HelloAngel
ONE love, blood, life
http://www.louisville.com/
Love comes to town
by cary stemle
LEO
December 18, 2002
Nearly two decades after he joined forces with Bob Geldof and other musicians for the African outreach project known as Live Aid, U2 singer Bono has stepped to the forefront of the AIDS crisis in Africa. In the process, he?s made Jesse Helms cry, won over a Republican Secretary of the Treasury and impressed skeptics with his passion and wonk-like knowledge.
After admittedly losing sight of the crisis in Africa in the years after Live Aid, Bono was drawn back into the picture in 1999, when he signed on to Jubilee 2000. That effort, now known as Drop the Debt, focused on the issue of debt relief for African nations.
He has taken that interest further, however. This year he founded DATA (Debt, Aid, Trade for Africa), a nonprofit group that does what its names implies ? push for a sort of Marshall Plan for Africa that includes debt relief and trade rules that are advantageous to African nations. But the issue that is foremost now is the AIDS crisis, particularly the importance of getting more HIV and AIDS drugs to patients on the continent.
Earlier this month, Bono brought an entourage to Louisville to spread the word. It was the sixth stop of a seven-day tour that took them to seven cities in Middle America, and at a press conference before a public gathering at Northeast Christian Church, the weary principles looked like they?d been keeping rock star hours.
Nonetheless, they quietly repeated their compelling story. Every day, 6,500 people in sub-Saharan Africa die from HIV/AIDS. That projects to 2.4 million deaths in a year, which will create 25 million orphans by 2010.
The good news is that people with the disease can recover if they receive medicine that is widely available in the developed world. The medications are not getting there now, and Bono isn?t buying any excuses.
?These drugs are so cheap,? he said. ?We?ve just got to get them over there. We can get cold, fizzy drinks to any corner of Africa, yet we?re told it?s too difficult to get the drugs there. I?ll tell you what ? God isn?t having any of it.?
Bono?s face is probably among the most recognizable in the world, and he has the uncanny ability to both play up his celebrity and play it down. When he needs to make a dramatic point, he becomes larger than life. But to his credit, he can make other people feel involved while he fades into the background. Those who?ve worked with him on this issue stand in awe of his energy and commitment and his deep knowledge of the crisis.
His latest efforts have been in the news since he went to Africa early this year with Paul O?Neill, the former Secretary of the Treasury in the Bush administration who recently resigned. But like so many things in the world, the story hadn?t really been brought to Middle America in any tangible way, so Bono and Co. ? actress Ashley Judd, actor Chris Tucker, African AIDS activist Agnes Nyamayarwo and others ? embarked on the Heart of America Tour. (In Louisville, singer Wynonna Judd filled in for her sister, who had a prior commitment.)
Bono had a ready answer about why they came here.
?This neck of the woods ? this color of grass ? there?s a certain kind of decency that?s here, a moral compass, if you will,? he said at the press conference. ?The sort of moral compass that might set the course for the rest of the country. People have gotten too blase about the nightly news. ... We?re here because we think you people have a sense of what?s right and wrong. ...
?Politicians have been saying to us, ?People in the center, the heart of America, don?t care about what?s going on in the rest of the world. There?s no votes on this issue.? I said, ?You are wrong. ... Americans, if you give them the facts, will do the right thing.??
He recounted the story of a trucker in Lafayette, Ind., a massive man covered with tattoos. Told that half of African truckers are HIV-positive and will probably die, the man said: ?Please, let me help you. I will drive for you. You get me there, I?m ready to drive for you.?
That?s a touching story, but Bono, in something of a departure from his earlier days, isn?t really playing this issue for emotion. Rather, he points out that there are pragmatic reasons why Americans should care. For example, Secretary of State Colin Powell has called AIDS the ?most clear and present danger in the world today,? because nations whose soldiers are dying off in droves won?t be able to defend themselves. Further, unstable countries are attractive to terrorists, and African nations are rich with natural resources, such as oil. All of which may help explain why Helms, the Republican senator from North Carolina who has been a staunch isolationist, softened his stance on foreign intervention and even shed a few tears when he first met with Bono.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has asked the world?s richest nations to pledge $10 billion a year to fight the crisis; the American share of that would be around $3 billion. President Bush, who has scheduled a trip to Africa early next year, requested $1.108 billion to fight the epidemic next year.
But U.S. funding is uncertain; according an editorial Monday in The New York Times, Bush vetoed the appropriation containing this year?s first payment, and Senate Republicans killed a bill agreed on unanimously that would have provided $4 billion over two years to fight global AIDS.
