Will Bono attend the G8 summit?

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spinninghead77

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I remember hearing that Bono would be going to the G8 Summit in Alberta next week. Does anyone know if that is still the plan?

My little brother is in the Canadian Armed Forces and left
yesterday to do security there..... imagine that, my baby bro protecting Bono.... I told him to take good care of his future brother in law!! :D

Woo Hoo!! This is the first thread that I started in the new forum!!
 
CONGRATS SPINNY!

*throws confetti*

I hope Bono goes, and I hope he gives them Hell.

*still pissed about George Jr. and his "aid" package for Africa*

*snarl*

The Feesh
 
June 19, 2002
From The Associated Press:

Bono and Chirac to meet in Paris for talks on Africa

PARIS -- Irish rock star Bono and
French President Jacques Chirac will meet Thursday to talk about Africa, the developing world and an
upcoming summit of industrialized nations. The U2
singer and activist, who recently accompanied U.S.
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill on a 12-day tour of Africa to press for debt relief and more aid, is expected to meet the French leader at the presidential Elysee Palace, Chirac's office said.

A new development plan for Africa
will be a chief focus of the June 26-27 Group of Eight meeting in Canada. That program offers a package of trade and aid help for Africa, coupled with assistance in ending civil wars and improving governance across the continent.


Spinny that'd be pretty cool if your brother was there protecting Bono!! The fact that he's protecting anyone is pretty cool! :D
 
I can't imagine he wouldn't. It's his scene. Even if he has to go there, fly back for Edge's wedding and fly back to the G8 the way he did with concerts last year, he'll be there. His cause will be discussed and I know he'll have things to say! He might even wear a suit, but I think it's cool when he comes in his regular clothes.
 
Thursday, as in, today? Okay, time to start watching the wire services for pics! Spinny your brother sure is lucky. Did he ever protect you when you were growing up together?
 
U2Kitten said:
Did he ever protect you when you were growing up together?

Not unless pulling my hair and wrecking barbie's dream house counts as protecting..... hehehe!!

Actually, we didn't get along very well when we both lived at home, but now that we only see each other once or twice a year, I am starting to appreciate him. He called my house the other day and I talked to him for an hour. My parents almost died of shock!!

I asked my brother to try to get Bono's autograph, and a picture for me. He is going to do his best!!
 
I know what you mean Spinny, my little bro and I never got along until we were older either. Even now he annoys me sometimes! Just yesterday my neighbor told me he was snooping around my house looking in he windows when I wasn't home, nosy ass!

Good luck on your autograph and pic, I hope he'll get it for you and I hope he knows how lucky he is and how any of us would switch jobs with him right now!
 
I have it on pretty good authority that Bono will be attending the G8 Summit. Good luck on your bro running into him! They are going to be discussing debt relief and AIDS in Africa, and it's not until after Edge's wedding. So I'd bet on it.
 
FishNeedsABicycle said:
CONGRATS SPINNY!

*throws confetti*

I hope Bono goes, and I hope he gives them Hell.

*still pissed about George Jr. and his "aid" package for Africa*

*snarl*

The Feesh


Me too....hey, did you read where Bono got on Bush's case about it not being enough? Yes! I forget which publication it came from, but he said something to the effect of "nice, but not enough". You go, Bono! Bravo!:cool: :cool: :cool:
 
verte76 said:
I have it on pretty good authority that Bono will be attending the G8 Summit. Good luck on your bro running into him! They are going to be discussing debt relief and AIDS in Africa, and it's not until after Edge's wedding. So I'd bet on it.

Oooooooo....care to reveal your sources? :D

SD
 
Oh, no big shots.....a guy from Nova Scotia, who said that it was announced on MuchMusic channel in Canada that Bono would be attending as the summit would be focusing on debt relief and global AIDS. He also cited a quote from a publication, which I forget the name of.....damn, it's been a long day.
 
That's kind of neat to think Bono will be within a day's drive away from me...

:wink:

...oh, who am I kidding. But the mental picture of Bono hanging out with G8 dudes in Kananaskis provincial park, hehe...

Silliness aside, has anyone seen the images of those giant metal fences they're using to gate off the roads? This will be one well protected meeting, and I can only imagine the hundreds of people who are making road trips out of this with the sole purpose to protest.

I hope it doesn't go haywire...
 
I'll be shocked if Bono and some of his DATA buddies--Geldof, maybe Gates, etc, etc, aren't there. I hope it doesn't go haywire too. Peaceful protesting is cool if you feel like it, throwing rocks and such is not. Unfortunately at the last few meetings the protesters have been a bit flakey and have done stupid things like this.
 
I hope to see him and Geldolf there, dressed in their own unique style and lettin' 'em all have it!
 
U2Kitten said:
I hope to see him and Geldolf there, dressed in their own unique style and lettin' 'em all have it!


Yeah, they need to raise some serious hell. The U.S. is being terribly cheap about all of this stuff. I think they are screwing up big time.
 
Well, he did call Chretien, talk to Chirac last week, talk to every other G7 leader this year, go to Africa in May and also in January--Malawi--so he's done his fair share, and then some. The guy's probably absolutely pooped.
 
There's also the real possibility that he wasn't invited. Guys, I don't think tighter security has ever existed than at this place. The world's 8 most powerful leaders in one building...with the world at war....

But he's done enough. Time for us to do OUR part.

