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Globe and Mail editor-in-chief (]The Globe and Mail, Canada) John Stackhouse hosted a discussion on the response to the famine in the Horn of Africa.
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| Bono watches video of K'naan's recent trip back to Somalia. |
K'naan: Somalia is a nation of poetry. He says a lot of Western countries see poetry as elitist, but not so in his home country. "Poetry is the essential question in Somalia," he says. "Poetry is not reserved for peace, it's everything" in Somalia, says K'naan. There's wartime poetry and both peacetime poetry - poetry can be violent and it can be beautiful. "It's everything," K'naan says.
John Stackhouse brings up the issue at hand: More than 750,000 people in the Horn of Africa are facing starvation. He asks Bono - how is this different from previous famines?
Bono: says this is different famine in many ways from other issues he has seen in Africa. 30,000 children just this last month. 30,000 poets he says. what he loves about hanging out with k'naan is ow he struggles with portrait of a very noble people being shattered by ignobale conditions. Bono says Knaan fights hard so that we dont put those people in an n unpoetic light. must think of them as "sentient souls" because then we have to really understand.
"The more we think of these people as sentient souls, the more we have to take on board their actual existence. And you really can't believe that over 30,000 children have died over the past few months unless you take away their humanity. And that's what K'naan is kicking against." - Bono
Bono: "can't accept 30,000 kids have died over the past few mos unless you take away their humanity."
Why is this different? Bono says again. He is part of a movement that felt that if we all worked together they could help a "near-impossible" goal of end of poverty. Thinks he failed to communicate how messy the fight against extreme poverty really is. "I think we failed to explain to people how messy a business the fight against extreme poverty is," Bono says. "You see those ads that say 'just one minute of your time and you can save a child's life'... we're selling this magic trick that will end extreme poverty and I think people aren't buying it. It's time to be honest about the fight against extreme poverty... We need to tell people how difficult it is and ask if people still want to be on this ride... And I don't think there's a more important ride to be on, on this earth at the beginning of the 21st century."Says ads and other messages are selling "a magic trick" to end poverty and people just didn't buy it. We need to tell people how messy it is and then say to people, "Do you still want to be on this ride." And there is no better ride to be on, but it's difficult. The real challenge is to tell people how hard it is to make a difference and end severe poverty. That's the challenge. -Bono
Bono: ONE campaign is "serving the people of Somalia" and this is the person who is showing such leadership he says - pointing to K'naan- and we are putting ourselves as his disposal.
Jennifer MacMillan
www.theglobeandmail.com
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