hypocrisy^[why?], due to his lack of support for causes such as the UK miners' strike (1984-1985) and the anti-war movement. In 2006, Geldof told a business conference that "Back in the 1970s there was no chance for a boy with an idea. Everything was stitched up by the unions."^[54]

From January 2002, until sometime in 2005, Geldof listened very closely to Father's Rights campaigners, and it was reported that he had sacks of mail arriving at his door on a daily basis from fathers who were denied justice from the British family courts. He was noted as saying, "I am heartbroken. I just cannot believe what happens to people, what is done to them in the name of the law.^[55] You only have to open your eyes to see what I call the 'Sad Dads on Sundays Syndrome'". He has also called for The Children Act to be repealed and his latest statement to Father's Rights campaigners was, "It's not in my nature to shut up".^[56]

In December 2005, Geldof agreed to give advice on global poverty to the Conservative Party.^[57] He stated, however, that he was uninterested in party politics, and would continue to 'shake hands with the devil on my left and the devil on my right,' in order to achieve results.

In April 2008 Geldof hit the news again when a survey showed that nearly a quarter of British people confused passages from the Bible with speeches made by the famous activist.^[58]

Awards and honours[link]

Geldof has received many awards for his fund-raising work, including an honorary knighthood (as Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire) from Queen Elizabeth II, in 1986.^[59] Geldof is entitled to use the post-nominal letters "KBE" but, as he is not a citizen of a Commonwealth realm, he is precluded from using the title "Sir".^[60] Regardless, the nickname "Sir Bob" has stuck and media reports continue to refer to him erroneously as "Sir Bob Geldof".^[61]

In 1986 Geldof was made a Freeman of the Borough of Swale, in north Kent, England. Geldof had for some years been resident in the borough, at Davington Priory, Faversham, and is still living there as of 2009. He received his award during a special meeting of the Swale Borough Council from the mayor, Councillor Richard Moreton, and the mayoress, Rose Moreton.

In 2005 Geldof was awarded the Honorary Patronage of the Trinity College Dublin University Philosophical Society and was a winner of the North-South Prize.

In a list compiled by the magazine New Statesman, in 2006, Geldof was voted third in the list of "Heroes of our time".^[62]

Other awards:

1985: received an honorary Master of Arts degree from the University of Kent.^[63]

2005: Free Your Mind Award^[64] at the MTV Europe Music Awards.

2005: received a Man of Peace Award.

2005: received a Beacon Fellowship Prize for his leadership role in alleviating poverty, famine and genocide, especially in the Third World, and his advocacy for the rights of fathers.^[65]

2006: awarded the Freedom of Dublin City.

2006: recipient of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Moral Courage Award by Holocaust Museum Houston.

2006 and 2008: nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.^[66][67]

2007: made an Honorary Fellow at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. In the same year Richard Curtis presented Geldof with the "Cinema for Peace Pioneer Award" honouring him for his achievements.

2007: awarded an honorary degree in Civil Law from Newcastle University.^[68] The University held a special honorary degree ceremony to honour key figures in the campaign against world poverty.

2008: received the Nichols-Chancellor's Medal from Vanderbilt University for his humanitarian efforts, as well as an honorary degree in music from the University of East London, serving on both occasions as the keynote speaker for the 2008 graduating class.^[69]

2009: received a Lifetime Achievement Award from ROTA.

2011: received an honorary doctorate of philosophy from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, for his "decades of charity work for humanitarian causes".^[70]

Personal life[link]

Geldof in 1991

Geldof's longtime girlfriend and later wife was Paula Yates. Yates was a rock journalist, presenter of the cutting-edge music show The Tube, and later notorious for her in-bed interviews on the show The Big Breakfast. Geldof met Yates when she became an obsessed fan of the Boomtown Rats during the band's early days. They got together as a couple in 1976 when Yates travelled by aeroplane to Paris to surprise him when the band was playing there.

Before they married, the couple had a daughter, Fifi Trixibelle Geldof, born 31 March 1983 (and while Geldof was still conducting an affair with the young Claire King). She was named Fifi after Bob's aunt Fifi, and Trixibelle because Paula wanted a belle in the family.^[4] After 10 years together, Bob and Paula married in June 1986 in Las Vegas, with Simon Le Bon (of Duran Duran) acting as Geldof's best man. The couple later had two more daughters, Peaches Honeyblossom Geldof^[71] (known as Peaches Geldof) on 13 March 1989,^[72] and Little Pixie Geldof (known as Pixie Geldof) on 17 September 1990.^[73] Pixie is said to be named after a celebrity daughter character from the cartoon Celeb in the satirical magazine Private Eye, itself a lampoon of the names the Geldofs gave to their other children. Geldof has stated that his children find his music 'crap' and him an 'embarrassment'.^[74]

In 1995, Yates left Geldof for Michael Hutchence, the lead singer of INXS, whom she had met several years previously when she interviewed him on The Tube (TV series), and again in 1994 when she interviewed Hutchence again for The Big Breakfast. Geldof and Yates divorced in May 1996 and Yates moved in with Hutchence. Yates and Hutchence had a daughter, Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, born 22 July 1996.^{[citation needed]} Hutchence later was found hanged in a hotel room on 22 November 1997. Geldof soon after went to court and obtained full custody of his own three daughters and has since become an outspoken advocate of fathers' rights. After Paula Yates's death from a drug and alcohol overdose in 2000, and with the approval of Hutchence's parents, Geldof became the legal guardian of Tiger Lily, believing it best that she be raised with her three half-sisters. In 2007, Geldof formally adopted her, changing her name to Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence Geldof although she simply goes by the name of Tiger Hutchence-Geldof.

Geldof currently resides in Battersea, South London with his partner, French actress Jeanne Marine, and Tiger.

His father died on 26 August 2010 at the age of 96.^[75]

Wealth[link]

Geldof's wealth was estimated at $1.2 billion in 2011.^[76] He co-owns a production company Ten Alps with Alex Connock. Output includes education TV site Schoolsworld, which hosts 3500 videos from the former government Teachers TV project.

In 2007, his two UK properties were owned by companies based in the British Virgin Islands, potentially saving him over £1.6 million in tax.^[77][78]

See also[link]

• Millennium Development Goals

Discography[link]

For more information on Bob Geldof's solo recordings see Bob Geldof discography For Bob Geldof's recordings with The Boomtown Rats see The Boomtown Rats discography

Solo albums[link]

Compilation albums[link]

Singles[link]

Notes

• A^ "This Is the World Calling" also charted at #23 on Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks Chart.^[90]
• B^ "Love or Something" charted at #24 on Billboard Modern Rock Tracks Chart.^[90]

Film appearances[link]

• Pink Floyd The Wall (1982) - Pink
• Number One (1985) - Harry 'Flash' Gordon
• Spiceworld (1997) - as himself (cameo)
• Being Mick (2001) - as himself.
• 'I am Bob' (short film 2007) - in which he loses a look-a-like contest (even after singing the Boomtown Rats' hit "I Don't Like Mondays".)
• Oh My God (film) (2009) - as himself

Quotation[link]

NME - March 1982^[91]

References[link]