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U2?s Bono issues a call to action on the world?s AIDS crisis
By Jai Wolfe
[Philadelphia, 16th May, 2004] The sound of African drums surges upwards toward the balcony where we are gathered to interview the distinguished guests slated to speak at today?s rally for The ONE Campaign, a new effort launched by DATA in partnership with the National Basketball Association, AOL, House of Blues, and other celebrities, to rally Americans to the cause of fighting global AIDS and extreme poverty - one at a time.
?One by one, building a movement?
Down on the lush grass of Independence Mall in the blazing sun, a crowd of some 1400-strong people watched drummers and dancers bringing some of their culture to the cradle of America?s independence. Lining the walkways were information tables for everything from the Philadelphia AIDS Walk to the familiar-to-U2-fans African Well Fund to the John F. Kerry for President campaign. Radio stations and Christian charitable foundations stood shoulder to shoulder while the audience alternately whooped and prayed as the Baptist Reverend Herb Lusk of Philadelphia and Rabbi Marjorie Berman embraced at the podium. The Reverend David Beckmann reiterated, ?We are one... You are the One, and I am the One. Together, we are The One Campaign?
?The defining moral issue of our time?
Bono remarked on the diversity of the people standing before us blinking in the bright sunshine while fielding our questions during a pre-rally press conference.
?You know, it's an interesting panoply of characters gathered on this issue. Why? Because it's the defining moral issue of our time. You know, all we see on the news is the Middle East, and all we see? is the war against terror. The war against terror is bound up in the war against poverty. I didn't say that. Sec. of State Colin Powell said that. When a military man starts talking like that, maybe we should listen.?
He went on to emphasize that it is this generation that can decisively put a stop to the vicious cycle of poverty, debt, suffering and death in Third World countries that engenders the kind of desperate climate that produces terrorism:
?If we act together, we can really achieve astonishing things, and this really can be the generation that says, you know, no to extreme poverty... We're not just going to be remembered for the Internet, we're not just going to be remembered for the war against terror; we're going to be remembered for this positive, extraordinary thought and we can really, really change the world with it.?
?We can carry each other.?
When asked if the title of the ONE campaign was coincidental to the U2 song of the same name, Bono chuckled and admitted that he had ?heard there's a song... [laughter] called ?One,? by an excellent Irish punk rock band.... but no, it's not.? The Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World and a former World Bank economist, did however note ?there is a line in that song that says, we can carry each other... I think that's what this is about; we can carry each other. Not just in personal relations, but we're in one world, we can carry each other.?
?Let?s get them to the fire!?
DATA, as many U2 fans and social activists well know, stands for Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa, and was co-founded by U2?s lead singer Bono in response to the current crisis engulfing Africa ?in flames,? as the Dublin-born performer has put it. He has repeatedly called on Americans to ?bring out the fire brigade,? from the current President George W. Bush and Democratic presidential hopeful Senator John F. Kerry, to Congress, to religious leaders to student activists, to put a stop to ?the kind of stupid poverty where a child dies for the lack of food in its belly in an age of plenty... I mean, absurd poverty. Or people dying for lack of drugs you can get at any Duane Reed -- that's unacceptable.?
Bono emphasized that some $15 billion dollars in AIDS initiative has been promised by President Bush, but it?s up to every American to ensure that that promise is followed through. ?Both John Kerry and George Bush are conscious of what's going on. The real issue is whether America gives them permission to spend the money, [to spend] more money. It's going to be expensive to fix this problem, but you know, not as expensive as if you don't fix it.?
?One Voice, One Hope?
Representing the NBA at the rally were 76?ers General Manager Billy King and NBA All-Star, New York Knicks? Dikembe Mutombo, whose list of basketball accomplishments almost, but not quite, approaches his dedicated humanitarian work for his homeland of the Democratic Republic of Congo and for all of Africa. Towering over all of us, his gravelly voice rasped out statistics of horrifying proportion: in Africa alone there are already eleven million people dead of AIDS and another 19 million infected. 600 children die every day. 14 million children are orphaned; entire villages exist with no parents left alive because of the scourge of HIV. Mutombo drew on the example of the varied nationalities, races, and religions of men and women gathered before us in asking that ?Europe, Africa, and America unite with one voice and one hope? to defeat the crushing dual blow of debt and disease crippling Africa as well as other places in the world.
?Today, I want you to get angry?
