The G8 Summit

[Sherry Darling]

Thus far it doesn't look like Bono's there. I'll keep ya'll posted. Meanwhile, write that letter to Bush! And O'Neill! And your rep! Check the link in my sig (Bono's Angels) for ph #'s, addresses, and a sample letter to cut and paste.

And those of you who pray....would ya?



Mideast Worries Impinge on G-8 Summit
Leaders Reject Bush's Position on Arafat
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By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 26, 2002; Page A19


CALGARY, Alberta, June 25 -- Leaders of the world's major industrial nations gathered tonight in a remote Rocky Mountain resort 60 miles west of here for a two-day summit at which the planned focus on topics of long-term international concern seemed in danger of being overwhelmed by more immediate worries about the Middle East.

Even before President Bush arrived at Kananaskis Village this afternoon after a brief stopover in Arizona to view raging wildfires, his Monday speech setting out a framework for Middle East peace was hovering over the summit.

Most of the leaders of the Group of Eight -- the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Italy and Russia -- had already issued statements distancing themselves from Bush's insistence that Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, be replaced before serious peace negotiations with Israel can begin.

"It is for the Palestinians to elect their own leaders," British Prime Minister Tony Blair said as he departed London today for the summit. Like Blair, governments in Berlin and Paris said they appreciated Bush's commitment to work toward a final Middle East settlement. They agreed on the need to end the violence, reform the Palestinian Authority and end Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.

But like Blair, they also made a point of saying the future of any Palestinian leader, including Arafat, was up to the Palestinians themselves. President Vladimir Putin of Russia had expressed the same sentiments before Bush's speech.

Several of the leaders, along with the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, reiterated the importance of holding an early international conference on the Middle East, an idea originally promoted by the Bush administration but left unmentioned Monday by Bush.

European officials said that these U.S. allies, who have worked closely with the administration on the Middle East in recent months, are likely over the next two days to press Bush for a more detailed explanation of his plan, even as he lobbies them to get behind it.

Asked tonight whether he condoned new Israeli military incursions, Bush said he would "continue to remind all parties they have responsibilities. That if there's a true desire for peace, they ought to work for that peace. Listen, everybody's got a right to defend themselves, but there also has to be a decision toward a way forward," Bush told reporters after a brief meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien.

When a reporter asked Chretien whether he supported Bush's position that there would be no Palestinian state with Arafat in power, Bush interjected: "If I might say what I said yesterday. I said the Palestinians need new leadership, elected leadership" as well as transparent financial institutions. "In order for there to be hope," he said, "there needs to be the emergence of the institutions necessary for a peaceful Palestinian state to emerge."

Chretien said, "I don't have a specific point of view" on Arafat. "I think it might be a good thing; I don't want to comment on that. But I just say that we need a quick election there and to produce the best leadership."

From the start, Chretien wanted this meeting to be different. In response to the havoc that anti-globalization protesters created at last year's gathering in Genoa, Italy, Canada opted for a small and isolated meeting place.

Only one road leads to Kananaskis and no one is allowed to travel it without the permission of the thousands of military and police security personnel who are guarding it. For the more serious potential threats of the post-Sept. 11 environment, the two-lane highway is lined with antiaircraft batteries.

Leaders cannot bring the massive entourages of past summits. Each government is allowed only 25 rooms in the 410-room resort; all other aides must stay behind in Calgary, along with the international media.

Chretien had hoped that the new format would work against the usual pattern of the crisis of the hour scuttling a carefully planned agenda, which this year stresses the global economy, terrorism and African development.

"He wanted to get away from the pomp and circumstance of past meetings and all of the time wasted getting in and out of cars, traveling through congested streets," said Robert Fowler, the senior Canadian diplomat who has coordinated much of the agenda.

Bush also met tonight with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan; he expects to talk privately with Blair on Wednesday and Putin on Thursday. The Canadians hope it is in these private meetings, and in free-flowing mealtime discussions, that the leaders will talk about the Middle East, if they must.

As for the official agenda, there is plenty to talk about, and to disagree about.

Wednesday's sessions focus on terrorism and the global economy. On terrorism, the leaders will talk about coordinating efforts to make their transportation systems safer and discuss a Bush administration proposal to fund the disposal of Russian nuclear materials. Bush will have an opportunity to brief his fellow heads of government on the status of the U.S.-led war against terrorism and to either calm their concerns that a military attack against Iraq is imminent or persuade them to support his new preemptive military doctrine.