A big sticking point in any relief effort involves accountability, and Bono pointed out that the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, an organization set up by the United Nations to fight AIDS and other infectious diseases, is designed to be completely transparent. Two major accounting firms have been enlisted to keep an eye on the money, Bono said, and the organization spends 96 percent of its funds on direct services, with only 4 percent set aside for operational expenses.
?Americans are very generous as long as they know they?re getting the bang for the buck,? he said. ?If we can guarantee (where every penny is spent), the American people will buy into it.?
While the focus of the tour is AIDS, Bono points out that debt relief is also a key component of providing assistance to Africa. Every day, African nations spend an astonishing $40 million repaying debts to rich-nation creditors. That?s $14.5 billion a year ? more than those nations spend on health care or education. And many of the loans they?re paying on were taken out by corrupt and sometimes long-gone governments.
Bono?s shtick, while familiar, seemed sincere and largely avoided polemics. At the press conference, noting that the evening gathering was to be held in a church, he admitted that he isn?t exactly a ?good advertisement for God, so I generally don?t wear that badge on my lapel, although it?s certainly written on the inside of me.?
Later, inside the church, he said that anyone who would judge an AIDS patients should ?probably leave now.? But he also said: ?You know, I think God?s in heaven on his knees to the church on this one. I think God almighty is on his knees to us to turn around this supertanker of indifference. ... How do I know? Because there are 2,103 verses of scripture ... pertaining to the poor (and) Jesus only speaks of judgment once. And it?s not about the obvious things ... It?s about Matthew 25: ?I was naked and you clothed me. I was a stranger and you let me in. I was in prison and you visited me.??
Northeast Christian Church was chosen for the gathering because it had done some work with the World Vision humanitarian agency, said executive pastor Darin Bennett. Northeast has become more schooled on African issues, he said, and for the past three years, 34 African families, most from Nigeria, have met there every Saturday night for worship.
The church had about three weeks? notice of the Heart of America Tour. Bennett said there was never much doubt the church would play host to the event, although he admitted being unsure just what would transpire.
?It was very impressive,? he said. ?It inspired our staff in a way I wasn?t ready for.?
Bennett said he believes the event will spur Northeast to action on the crisis, although he isn?t sure yet exactly what that means. ?As I left the event, I was thinking that God is preparing us for something, whether that?s joining with another organization that we don?t even know yet. ... We?re to have our hands outstretched to help anyone and everyone.?
On a cold Saturday night in December, a crowd of 1,100 has gathered inside Northeast Christian Church to see ... something. A man dressed in black, with a familiar face, takes a microphone in hand and walks the aisles. It?s Bobby Shriver, a record producer and son of Sargent and Eunice Kennedy Shriver. He has long worked alongside Bono, and it is his job to warm up the crowd before the main event.
Finally, about an hour late, the program begins with singing and dancing from The Gateway Ambassadors, a group of eight Ghanian children aged 4 to 18 who have joined the Heart of American Tour. The supple young women whoop and holler and move rhythmically in circles. The young men bang drums and chant. In unison, the group sings with soaring harmonies. It is probably not usual church fare, but it is profoundly moving.
The program lasts nearly two hours, and after many remarks and a question and answer segment, it ends with Bono strumming a guitar as he and the group sing a new song he wrote called ?America?s Prayer.?
The crowd files out slowly, abuzz, and empties into the lobby, where DATA volunteers pass out cards that attendees are asked to send to friends to alert them to the crisis (see related information, at right).
?I came with no expectations,? said Fidel Simons, a native of Barbados who is studying at the University of Louisville. ?It left me a little sad, but knowing I can do something. ... Just doing a little bit is a lot more than thinking about doing really great things. Just filling out these cards, it?s really simple, but at least I?ll still know I did something, and if I do a little more than that I?ll feel really good about that as well.?
Simons admitted he was skeptical about a tour being led by celebrities and said he was pleasantly surprised that the program never veered from its message.
Sharon Renfro, a University of Louisville graduate student in Pan African studies, met with Bono and others from the entourage earlier that day, focusing on what local activists can do.
The big ?Ah-ha? moment from that meeting, she said, is ?how serious (the problem) is.? People interested in activism, she said, ?should pull together their resources.?
Asked if DATA supports specific legislation to address the crisis, Bono said: ?We?re keeping it broad and just saying, ?Call your congressman, call the president.? Let?s grow a movement. It?s fertile soil around here. It?s Kentucky. I?m absolutely sure that if we start telling the politicians there?s a vote here, they?ll switch on to it.