There was humor exchanged throughout the speeches, with affectionate jibes passed between King and Mutombo, but the message remained somber in the face of Mutombo?s statements about the conditions in his homeland as well as World Vision president Richard E. Stearns? request for our anger, and his vivid description of how the 14 million AIDS orphans of Africa would crisscross America if they all stood in line, from Philadelphia to Seattle to Washington DC to San Francisco to Charleston, South Carolina, to Los Angeles to Dallas, TX. Stearns exhorted the audience to be politically active, to call their representatives, and to vote their consciences in the upcoming election.
?Instead of giving my child the best; I gave him a death sentence?
The facts presented by these speakers were devastating in the abstract, but the most striking moment of all came in the quiet strength of Ugandan nurse Agnes Nyamayarwo, a volunteer with TASO (The AIDS Support Organization) of Kampala.
Nyamayarwo, who herself is HIV+, has lost her husband and youngest child to the disease as well as her eldest son, who was not HIV+ but was treated as though he was by schoolmates and one day simply disappeared, after a severe depression, in July 1993. Her story was told plainly and without drama, and while Agnes? grace and reserve held throughout her story, many in the audience wept. After several speakers? references to numbers in the thousands and millions, Agnes? simple words brought the reality home for people who have not yet gone through the agony of losing family to AIDS as well as resonating deeply within the hearts of those who have, of whom this reporter is one.
She wound together the threads of disease and poverty, lack of medicine, and scarcity of clean water in her homeland to illustrate to us what the African people are up against and how desperately our help is needed.
As she left the podium, she was swept up in a tight embrace by Bono, who marveled that she was able to tell the story over and over when it was so painful just to hear once.
?It?s not just heart money, it?s smart money?
Bono took the podium with his customary humor and aplomb and immediately launched into his history with this project, starting from his ?Heart of America? tour a little more than a year ago. He alluded that ?there was a weird, weird bunch of people on that bus... students, soccer moms, smokers, non smokers, bankers, wankers? all on the bus. And church folks on that bus, praise the Lord, rock stars, and people with their mouths more under control than I.? Again the lyric surfaced: ?...we spoke as one, we are... not... the same... and within months the US stepped forward with an historic AIDS initiative and that's no coincidence. When people like us actually can get together and raise our voice as one? We. Change. The. World.?
(Photo: The One Campaign)
He touched on the American civil rights movement, WWII, and his self-admitted pride in being a ?pain in the arse? to world leaders, noting with wry amusement that ?arse is an Irish word? for the benefit of any FCC officials who may have been present.
He sharply differentiated the African AIDS crisis from the typical bored-celebrity-interest, expressing his irritation with ?that cause thing,? drawling in a flat American accent, "hey Bono, we love your cause, man.? Then with an edge to his voice declaring that, ?this is not a cause. Seven thousand people, seven thousand African people dying every day for want of drugs you can get round the corner here, is not a cause. This is an emergency.?
?I?m a fan of America... an annoying fan?
He reiterated the need for a ?modern Marshall plan? to rebuild Africa just as America did for Europe some 60 years ago, and suggested that AIDS drugs distributed to Africa could be painted red white and blue, as ?great advertisements for the United States, for what the US can do... for your ingenuity, a great, great opportunity for America to redescribe itself, at this moment when your flag has been run through the dirt all over the southern hemisphere??
(Photo: The One Campaign)
?Let's give Senator Specter a call, shall we??
Acknowledging that a fair number of the thronging audience was there because of his band, Bono rounded out the rally with an impish in-joke, channeling his infamous ZooTV-era alter ego MacPhisto, and making a cellular phone call to Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican Representative, from up on the platform. When, to his apparent disappointment, he reached an answering machine, he wryly noted that, ?this has happened to me before,? and while 1400+ people whooped in the background, he left a message imploring Specter - and indirectly, all of us listening -- to vote to support the spending initiatives upon which this entire project depends.
The speakers filed offstage to roaring applause, and the dancers returned, sparkling with their energy in the blazing sun. So much had been said, so much information discoursed, that while most of the factual and numerical rhetoric percolated in the back of one?s mind, the overwhelming concept remained the very thing Bono had denied to the small group of us on the balcony -- We?re one, but we?re not the same, we?ve got to carry each other....
One percent. One person. One step to take, to begin this monumental task of rescuing Africa, the Third World, and eventually ourselves, from the spiraling depths of the AIDS pandemic.
For a complete transcription of Bono's speech, visit:
http://forum.interference.com/t91909.html
The petition can be viewed and signed online at http://theONEcampaign.org.
