Bono: ‘People think Aids is done – it’s not done’

‘Battle against Aids is not a last decade issue. It’s going to be the next decade issue’

It’s 10 years since Bono and Bobby Shriver established RED, a fund set up to fight AIDS and other diseases in developing countries, after meeting business leaders in Davos. A decade later, the U2 star was back in the Swiss resort this week to celebrate the 10-year launch of the initiative which has raised more than $350 million for the fight against Aids. 

Speaking to The Irish Times on the fringes of the World Economic Forum, Bono said his aim this year was to continue the momentum behind the campaign. “The battle against Aids is not a last decade issue. It’s going to be the next decade issue. We need to finish the job, get new companies, new interest. It’s kind of annoying and sometimes upsetting that these global health issues can become creatures of fashion. People think Aids is done – it’s not done.” This week at Davos, Salesforce confirmed a $5 billion investment. Bono has also met with companies Weiss and Philips on Friday about potential investment. “To bring it to the next level, we need some new blood – 60 million lives have been touched by Red money – $350 million of it – we’re proud about that.” To date, more than 60 companies have collaborated with Red, including Starbucks and Apple. The charity works by licensing a brand, Product Red, to companies who then donate part of the profits generated by the sale of products sold under that brand to the fund. Bono was one of more than 2,000 individuals from the world of business, politics and social activism attending the 46th World Economic Forum. Also present was Daire Hickey, one of the co-founders of Web Summit , the tech event which controversially announced plans to move to Lisbon next year. On Tuesday, Web Summit hosted a networking event which was attended by representatives of Facebook, Microsoft, the deputy chairman of Nasdaq, and a host of media start-ups. Hickey, who attended the IDA’s dinner with Taoiseach Enda Kenny on Thursday, said that preparations were progressing well for next year’s web summit in Lisbon. “We’ve lined up some incredible speakers that we’re going to announce over the next few months. We’ve already sold more tickets than we had at this point last year for Dublin, so there’s been a huge interest.” Speaking on the final day of the World Economic Forum, which had been overshadowed by concerns about the health of the global economy and signs of slowdown in China, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said that markets needed more “clarity and certainty” on how China was managing its currency, particularly the yuan’s relationship with the dollar. The IMF late last year announced that the renminbi – official currency of the People’s Republic of China – would be admitted into the fund’s basket of currencies. Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda told the forum he believed China should use capital controls to stabilise its currency. Despite this week’s sell-off in global equity markets, most analysts and senior banks at Davos played down the possibility of a major slowdown, predicting that China would experience a soft landing. But billionaire financier George Soros disagreed. Speaking on Thursday he said a hard landing was “practically unavoidable” for China. “I’m not expecting it, I’m observing it,” he said.

http://www.irishtimes.com/

Bono:The Biggest Problem Facing The Next Generation

More from Bono in the World Economic Forum at Davos.

Bono in Davos

This is a video which shows Bono and the other leaders in the World Economic forum in Davos, hours ago. Though it is a bit long, it`s worth watching it, not only to see our beloved U2 frontman but also to listen to the discussions that are relevant in the world today.

Watch live streaming video from worldeconomicforum at livestream.com

Pictures of the event :here
httwww.weforum.org

Aung San Suu Kyi Released

Burma Campaign UK today welcomed the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, but warned that the release should not be interpreted as a sign that democratic reform is on the way.  Burma Campaign UK also called for the immediate release of 2,202 political prisoners who remain in detention.

“The release of Aung San Suu Kyi is about public relations, not democratic reform,” said Zoya Phan, International Coordinator at Burma Campaign UK. “I am thrilled to see our democracy leader free at last, but the release is not part of any political process, instead it is designed to get positive publicity for the dictatorship after the blatant rigging of elections on 7th November. We must not forget the thousands of other political prisoners still suffering in Burma’s jails.”