?This is not a cause. It?s an emergency?.
Love comes to town
by cary stemle
LEO
December 18, 2002
Nearly two decades after he joined forces with Bob Geldof and other musicians for the African outreach project known as Live Aid, U2 singer Bono has stepped to the forefront of the AIDS crisis in Africa. In the process, he?s made Jesse Helms cry, won over a Republican Secretary of the Treasury and impressed skeptics with his passion and wonk-like knowledge.
After admittedly losing sight of the crisis in Africa in the years after Live Aid, Bono was drawn back into the picture in 1999, when he signed on to Jubilee 2000. That effort, now known as Drop the Debt, focused on the issue of debt relief for African nations.
He has taken that interest further, however. This year he founded DATA (Debt, Aid, Trade for Africa), a nonprofit group that does what its names implies ? push for a sort of Marshall Plan for Africa that includes debt relief and trade rules that are advantageous to African nations. But the issue that is foremost now is the AIDS crisis, particularly the importance of getting more HIV and AIDS drugs to patients on the continent.
Earlier this month, Bono brought an entourage to Louisville to spread the word. It was the sixth stop of a seven-day tour that took them to seven cities in Middle America, and at a press conference before a public gathering at Northeast Christian Church, the weary principles looked like they?d been keeping rock star hours.
Nonetheless, they quietly repeated their compelling story. Every day, 6,500 people in sub-Saharan Africa die from HIV/AIDS. That projects to 2.4 million deaths in a year, which will create 25 million orphans by 2010.
The good news is that people with the disease can recover if they receive medicine that is widely available in the developed world. The medications are not getting there now, and Bono isn?t buying any excuses.
?These drugs are so cheap,? he said. ?We?ve just got to get them over there. We can get cold, fizzy drinks to any corner of Africa, yet we?re told it?s too difficult to get the drugs there. I?ll tell you what ? God isn?t having any of it.?
Bono?s face is probably among the most recognizable in the world, and he has the uncanny ability to both play up his celebrity and play it down. When he needs to make a dramatic point, he becomes larger than life. But to his credit, he can make other people feel involved while he fades into the background. Those who?ve worked with him on this issue stand in awe of his energy and commitment and his deep knowledge of the crisis.
His latest efforts have been in the news since he went to Africa early this year with Paul O?Neill, the former Secretary of the Treasury in the Bush administration who recently resigned. But like so many things in the world, the story hadn?t really been brought to Middle America in any tangible way, so Bono and Co. ? actress Ashley Judd, actor Chris Tucker, African AIDS activist Agnes Nyamayarwo and others ? embarked on the Heart of America Tour. (In Louisville, singer Wynonna Judd filled in for her sister, who had a prior commitment.)
Bono had a ready answer about why they came here.
?This neck of the woods ? this color of grass ? there?s a certain kind of decency that?s here, a moral compass, if you will,? he said at the press conference. ?The sort of moral compass that might set the course for the rest of the country. People have gotten too blase about the nightly news. ... We?re here because we think you people have a sense of what?s right and wrong. ...
?Politicians have been saying to us, ?People in the center, the heart of America, don?t care about what?s going on in the rest of the world. There?s no votes on this issue.? I said, ?You are wrong. ... Americans, if you give them the facts, will do the right thing.??
He recounted the story of a trucker in Lafayette, Ind., a massive man covered with tattoos. Told that half of African truckers are HIV-positive and will probably die, the man said: ?Please, let me help you. I will drive for you. You get me there, I?m ready to drive for you.?
That?s a touching story, but Bono, in something of a departure from his earlier days, isn?t really playing this issue for emotion. Rather, he points out that there are pragmatic reasons why Americans should care. For example, Secretary of State Colin Powell has called AIDS the ?most clear and present danger in the world today,? because nations whose soldiers are dying off in droves won?t be able to defend themselves. Further, unstable countries are attractive to terrorists, and African nations are rich with natural resources, such as oil. All of which may help explain why Helms, the Republican senator from North Carolina who has been a staunch isolationist, softened his stance on foreign intervention and even shed a few tears when he first met with Bono.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has asked the world?s richest nations to pledge $10 billion a year to fight the crisis; the American share of that would be around $3 billion. President Bush, who has scheduled a trip to Africa early next year, requested $1.108 billion to fight the epidemic next year.
But U.S. funding is uncertain; according an editorial Monday in The New York Times, Bush vetoed the appropriation containing this year?s first payment, and Senate Republicans killed a bill agreed on unanimously that would have provided $4 billion over two years to fight global AIDS.
