Transcripts (two):
The following is a rough transcript based on closed captioning of PM Paul Martin, Aileen Carroll and Bono speaking to the media after their meeting. It aired on Newsworld and CTV-Newsnet at 13h20:
Bono: - The liberal party, and, you know, I'm not a cheap date. You know, i'm leaving now, but I mean, if i stayed the night, then it's going to really get expensive. Of course you're being used. Yes, i'm being used. I want to be used, and that's my job here, is to provide applause when somebody does the right and courageous thing and to provide criticism when they don't, and yes, you get involved, but it's at what price? And the price that we're talking about here are lives, hundreds of thousands of lives these Canadian dollars are going to change, transform. And if you've been in hospitals like one i can think of straight off in Malawi where people are dying -- queuing to die, three in a bed, two on top and one underneath the bed, you understand that this is an issue that you wouldn't mind bending over just a little bit for, if i could be so crude.
Question: (Voice of translator): Mr. Martin, if the fight against aids is a priority, could you explain why when you were minister of finance the budget for the aids strategy in Canada has remained the same now as it was eleven years ago under the conservatives?
PM Paul Martin: (Voice of translator): Well, certainly aids and the fight against aids is a priority and our intention here in canada is to increase the budget to that priority. At the same time -- in any case in canada, we intend to increase that budget, but in terms of the international side and all of this is part of a whole series of things, the fight to bring down the debt of the poorest countries, the aids fight, and there Bono and i have agreed that we have to work on all these fronts. So it is a priority for us, it always has been a priority, whether we're talking about canada or outside of canada, this is part of a whole fight against poverty, and there is a need to increase our health budgets as well. So i'm going to -- and if you look at where we spent money when i was minister of finance, you'll see that 70% of all of our expenditures were for health and education.
Question: (Voice of translator): So by how much are you going to increase funding for the aids strategy?
PM Martin: (Voice of translator): Well, we will increase that when we are ready to do so and there will be an announcement on that.
Question: (Voice of translator): Mr. Martin, Mr. Bono has asked you to ensure that canada can meet the goal of 0.7% Of G.D.P. In terms of international assistance, and your reaction was that this was asking too much. Do you think that canada should turn its back on that objective or change something in terms of its way of providing international assistance?
PM Martin: (Voice of translator): Well, i was minister of finance when we made the decision to increase the budget by 8% a year and that's why the minister is handling that whole contribution now. And what's important is that we continue to increase that, but also that we do that in a strategic way, which is what bono has said, that we act strategically. In other words, not only in the fight against aids, but ensuring that canada can play a lead role in this. I assure you we can do that.
Bono: An 8% increase is not going to be enough for us, and we would prefer 15 this year. And where we're going, yes, we're going toward .7 And it's going to take years, maybe ten years to get there, but that's where we're going. It was a canadian idea, Lester Pearson i do believe, and it should be recognized today as joyous a day as it is that in order to defeat the aids virus around the world and in order to evict the idea of extreme poverty from the southern hemisphere, it's going to cost us. But we can be the generation that ends extreme poverty. That is what i am pledging my life to, that idea, and lots of people that i'm meeting are doing the same. We can be the generation that eradicates that kind of stupid poverty. There will always be poverty, but the sort of stupid poverty where children are still dying for lack of food in their bellies at this age of plenty, that is over, that idea. The idea that you can die for lack of medicines you can buy around the corner in any drugstore, that is over. Our generation are saying, no, we're not having it. And it is going to take .7 To get there.
PM Martin: Let me just pick up on something bono has said because i think... (Speaking french)what bono said earlier is that obviously the money that minister Carroll is putting forth, the 100 million, the doubling of the global fund, the whole thing we're doing in terms of low cost drugs, the fact is that this is very strategic. It's not simply money. It is demonstrating to the world that a leadership position is required and this reflects canadian values. So when he called me, however, on the other hand when he called to say, hey, i really think this is terrific, i want to congratulate you, and then he said, I'd like to come up, and i said, be my guest, and he said, you know if i do, it's going to cost you more, and you've just seen that.
PM Martin (Voice of translator): So actually what canada is doing is acting strategically. We're spending money, but we're taking a leadership role inside the g-7, and when bono said he would come to canada to salute what we're doing, he said, look, i will put another challenge in front of you, the 0.7% Mentioned by lester pearson and i want to be part of that.
Question: (Voice of translator): Who paid for bono's trip today?
Bono: I'll answer that question. I'm looking after my expenses today if that's what you're getting at.
Question: As of late, a lot of people in canada are concerned about the allocation of money and ultimately where it ends up. With such a significant amount of money, how can Canadians see where this goes and get a sense that it's actually going down the roads it's been promised to?
