Bono, along with Bill and Melinda Gates, have been named Time's "People of the Year" for 2005.
You can read about it on the Time website:
http://www.time.com/time/
There are also some GREAT pictures on the website too!
http://www.time.com/time/personoftheyear/2005/photoessay/in_the_name_of_love/
And here's a report from CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/12/18/time.poy/index.html
CNN) -- The good deeds of an activist rock legend and one of the world's richest men and his wife carried the day in 2005, as Time magazine on Sunday named U2 frontman Bono and philanthropic couple Bill and Melinda Gates as its "Persons of the Year."
"Sudden disasters get the big headlines, but day after day other tragedies of avoidable dimensions unfold: The one child who dies of malaria in Africa every 29 seconds, the one person who is infected with HIV every 6.4 seconds, the 8 million who die every year because they are too poor to stay alive," Time's managing editor Jim Kelly writes.
"And who is proving most effective in figuring out how to eradicate those calamities? In different ways, it is Bill and Melinda Gates, co-founders of the world's wealthiest charitable foundation, and Bono, the Irish rocker who has made debt reduction sexy."
The Gateses, the magazine notes, "spent the year giving more money away faster than anyone ever has."
In January, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation committed $750 million to improving access to child immunizations, accelerating introduction of new vaccines and strengthening vaccine delivery systems.
The foundation focuses on education, global health, improving public libraries and supporting at-risk families, according to its Web site. The Gateses awarded grants to schools in Texas, Colorado and Massachusetts, as well as the Lutheran World Relief program, which received $640,000 to help nomadic communities in Niger avert food crises.
Bono was one of the organizers behind this year's Live 8 concerts in nine cities worldwide. The concerts were aimed at getting the leaders of the world's nations leaders to come to the aid of impoverished Africa. They did so at the G8 summit, agreeing to double aid to Africa to $50 billion by 2010 and cancel the debts of the poorest nations.
"Bono charmed and bullied and morally blackmailed the leaders of the world's richest countries into forgiving $40 billion in debt owed by the poorest," the magazine said.
In addition, Bono is a co-founder of the DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) organization, which fights poverty and HIV in the developing world. From that organization was spawned the ONE Campaign to Make Poverty History.
--------------------------------------------------
This award has been long overdue for Bono and I'm overjoyed that it has finally arrived.
CONGRATULATIONS and THANK YOU, BONO for all that you are and for all that you do in our world.
It is a blessing to have you amongst us. May we learn to better follow your example of co-existence, tolerance and your willingness to sacrifice your personal time to make this world a more just place for the world's poorest people.
You can read about it on the Time website:
http://www.time.com/time/
There are also some GREAT pictures on the website too!
http://www.time.com/time/personoftheyear/2005/photoessay/in_the_name_of_love/
And here's a report from CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/12/18/time.poy/index.html
CNN) -- The good deeds of an activist rock legend and one of the world's richest men and his wife carried the day in 2005, as Time magazine on Sunday named U2 frontman Bono and philanthropic couple Bill and Melinda Gates as its "Persons of the Year."
"Sudden disasters get the big headlines, but day after day other tragedies of avoidable dimensions unfold: The one child who dies of malaria in Africa every 29 seconds, the one person who is infected with HIV every 6.4 seconds, the 8 million who die every year because they are too poor to stay alive," Time's managing editor Jim Kelly writes.
"And who is proving most effective in figuring out how to eradicate those calamities? In different ways, it is Bill and Melinda Gates, co-founders of the world's wealthiest charitable foundation, and Bono, the Irish rocker who has made debt reduction sexy."
The Gateses, the magazine notes, "spent the year giving more money away faster than anyone ever has."
In January, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation committed $750 million to improving access to child immunizations, accelerating introduction of new vaccines and strengthening vaccine delivery systems.
The foundation focuses on education, global health, improving public libraries and supporting at-risk families, according to its Web site. The Gateses awarded grants to schools in Texas, Colorado and Massachusetts, as well as the Lutheran World Relief program, which received $640,000 to help nomadic communities in Niger avert food crises.
Bono was one of the organizers behind this year's Live 8 concerts in nine cities worldwide. The concerts were aimed at getting the leaders of the world's nations leaders to come to the aid of impoverished Africa. They did so at the G8 summit, agreeing to double aid to Africa to $50 billion by 2010 and cancel the debts of the poorest nations.
"Bono charmed and bullied and morally blackmailed the leaders of the world's richest countries into forgiving $40 billion in debt owed by the poorest," the magazine said.
In addition, Bono is a co-founder of the DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) organization, which fights poverty and HIV in the developing world. From that organization was spawned the ONE Campaign to Make Poverty History.
--------------------------------------------------
This award has been long overdue for Bono and I'm overjoyed that it has finally arrived.
CONGRATULATIONS and THANK YOU, BONO for all that you are and for all that you do in our world.
It is a blessing to have you amongst us. May we learn to better follow your example of co-existence, tolerance and your willingness to sacrifice your personal time to make this world a more just place for the world's poorest people.