It is the third time Aung San Suu Kyi has been released from house arrest.  The last time she was released, in 2002, it was part of a UN-led initiative to try to persuade Burma’s dictatorship to enter into dialogue leading to a transition to democracy. However, when the time came for substantive discussions the dictatorship refused to continue the dialogue. At the current time there is no such UN effort.  The focus of the international community has instead been on a failed effort to ensure elections were free and fair.

The international community should use the release of Aung San Suu Kyi as an opportunity to apply pressure on the dictatorship to enter into genuine dialogue.

For many years the United Nations Security Council, United Nations General Assembly, United Nations Human Rights Council, United Nations Secretary General, European Union, ASEAN, USA and even China has stated that the way to bring genuine change in Burma is for dialogue between the democracy movement, including the NLD, genuine ethnic representatives, and the dictatorship. The jargon used to describe this dialogue is tri-partite dialogue. This dialogue should lead to national reconciliation and a transition to democracy.

A revived UN-led effort to secure such dialogue, with strong backing from world leaders and the United Nations Security Council, must be the top priority. This must not be delegated to a new low-level UN envoy. The UN must learn from the failures of previous UN envoys, such as Razali Ismail, who did not have the strong international backing he needed, and Ibrahim Gambari, who tried a ‘hug a General’ approach of befriending the Generals, which failed miserably.

“The international community must seize the opportunity of Aung San Suu Kyi’s release to increase pressure on the dictatorship to enter into dialogue,” said Zoya Phan. “Ban Ki-Moon must personally take the lead in persuading the dictatorship to start genuine negotiations with Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic groups.”

Burma Campaign UK has produced a detailed briefing paper on Aung San Suu Kyi, which provides a basic history, as well as analysis and information on past actions and future options for the international community. The briefing is available here.


A video of her release, here:




U2´s Tribute to Aung San Suu Kyi, FedEx Field Washington DC,2009




Unfortunately Aung San Suu Kyi is not the only political prisoner in the world, Amnesty International invites you to write for rights, here



www.elmundo.es/http://news.yahoo.com//www.u2.com//www.u2fannlife.com

Bono's friends in high places

Bono met President Dmitri Medvedev in U2`s recent visit to Russia

Dmitry Medvedev is the latest world figure to be paid a visit by Bono, whose bandmates disapprove of some of the company he keeps, writes BRIAN BOYD

BONO, AFTER a few impatient months spent recuperating from back surgery, has resumed tour duties – and is also back bending politicians’ ears and arguing the case of Africa’s poor and the continuing scourge of HIV and Aids on the continent.

In Russia this week for a U2 show, the now 50-year-old singer took the time to meet the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev. Bono wasn’t talking rock riffs with the music-loving leader: he was making the case for Russia to write off the money owed to it by poverty-stricken African countries, and explaining how 40 US cents a day could eliminate the transfer of HIV from mother to child by 2015.

Bono’s humanitarian and advocacy work on behalf of the African continent has seen him nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize and awarded a knighthood in the British honours list. “Believe me, I know how absurd it is to have a rock star talk about the World Health Organisation or debt relief or HIV/Aids in Africa,” he has said of his time strolling the corridors of power in his leather jacket and sunglasses.

Over the years he has significantly refined his rhetoric when dealing with world leaders. He has dropped the word “compassion” and spent hours poring over socio-economic tracts relevant to his cause.

Although he prides himself on the fact that he can talk for more than an hour without looking at his notes on HIPC conditionality – the terms under which the most highly indebted countries of the world are forgiven their loans – some of his extracurricular activities have caused friction with other members of U2, especially his personal relationship with Tony Blair and meeting with George Bush.

Close encounters of a political kind

John Hume and David Trimble, 1998, Waterfront Hall, Belfast

In the tense days between the signing of the Belfast Agreement and the referendum to endorse it, U2 and Ash staged a peace concert in Belfast. “I talked to John Hume and David Trimble backstage and asked them to do the impossible – shake hands on stage,” says Bono. “I had in my head how Bob Marley, during one of his concerts, had joined the hands of two rival leaders in Jamaica at a tense time.”