To view video clips from this event, visit: http://www.theonecampaign.org/video/
U2?s Bono issues a call to action on the world?s AIDS crisis
By Jai Wolfe
[Philadelphia, 16th May, 2004] The sound of African drums surges upwards toward the balcony where we are gathered to interview the distinguished guests slated to speak at today?s rally for The ONE Campaign, a new effort launched by DATA in partnership with the National Basketball Association, AOL, House of Blues, and other celebrities, to rally Americans to the cause of fighting global AIDS and extreme poverty - one at a time.
?One by one, building a movement?
Down on the lush grass of Independence Mall in the blazing sun, a crowd of some 1400-strong people watched drummers and dancers bringing some of their culture to the cradle of America?s independence. Lining the walkways were information tables for everything from the Philadelphia AIDS Walk to the familiar-to-U2-fans African Well Fund to the John F. Kerry for President campaign. Radio stations and Christian charitable foundations stood shoulder to shoulder while the audience alternately whooped and prayed as the Baptist Reverend Herb Lusk of Philadelphia and Rabbi Marjorie Berman embraced at the podium. The Reverend David Beckmann reiterated, ?We are one... You are the One, and I am the One. Together, we are The One Campaign?
?The defining moral issue of our time?
Bono remarked on the diversity of the people standing before us blinking in the bright sunshine while fielding our questions during a pre-rally press conference.
?You know, it's an interesting panoply of characters gathered on this issue. Why? Because it's the defining moral issue of our time. You know, all we see on the news is the Middle East, and all we see? is the war against terror. The war against terror is bound up in the war against poverty. I didn't say that. Sec. of State Colin Powell said that. When a military man starts talking like that, maybe we should listen.?
He went on to emphasize that it is this generation that can decisively put a stop to the vicious cycle of poverty, debt, suffering and death in Third World countries that engenders the kind of desperate climate that produces terrorism:
?If we act together, we can really achieve astonishing things, and this really can be the generation that says, you know, no to extreme poverty... We're not just going to be remembered for the Internet, we're not just going to be remembered for the war against terror; we're going to be remembered for this positive, extraordinary thought and we can really, really change the world with it.?
?We can carry each other.?
When asked if the title of the ONE campaign was coincidental to the U2 song of the same name, Bono chuckled and admitted that he had ?heard there's a song... [laughter] called ?One,? by an excellent Irish punk rock band.... but no, it's not.? The Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World and a former World Bank economist, did however note ?there is a line in that song that says, we can carry each other... I think that's what this is about; we can carry each other. Not just in personal relations, but we're in one world, we can carry each other.?
?Let?s get them to the fire!?
DATA, as many U2 fans and social activists well know, stands for Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa, and was co-founded by U2?s lead singer Bono in response to the current crisis engulfing Africa ?in flames,? as the Dublin-born performer has put it. He has repeatedly called on Americans to ?bring out the fire brigade,? from the current President George W. Bush and Democratic presidential hopeful Senator John F. Kerry, to Congress, to religious leaders to student activists, to put a stop to ?the kind of stupid poverty where a child dies for the lack of food in its belly in an age of plenty... I mean, absurd poverty. Or people dying for lack of drugs you can get at any Duane Reed -- that's unacceptable.?
Bono emphasized that some $15 billion dollars in AIDS initiative has been promised by President Bush, but it?s up to every American to ensure that that promise is followed through. ?Both John Kerry and George Bush are conscious of what's going on. The real issue is whether America gives them permission to spend the money, [to spend] more money. It's going to be expensive to fix this problem, but you know, not as expensive as if you don't fix it.?
?One Voice, One Hope?
Representing the NBA at the rally were 76?ers General Manager Billy King and NBA All-Star, New York Knicks? Dikembe Mutombo, whose list of basketball accomplishments almost, but not quite, approaches his dedicated humanitarian work for his homeland of the Democratic Republic of Congo and for all of Africa. Towering over all of us, his gravelly voice rasped out statistics of horrifying proportion: in Africa alone there are already eleven million people dead of AIDS and another 19 million infected. 600 children die every day. 14 million children are orphaned; entire villages exist with no parents left alive because of the scourge of HIV. Mutombo drew on the example of the varied nationalities, races, and religions of men and women gathered before us in asking that ?Europe, Africa, and America unite with one voice and one hope? to defeat the crushing dual blow of debt and disease crippling Africa as well as other places in the world.
?Today, I want you to get angry?
There was humor exchanged throughout the speeches, with affectionate jibes passed between King and Mutombo, but the message remained somber in the face of Mutombo?s statements about the conditions in his homeland as well as World Vision president Richard E. Stearns? request for our anger, and his vivid description of how the 14 million AIDS orphans of Africa would crisscross America if they all stood in line, from Philadelphia to Seattle to Washington DC to San Francisco to Charleston, South Carolina, to Los Angeles to Dallas, TX. Stearns exhorted the audience to be politically active, to call their representatives, and to vote their consciences in the upcoming election.
