Letter: U2's attempt to make the world see sense

Sir: My reaction to U2's Wembley concert was very different to that of your correspondent ('Missing link', 13 August). To me, the profusion of television screens on the stage brought to mind the fact that modern broadcasting technology creates a sense of helplessness as it constantly confronts us with scenes of tragedy. At the same time, the pictures and the slogans emphasised the shallowness of the media; the stripping of any issue to its barest emotional content, and then moving on when boredom sets in. There is no better example of this phenomenon than the recent case of Irma Hadzimuratovic.

One reaction in the face of human tragedy on the scale of Bosnia is to attempt to ignore it. Another is to try and make sense of it all as the first step to improving the situation. Although U2 flirted with the former path, they eventually came down firmly on the side of the latter course. The post-Cold War world presents us with challenges, they said, but also with opportunities. Technology can be used for ill, but it can also put us in contact with our fellow human beings in a way that was previously impossible. This is what the satellite link with Sarajevo symbolised.

Your reviewer seemed to forget that rock and roll bands have as much right to campaign on political issues as politicians or newspaper editors, and as much of a moral duty to do whatever they can to help as the rest of us. U2 did not offer any easy answers, however. All they seemed to be saying was that the proper reaction to confusion should be an attempt to understand and to mould the future, not a retreat to the old certainties of the past.

Yours faithfully,

ANIL PATEL

London, N11

(Photograph omitted)