Bono organised it so Trimble and Hume would walk on to the stage from opposite sides and shake hands. He introduced them as “two men who are making history; two men who have taken a leap of faith out of the past and into the future”. Ash recall that Bono wanted the two bands to then play John Lennon’s Give Peace a Chance . Ash’s Tim Wheeler says: “We had to talk him out of it – it was way too cheesy a thing to do.”

Larry Summers, 1999, the White House

Summers was US treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, responsible for a multibillion-dollar budget. Bono wanted him to increase the US’s overseas aid package. According to Clinton, “Larry came into the Oval Office one day and said this guy in jeans and T-shirt with only one name had just been in with him, and how impressive he was.”

According to Bono, Summers spent the first 15 minutes drumming on the table and staring at the ceiling before he “eventually came around”. Summers later told aides: “This guy knows his stuff; we have to help him.”

Pope John Paul II, 1999, the Vatican

When Bono had an audience with the pope to discuss Third World poverty he was taken aback by the pontiff’s choice of footwear: a pair of oxblood loafers. “He is, of course, a deeply conservative man, and a lot of people in Ireland were very upset by his failure to embrace contraception as a necessity, not just for modern life but for the life of the poor in Africa. But I’ve learned to respect conservative positions I don’t hold,” he says.

As he approached, Bono remembers the pope staring at his “fly” shades. “I thought maybe I was causing offence by leaving my sunglasses on, so I asked if he wanted them. He not only nodded but put them on and made the wickedest smile. I just thought, That photo will be on the front page of every newspaper – nothing to do with me – because it was the pope in sunglasses.”

Colin Powell, 2001, the White House

When Powell was US secretary of state during George W Bush’s administration, Bono brought a signed note from George C Marshall, the man behind the Marshall Plan. Bono told Powell: “You still find people of my parents’ age in Europe who talk about the Marshall Plan. That was when Europe felt the grace of America.” He called on Powell to put in place a new Marshall plan for Africa – “do something that people can be proud of for generations to come”.

Vladimir Putin, 2001, Genoa

With the Italian police taking a heavy-handed approach to protesters at the G8 summit – there were rivers of blood on the streets, according to press reports – there was a controversial photograph of Bono sharing a joke with Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader. Even normally loyal U2 fan boards were critical of how Bono seemed to be rubbing shoulders with the political elite while protesters – many of them U2 fans – were having their skulls smashed with batons outside.

Bono later said: “It looked like me and Putin were laughing while other people were crying . . . A lot of my mates gave out to me about the photograph, but it was snapped just when Putin was making a joke. He said: ‘I want to congratulate you on the work you have done for the Third World, and, when you have finished that, I hope you can work on the Russian debt.’ I’ve met people the band would rather I didn’t meet, and there are some people I have to talk to, or appear in a photograph with, that in other circumstances I’d rather not.”

George W Bush, 2005, the White House

Bono and George Bush ,2005

When Bono told the Edge that he had a meeting with President Bush set up to discuss debt relief for Africa and that there would be a grip-and-grin photograph of them on the White House lawn afterwards (below), the guitarist had words with the singer. “I tried to talk him out of meeting Bush when he told me he was going to do a photograph,” says the Edge.

“He said: ‘I think it’s the right thing to do.’ So, in the end, I just said my piece and let him get on with it.”

Tony Blair

Bono has met Blair on numerous occasions and has even spoken at a Labour Party conference, in 2004. The two are good friends. U2’s drummer, Larry Mullen, has made his feelings about Blair’s role in the Iraq war clear to Bono. “My problem is the company he keeps,” Mullen has said. “And I struggle with that – particularly the political people . . . Particularly Tony Blair.”


www.irishtimes.com