?Instead of giving my child the best; I gave him a death sentence?
The facts presented by these speakers were devastating in the abstract, but the most striking moment of all came in the quiet strength of Ugandan nurse Agnes Nyamayarwo, a volunteer with TASO (The AIDS Support Organization) of Kampala.
Nyamayarwo, who herself is HIV+, has lost her husband and youngest child to the disease as well as her eldest son, who was not HIV+ but was treated as though he was by schoolmates and one day simply disappeared, after a severe depression, in July 1993. Her story was told plainly and without drama, and while Agnes? grace and reserve held throughout her story, many in the audience wept. After several speakers? references to numbers in the thousands and millions, Agnes? simple words brought the reality home for people who have not yet gone through the agony of losing family to AIDS as well as resonating deeply within the hearts of those who have, of whom this reporter is one.
She wound together the threads of disease and poverty, lack of medicine, and scarcity of clean water in her homeland to illustrate to us what the African people are up against and how desperately our help is needed.
As she left the podium, she was swept up in a tight embrace by Bono, who marveled that she was able to tell the story over and over when it was so painful just to hear once.
?It?s not just heart money, it?s smart money?
Bono took the podium with his customary humor and aplomb and immediately launched into his history with this project, starting from his ?Heart of America? tour a little more than a year ago. He alluded that ?there was a weird, weird bunch of people on that bus... students, soccer moms, smokers, non smokers, bankers, wankers? all on the bus. And church folks on that bus, praise the Lord, rock stars, and people with their mouths more under control than I.? Again the lyric surfaced: ?...we spoke as one, we are... not... the same... and within months the US stepped forward with an historic AIDS initiative and that's no coincidence. When people like us actually can get together and raise our voice as one? We. Change. The. World.?
(Photo: The One Campaign)
He touched on the American civil rights movement, WWII, and his self-admitted pride in being a ?pain in the arse? to world leaders, noting with wry amusement that ?arse is an Irish word? for the benefit of any FCC officials who may have been present.
He sharply differentiated the African AIDS crisis from the typical bored-celebrity-interest, expressing his irritation with ?that cause thing,? drawling in a flat American accent, "hey Bono, we love your cause, man.? Then with an edge to his voice declaring that, ?this is not a cause. Seven thousand people, seven thousand African people dying every day for want of drugs you can get round the corner here, is not a cause. This is an emergency.?
?I?m a fan of America... an annoying fan?
He reiterated the need for a ?modern Marshall plan? to rebuild Africa just as America did for Europe some 60 years ago, and suggested that AIDS drugs distributed to Africa could be painted red white and blue, as ?great advertisements for the United States, for what the US can do... for your ingenuity, a great, great opportunity for America to redescribe itself, at this moment when your flag has been run through the dirt all over the southern hemisphere??
(Photo: The One Campaign)
?Let's give Senator Specter a call, shall we??
Acknowledging that a fair number of the thronging audience was there because of his band, Bono rounded out the rally with an impish in-joke, channeling his infamous ZooTV-era alter ego MacPhisto, and making a cellular phone call to Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican Representative, from up on the platform. When, to his apparent disappointment, he reached an answering machine, he wryly noted that, ?this has happened to me before,? and while 1400+ people whooped in the background, he left a message imploring Specter - and indirectly, all of us listening -- to vote to support the spending initiatives upon which this entire project depends.
The speakers filed offstage to roaring applause, and the dancers returned, sparkling with their energy in the blazing sun. So much had been said, so much information discoursed, that while most of the factual and numerical rhetoric percolated in the back of one?s mind, the overwhelming concept remained the very thing Bono had denied to the small group of us on the balcony -- We?re one, but we?re not the same, we?ve got to carry each other....
One percent. One person. One step to take, to begin this monumental task of rescuing Africa, the Third World, and eventually ourselves, from the spiraling depths of the AIDS pandemic.
For a complete transcription of Bono's speech, visit:
http://forum.interference.com/t91909.html
The petition can be viewed and signed online at http://theONEcampaign.org.
To view video clips from this event, visit: http://www.theonecampaign.org/video/
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It's got to be the most exciting 
feeling to be in the crowd and part of the action. I'm glad you were there and thanks for sharing
The first speaker, the Rev. Herb Lusk, is an outspoken Bush supporter as were others present - and to everyone's credit there was little to no political partisanship exhibited.