PM Martin: Well, the 100 million is going to the world health organization. They have got very specific needs for it in terms of retrovirals, in terms of training, doctors and nurses. So there's a very specific set of objectives that this money is going to spend, and given the fact that we will be by far the largest donor, it will be very easy to monitor.
Bono: And George, what's interesting about this is it's not the obvious thing to do. In fact, going in to an election, we would expect a politician to, you know, the photo would be a more emotional shot, putting the tablets in the mouths of the aids patients. This money is much more clever than it is emotional because it's building the kind of capacity to deal with the problem professionally and it's about teaching people and training people and technical assistance, and as much as that might sound like gobbledy gook on muchmusic, what it all adds up to is canada being clever, and that's pretty good.
PM Martin: I want you to know, i was on muchmusic.
Bono: This is worse than i thought. (Laughter)
Aileen Carroll: i think that's true, canada had the courage here to show real leadership and step up to that, and as bono said earlier in his remarks, it was floundering and it might not have happened. And indeed by building the capacity on the ground by working with the world health organization to do that, in many ways, it will leverage the global fund and other funds who are sitting awaiting that kind of capacity on the ground so that they can infuse those funds. So it's not sexy, but it is smart.
Moderator: We've got time for two more, Paul hunter?
Question: Rock stars are not known for their implicit trust of politicians. I just wonder what you think of the guy sitting next to you and what your plans for vigilance in terms of watching what canada does on things like the debt to G.D.P. ratio, things like that?
Bono: This all comes across as a bit of a love-in. Our relationship is robust, and this politician's kept his promises so far to me, and i'm here to credit him on that. I'm sure it will get difficult over the next years to allocate monies to these issues when there's domestic problems, but i trust that he has a vision that's wider than just what's going on on his own doorstep, but i am more than a squeaky wheel. I have a very, very loud hailer in our audience, in the music audience, and i don't think politicians would just be nervous of music people and their audience, but our audience is now starting to hang out with church people and soccer moms, and that's terrifying for you. Because it's quite a constituency. People are getting organized and getting united and they're saying, this is going to be the generation that stops this madness, and they want to be able to tell their kids they did it, and so from 16-year-olds and 14-year-olds, 24 and on, this is an adventure we're on. It's not just a sort of a depressing tale, and we are literally, Mr. Prime minister, coming to a stadium near you. So, you know, we'll be making our feelings very, very clear.(Please stand by)
Question: (inaudible)
PM Martin: (Voice of translator): Those are things that are very important. It has nothing whatsoever to do with an election. It has everything to do with the reasons why people go in to politics.
Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.
Bono: Thank you. Merci.
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The following is a rough transcript based on closed captioning of a press conference with PM Paul Martin and U2 rock star and AIDS activist Bono, about an announcement that Canada will increase assistance to $70 million a year to fight AIDS, on Newsworld (13h):
Don (anchor): Hello, everybody. The lord elgin hotel in downtown ottawa is where the conference is being held. There's the prime minister and he's introducing bono. Let's listen live.
PM Paul Martin: I open my door, there are thousands of people all clutching and trying to grab bono, some of whom were over there, and... (Laughter) we met. Let me tell you, i didn't know the depth of knowledge that bono had at the time, but i had met with finance ministers across the country -- across the world on the issue of third world debt, and bono had showed a depth of knowledge and understanding and greater compassion obviously than any finance minister ever, ever could. Subsequently, we met a number of times on what is perhaps the world's greatst moral issue, the whole question of hiv/aids. I am incredibly proud, as i said to you earlier, of the actions that canada has taken, but let us understand that governments can act, but certain people are given the unique ability to inspire the world. Ladies and gentlemen, i give you bouno. Bono. (Applause)
Bono: thank you for that. Thank you very much. Wow.
