Scarletwine
New Yorker
Bono Slams 'Unfair' Rules for African Trade
U2 lead singer Bono hit out at globalisation on Monday and at the "hypocrisy" of rich nations erecting trade barriers against poorer countries.
Bono, in Cape Town for the 46664 AIDS concert, was speaking at Bishopscourt after an informal meeting he and the Edge, U2's lead guitarist, had with Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane to discuss AIDS, third world debt and trade issues.
Bono said that on his Heart of America tour of the U.S., he had asked school pupils if they knew what globalisation meant.
"One girl put up her hand and said: 'Globalisation is where the world shrinks and becomes so small that everyone can help each other.' I said: 'Thank you for giving us the best definition of what globalisation could mean, but sadly doesn't'."
Bono said trade generally improved the lives of people, but it had become "an uneven playing field" with different rules for rich and poor countries.
"It is unacceptable to be in a church in the north, putting your hands in your pockets to contribute to AIDS or malaria or TB, while not allowing those same countries to put their products on our shelves. It is hypocrisy, noxious to God and to most people who think it through."
He said he had formed an organisation called Data -- for Debt, AIDS & Trade in Africa, the major issues the continent had to grapple with.
"We're trying to describe this as an opportunity for the developed world to rebrand itself -- to use a cold, commercial term -- because the brand of the United States, the brand of Europe, is not what it used to be."
He believed the U.S. was no longer seen as a benign force.
Ndungane said afterwards that he and Bono had "shared many platforms" around issues of debt, AIDS and trade.
? The Cape Times, 2003.
U2 lead singer Bono hit out at globalisation on Monday and at the "hypocrisy" of rich nations erecting trade barriers against poorer countries.
Bono, in Cape Town for the 46664 AIDS concert, was speaking at Bishopscourt after an informal meeting he and the Edge, U2's lead guitarist, had with Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane to discuss AIDS, third world debt and trade issues.
Bono said that on his Heart of America tour of the U.S., he had asked school pupils if they knew what globalisation meant.
"One girl put up her hand and said: 'Globalisation is where the world shrinks and becomes so small that everyone can help each other.' I said: 'Thank you for giving us the best definition of what globalisation could mean, but sadly doesn't'."
Bono said trade generally improved the lives of people, but it had become "an uneven playing field" with different rules for rich and poor countries.
"It is unacceptable to be in a church in the north, putting your hands in your pockets to contribute to AIDS or malaria or TB, while not allowing those same countries to put their products on our shelves. It is hypocrisy, noxious to God and to most people who think it through."
He said he had formed an organisation called Data -- for Debt, AIDS & Trade in Africa, the major issues the continent had to grapple with.
"We're trying to describe this as an opportunity for the developed world to rebrand itself -- to use a cold, commercial term -- because the brand of the United States, the brand of Europe, is not what it used to be."
He believed the U.S. was no longer seen as a benign force.
Ndungane said afterwards that he and Bono had "shared many platforms" around issues of debt, AIDS and trade.
? The Cape Times, 2003.
Gosh, even children get the point better then some adults that should!!
ok, maybe some embargos are good, to protect ourselves-but not to this degree!
