Can you find a global connection to the song "Street with no name"?

Question

I am working on a school paper and we need a connection to a global situation and the song.

Answer 1

the simplest connection is the reference to acid rain, which destroys vegitation. This is caused by pollution from man.

The song is said to have deeper meaning as follows:

Meaning
The song is a can be considered a dual metaphor: it speaks of Africa, and it speaks of the Kingdom of God.

First, the song is about Africa. A few years before the recording of the Joshua Tree, during the Ethiopian famine for which Live Aid was a benefit, Bono and his wife Alison Hewson worked for a month in Ethiopia in a refugee camp run by the Christian relief and development organization World Vision. Africa has had a special place in Bono's heart ever since, as can be seen by his constant campaigning on issues of concern to Africa. There is clearly imagery from this African trip in "Where the Streets Have No Name". This is evidenced by the fact that they were "beaten and blown by the wind, and trampled in dust". In this meaning, "when I go there, I go there with you, it's all I can do" is perhaps addressed to Ali.

The second central meaning is of the Kingdom of God. Spirituality comes through in many of U2's songs, and "Streets" is no different. In the first verse of the song Bono states "I want to tear down the walls that hold me inside." He longs to leave his earthly body. When he states "when I go there, I go there with you, it's all I can do," he is talking to God or Jesus, as well as to his wife. In longing for heaven he states, "I want to feel sunlight on my face, I see the dust clouds disappear without a trace. I want to take shelter from the poison rain where the streets have no name." On the Live in Boston DVD, Bono introduces the song from the more spiritual perspective, intoning to the audience, "What can I give back to God for the blessings he's poured out on me? I'll lift high the cup of salvation - a toast to God!", referencing Psalm 116:12-14 in The Message (Bible) translation.

Bono himself also reported that the song was inspired by the social situation in Belfast; in a 1987 interview to Propaganda, the official U2 magazine, Bono stated:

"'Where the Streets Have No Name' is more like the U2 of old than any of the other songs on the LP, because it’s a sketch — I was just trying to sketch a location, maybe a spiritual location, maybe a romantic location. I was trying to sketch a feeling. I often feel very claustrophobic in a city, a feeling of wanting to break out of that city and a feeling of wanting to go somewhere where the values of the city and the values of our society don’t hold you down. An interesting story that someone told me once is that in Belfast, by what street someone lives on you can tell not only their religion but tell how much money they're making — literally by which side of the road they live on, because the further up the hill the more expensive the houses become. You can almost tell what the people are earning by the name of the street they live on and what side of that street they live on. That said something to me, and so I started writing about a place where the streets have no name..."

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