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"The way you write music is at once humdrum -- there's a fridge in the corner with apples and a bottle of milk, and there's a fax machine -- and at the same time you're waiting for a miracle, or else it's just the sum of the parts." -- Bono, 2000 |
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"The way you write music is at once humdrum -- there's a fridge in the corner with apples and a bottle of milk, and there's a fax machine -- and at the same time you're waiting for a miracle, or else it's just the sum of the parts." -- Bono, 2000 |
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Bono Urges West to Fight for Africa
Reuters,
May 17, 2004
Irish rock star and political activist Bono on Monday urged Western governments to fight poverty, AIDS and debt in Africa because that was cheaper than combating terrorism that may breed in such conditions.
In a speech to new graduates of the University of Pennsylvania, the U2 singer said developed countries have the financial and technological ability to alleviate conditions that lead to the deaths of 7,000 people a day in Africa from preventable diseases. "It's cheaper than fighting wave after wave of the terrorists' new recruits," he said. The singer's support for Africa and other developing-world causes ranges from the Live Aid rock concert in 1985 to a World AIDS Day 2003 concert in South Africa. He has lobbied Congress and appealed to world leaders to back humanitarian efforts. After being presented with an honorary doctorate of laws from the university for his work on African issues, he called on graduates to use their Ivy League educations to help. "Your pockets are full and now you have got to figure out what to spend it on," he said. "If you are going to live up to your ideals and your education, it's going to cost you." The failure of rich nations to help solve Africa's problems has historical parallels with slavery and racial segregation, Bono said on the 50th anniversary of the U.S. court case that officially ended segregation in schools. Those conventions were accepted norms until overthrown by those with the courage to challenge them, he said. "If you want to save the age, betray it," he said, quoting the Irish poet Brendan Keneally. "Expose its conceits, foibles and phony moral certitudes." "For the first time in history we have the cash and the technological know-how" to solve Africa's problems, he said. "But do we have the will?" © Reuters, 2004.
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