A big sticking point in any relief effort involves accountability, and Bono pointed out that the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, an organization set up by the United Nations to fight AIDS and other infectious diseases, is designed to be completely transparent. Two major accounting firms have been enlisted to keep an eye on the money, Bono said, and the organization spends 96 percent of its funds on direct services, with only 4 percent set aside for operational expenses.
?Americans are very generous as long as they know they?re getting the bang for the buck,? he said. ?If we can guarantee (where every penny is spent), the American people will buy into it.?
While the focus of the tour is AIDS, Bono points out that debt relief is also a key component of providing assistance to Africa. Every day, African nations spend an astonishing $40 million repaying debts to rich-nation creditors. That?s $14.5 billion a year ? more than those nations spend on health care or education. And many of the loans they?re paying on were taken out by corrupt and sometimes long-gone governments.
Bono?s shtick, while familiar, seemed sincere and largely avoided polemics. At the press conference, noting that the evening gathering was to be held in a church, he admitted that he isn?t exactly a ?good advertisement for God, so I generally don?t wear that badge on my lapel, although it?s certainly written on the inside of me.?
Later, inside the church, he said that anyone who would judge an AIDS patients should ?probably leave now.? But he also said: ?You know, I think God?s in heaven on his knees to the church on this one. I think God almighty is on his knees to us to turn around this supertanker of indifference. ... How do I know? Because there are 2,103 verses of scripture ... pertaining to the poor (and) Jesus only speaks of judgment once. And it?s not about the obvious things ... It?s about Matthew 25: ?I was naked and you clothed me. I was a stranger and you let me in. I was in prison and you visited me.??
Northeast Christian Church was chosen for the gathering because it had done some work with the World Vision humanitarian agency, said executive pastor Darin Bennett. Northeast has become more schooled on African issues, he said, and for the past three years, 34 African families, most from Nigeria, have met there every Saturday night for worship.
The church had about three weeks? notice of the Heart of America Tour. Bennett said there was never much doubt the church would play host to the event, although he admitted being unsure just what would transpire.
?It was very impressive,? he said. ?It inspired our staff in a way I wasn?t ready for.?
Bennett said he believes the event will spur Northeast to action on the crisis, although he isn?t sure yet exactly what that means. ?As I left the event, I was thinking that God is preparing us for something, whether that?s joining with another organization that we don?t even know yet. ... We?re to have our hands outstretched to help anyone and everyone.?
On a cold Saturday night in December, a crowd of 1,100 has gathered inside Northeast Christian Church to see ... something. A man dressed in black, with a familiar face, takes a microphone in hand and walks the aisles. It?s Bobby Shriver, a record producer and son of Sargent and Eunice Kennedy Shriver. He has long worked alongside Bono, and it is his job to warm up the crowd before the main event.
Finally, about an hour late, the program begins with singing and dancing from The Gateway Ambassadors, a group of eight Ghanian children aged 4 to 18 who have joined the Heart of American Tour. The supple young women whoop and holler and move rhythmically in circles. The young men bang drums and chant. In unison, the group sings with soaring harmonies. It is probably not usual church fare, but it is profoundly moving.
The program lasts nearly two hours, and after many remarks and a question and answer segment, it ends with Bono strumming a guitar as he and the group sing a new song he wrote called ?America?s Prayer.?
The crowd files out slowly, abuzz, and empties into the lobby, where DATA volunteers pass out cards that attendees are asked to send to friends to alert them to the crisis (see related information, at right).
?I came with no expectations,? said Fidel Simons, a native of Barbados who is studying at the University of Louisville. ?It left me a little sad, but knowing I can do something. ... Just doing a little bit is a lot more than thinking about doing really great things. Just filling out these cards, it?s really simple, but at least I?ll still know I did something, and if I do a little more than that I?ll feel really good about that as well.?
Simons admitted he was skeptical about a tour being led by celebrities and said he was pleasantly surprised that the program never veered from its message.
Sharon Renfro, a University of Louisville graduate student in Pan African studies, met with Bono and others from the entourage earlier that day, focusing on what local activists can do.
The big ?Ah-ha? moment from that meeting, she said, is ?how serious (the problem) is.? People interested in activism, she said, ?should pull together their resources.?
Asked if DATA supports specific legislation to address the crisis, Bono said: ?We?re keeping it broad and just saying, ?Call your congressman, call the president.? Let?s grow a movement. It?s fertile soil around here. It?s Kentucky. I?m absolutely sure that if we start telling the politicians there?s a vote here, they?ll switch on to it.
?This is not a cause. It?s an emergency?.