(Voice of translator): My name is bono, and i'm a rock star. (Laughter)
which means i don't have to be too slick at the speeches. Lucky enough for you, and it's great to be sitting beside another irish person, o'leary i do believe is your maiden name. Research pays off in this game. I'm not here to elect paul martin or the liberal party. I'm here because i'm trying to elect an issue that affects millions and millions of lives, the aids emergency. That's why we're all here, and it's beyond politics, and i think all the players involved here, we have a duty to keep this above politics. But as much as i promise to be a pain in the prime minister's ass, i also promise applause if he should do what a lot of the people in this room have asked this government to do, the n.G.O.s And, of course, the great stephen lewis. I don't know if he's here, but he's an amazing man. (Applause) at the time, i think the prime minister will accept he had a few problems on his own doorstep, but he looked up from those problems, and he saw what was happening in the wider world, and he responded to what has happened in the wider world. And they've come up with what i can best describe as smart money. It's smart money. Canada is being clever here. It is very easy to respond to the sight of people dying for really stupid reasons in an emotional way, but actually, what the package that's on offer this week is a much more strategic and intelligent response, and i think it's clever money, and i want to tell you why. I think canada's being clever. The generic legislation that's going to be passed on friday there's bits and pieces we'll be arguing about forever, but not right now because it's just great to get this done. Canada's the first country to take what was agreed back in late august this idea that -- and i know a loof you in this room know that, but just for people tuning in, the idea that when a country's facing an extraordinary emergency like the aids emergency and cannot get access to the cheapest drugs possible is just simply preposterous. Everybody agreed back in august to do something about that, but canada is the first country to make that multi-lateral agreement in to national legislation. On friday, that's to be announced, and that is really serious because it gets cheaper drugs. But as well as that, we have -- because that doesn't sort the whole problem out -- we have many complexities on the way to getting those drugs to saving lives. So the money contributed to the world health organization, 100 million of canadian dollars is ally crucial because it's clever money because it cuts through a lot of the technical problems. There's a sort of bottleneck problem that had to be dealt with. And again, it shouldn't be good politics because it's like, what? Are they getting the drugs in to the people's mouths or not? No, there's problems. We've got to be strategic about building the infrastructure, and that's what this contribution to the world health organization does. 100 Million canadian dollars, clever money. The third part, which is the contribution to the global health fund, is clever because it's paying for the drugs, but not just that. It means that other countries have to follow in its wake, and i came here the last time and i said, you know, as a fan of canada and that the world needed more canadas, that's really what i was talking about, and that's why i'm a fan. And it's the package of these three developments that has me here. One and two are good, not good enough, but the three is real will you really something to be proud of. It's a kind of triple therapy of its own. That's a little local lingo i just threw in for the experts. (Laughter) but it's true. It's a combination of punches. So i'm here, and this stuff is serious and significant. So will i shut up now? No. And you don't want me to because as serious and as significant a paradigm shift this is, the problems of extreme poverty are wider than the aids emergency, and there's more pain for them and us up the road. How much? Well, let me posit and idea before you today. It's a canadian idea, actually. It was a great canadian, lester pearson, who put it forward first, and i think pretty much every government signed up to it, which is the idea that .7% Of national income is really what we should be contributing to the poorest of the poor. Now, that's less than 1%, and i want you to think about that today because this prime minister and the minister to my right have taken some pain just getting to an increase of 8% every year. We need that to go up to 10, 15, and further. (Laughter) (applause) and you canadians have already signed up to this. It was one of you that thought up this. So we've got to be here, we've got to remind the prime minister and, you know, he's good at cutting. We have felt his scissors before. But we have to remind him, i will be reminding him, and certainly all the people in this room will be reminding him that this is important to canada and this is -- and it's important that canada continues to lead the world on this issue. We've got a g-8 coming up, and we believe that your prime minister will be banging the table, but you have to give him permission to. It is your money. And i know there's this question that's hanging in the air, but we've had our own problems, why? Well, let me argue that they are not on the scale that i have personally witnessed. Extraordinary things that people in this room have witnessed. 7,000 People dying every day, children, women, extraordinary, the highest increase in hiv/aids is in married women. Think about that. And to see what this has done to development, and here you're trying to make connections between education and this disease because, of course, here's amazing statistic i just heard if i can find it, and i'll shut up soon, but it's really preposterous and i have to share it at today's event. I think it's 2,000 -- i remember it, 2,000 -- it's 179 years they reckon it's going to take before you have primary school education for all africans. At the moment, unless something really extraordinary changes, it's 179 years away. If we had that universal primary education at this point, 7 million people would get the disease less a year. That's just an extraordinary, extraordinary statistic. But anyway, the reason why we're asking you to respond is not just out of compassion, but these are dangerous times, and they're nervous times in the world. The war against terror is bound up in the war against poverty, and i didn't say that. Secretary of state colin powell said that. He's a military man. Maybe we should listen to him. People in the southern hemisphere really are not sure about the people living in the north at the moment. It's not necessarily a given that we are a benign force in the world. I think this aids emergency offers us a chance to show what we're really good at, the kind of people we are, our technology, our pharmaceuticals. I think it's the best of the west, and i think it will bring out the best of canada to respond to this crisis. And thank you very much, prime minister and the people of canada for putting up with an irish rock star today. Thank you. (Applause) <No text - 0:14> amen.
Don: Well, bono, words of praise for canada as he leaves now with paul martin.
Here's the thread that includes reports from those watching the interview on the news!