O'Neill 202 622 0190
White House 202 456 1414
http://congress.com

I understand a letter is time consuming. So if you don't wanna do that, please at least make a phone call. It gets there quicker anyway. :)

If you REALLY wanna put the pressure on, check out
http://jubileeusa.org or a sample letter to send to your local paper. I did last night! You can email it! If anyone wants the letter I sent to the Wash. Post and my local paper, I'll post 'em.

Happy resting Bono. ::hug::

SD
 
new article on the summit

Warning. This depressed me. Let's NOT give up...like Bono said!


By Karen DeYoung and DeNeen L. Brown
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, June 28, 2002; Page A19


CALGARY, Alberta, June 27 -- The world's seven leading industrial democracies and Russia agreed today to a "new deal" to help lift African countries out of poverty, but sidestepped appeals to firmly commit at least half of pledged increases in foreign aid to pay for it.

Leaders of the Group of Eight, holding their annual summit at a resort 60 miles west of here, also agreed to spend up to $20 billion over the next 10 years in a coordinated effort to help former Soviet republics decommission nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction and keep them from terrorist hands.

President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, said the nonproliferation pact, in which group members agreed to collectively match a U.S. contribution of $10 billion to safeguard and destroy nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, is an "important initiative," and that its approval was a major victory for Bush.

But some of Bush's summit partners were less pleased with the U.S. position on African aid. International development experts expressed disappointment, saying G-8 members failed to acknowledge that their domestic agricultural subsidies, particularly the massive farm bill that Bush recently signed, take far more money away from Africans by impeding exports than the rich nations dole out in foreign aid.

Nor was there agreement to devote major new funding to international debt reduction efforts, beyond covering $1 billion in shortfalls in the current program. The leaders also did not move to firm up an earlier pledge to educate the world's children by adopting a coordinated and well-funded plan.

"It's all words, no action; all promises, no commitments," said Gene Sperling, director of the Washington-based Center on Universal Education at the Council on Foreign Relations, and a former organizer of G-8 summits as President Clinton's economic policy director. "It's such a shame, such a letdown for the world's poorest children."

Prime Ministers Jean Chretien of Canada and Tony Blair of Britain, both leading advocates of a major new Africa initiative, called the G-8 agreement "a new beginning and a fresh hope for the African continent." But Chretien acknowledged that many would question why there was no firm financial commitment or any movement on reducing trade barriers.

The Kananaskis summit, named after the isolated mountain resort where the meeting was held, "will be remembered as where we have acted collectively to make sure that globalization benefits all the citizens of the globe and that no continent should be left behind," Chretien said.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo was one of four African presidents who traveled here to listen to the G-8's response to the partnership, which was first proposed at last year's summit in Genoa, Italy.

"We are satisfied with this commitment," Obasanjo said, but added that "nothing that is human can be regarded as perfect."

Rice put the Africa program far down on the list in her own assessment of the meeting. "This summit was extremely important for a number of the president's foreign policy priorities," she said, noting that "the president's agenda was moved forward substantially" with the nonproliferation agreement and a separate accord on transport security.

The Africa agreement provides that development assistance should be based on a partnership in which recipients agree to be eligible for assistance only if they implement political and social reforms, and adopt free-market economic policies.

The Africans have said they will not only follow through on their pledges, but will police each other. "If any of us is lagging behind," Obasanjo said, "we will give him the push or give him the sanction."

Questions about Bush's new Middle East policy -- which seeks to replace Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat -- raised by his G-8 colleagues from Germany, Japan, Russia, Italy and France in addition to Canada and Britain, dominated much of the informal summit discussion, as well as a dinner last night.

Although most leaders tried to sidestep the controversy in post-summit news conferences this afternoon, Russian President Vladimir Putin called it "one of the most difficult issues we discussed." Arafat, Putin said, "is recognized as the legitimate leader of the Palestinians -- it would be counterproductive to resolve any issues without his cooperation."

Bush, in an apparent hurry to get back to Washington, was the only leader not to make a post-summit appearance to answer reporters' questions. He left for home an hour ahead of schedule.

U.N. members, including the United States, pledged two years ago to cut world poverty in half by 2015, a target that the U.N. Development Program this week said only 10 of the 45 sub-Saharan countries are currently on track to achieve.

The United States spends less than one-tenth of 1 percent of its gross national product on foreign aid, the lowest in the developed world. At a meeting in March on international development in Monterrey, Mexico, Bush pledged to increase U.S. assistance to worthy recipients by 50 percent, to $15 billion a year, over five years.

Bush last week pledged an additional $300 million in spending on international HIV/AIDS in 2004, and said he would double U.S. aid to education in Africa, to $200 million over the next five years.

Overall, donors at Monterrey pledged $12 billion in new assistance per year by 2006, and the World Bank, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and others have said that at least half of that money should be devoted to Africa.

European sources said Bush told his colleagues today that he could not make such a commitment without congressional approval. The plan provides for each country to decide how much to spend in accordance with respective priorities and procedures.


? 2002 The Washington Post Company
 
Damn. What are these people thinking? This is fiddling while Rome burns. The American people need to put serious heat on them. That's what'll make them move. They don't give a damn what the Europeans or the Canadians say, but hey, let their own constituents scream bloody murder and they'll start worrying about votes, elections, etc, etc......whew!
Yeah, they had the new security. The guess here is that Bono was indeed invited; after all, he and Chretien have a really good relationship. But they probably decided that it wasn't really necessary for him to make the trip to Canada. Remember, the band isn't touring this summer because he's pooped.
This is indeed bad news. :madspit: :madspit: :madspit:
 
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