Concern will be expressed about the Japanese economy, and about whether the dollar is too strong, or may become too weak. His position on the dollar, Bush said tonight, "is that it will seek its own level based upon market forces."

The Europeans and Canadians are also prepared to do battle over what they see as the hypocrisy of an administration trade policy that talks about free markets and then imposes heavy tariffs on steel and lumber and approves hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies for U.S. farmers.

The subsidy issue is also relevant to Thursday's sessions on African development. The presidents of South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria and Senegalwill ask the G-8 leaders to commit to a plan that the Africans presented at last year's summit. Called the New Partnership for Africa's Development, the plan asks for increased aid, debt reduction and investment in exchange for pledges of "good government" and detailed education and health care initiatives, along with a new, peer-review system under which Africa's 53 nations promise to monitor one another's progress and take action to rectify their failings.

The Africans estimate that the continent will need an additional $64 billion a year in aid and investment to achieve their goals by 2015. A number of developed countries committed significant resources to development in Africa and elsewhere during an international development conference held in March in Monterrey, Mexico.


© 2002 The Washington Post Company

[HelloAngel]

Hey Sherry, thanks for the info!


If any of you have news or articles (or find them) regarding U2 or any of their side issues, please PM or email me
so that I can post them and get the News out there!


Thanks a million, guys!

[verte76]

I got something in my mailbox this morning from the @U2 mailing list about Bono going to Calgary. I didn't pay a heck of alot of attention to it due to major hassles with my e-mail service. Yahoo screwed me big time. But I think he plans on going in there and having a word with the big shots before they take off.

[Sherry Darling]

Oooooooohhh! That's good news Verte! I'll post what I find else right here. Hopefully one of debt relief's most eloquent advocates will be there.

HelloAngel, feel free to cut and paste the articles I post here at will. That's how I get 'em. And don't forget to call O'Neill or write him, and the President, and your rep. The link in my sig will show you exactly how and give you a letter you can copy/cut and paste. (Copy and paste link itself if it argues with you. The site is there, I promise.) LMK if I can be of further help to ya!

Cheryl

[GypsyHeartgirl]

Thank you SD! I'll be praying!

[verte76]

Oh, look in the report, it says that they are going to talk about Africa tomorrow, on Thursday. Most likely that's when he'll show up--after all he doesn't have a position on Yassar Arafat or a few of those other issues and controversies.

[Sherry Darling]

Thanks guys! I'll post what I find tomorrow. Apparantly foreign aid is on the adgenda for tomorrow and Fri. That means the next two days are CRITICAL! If you have intended to send a letter or make a phone call but just haven't yet because of whatever, here's the info

Treasury Sec. Paul O'Neill 202 622 0190
http://www.ustreas.gov

Pres GW Bush
http://whitehouse.gov
202-456-1414 (switchboard)

Your Rep
congress.com

Thanks!

SD

[verte76]

Just for the record it's being reported that Bono wasn't able to make the trip due to "scheduling problems". Gosh, the guy's got so much going on in his life! The report said he did call the Canadian Prime Minister to support his plan for Africa. You get the idea that he really likes Chretien. Anyway I got my notes sent. Now let's see what they do.

[kobayashi]

Originally posted by verte76
Just for the record it's being reported that Bono wasn't able to make the trip due to "scheduling problems". Gosh, the guy's got so much going on in his life! The report said he did call the Canadian Prime Minister to support his plan for Africa. You get the idea that he really likes Chretien. Anyway I got my notes sent. Now let's see what they do.

yes bono will be more in favor of chretien this morning than george w. as bush has through yesterday used the gathering as a forum to generate support for his 'mideast' plan, while chretien primarily is adamant that the agenda be adhered to.

[verte76]

Originally posted by kobayashi


yes bono will be more in favor of chretien this morning than george w. as bush has through yesterday used the gathering as a forum to generate support for his 'mideast' plan, while chretien primarily is adamant that the agenda be adhered to.

Yeah, and rightly so. They need to stick to why they're there.... Bush needs to get off of that soapbox. It's an *economic* meeting. They need to listen to Chretien!

[MBH]

Hey all....it's been a while....

Just read this article regarding the G-8 summit and wanted to post it for discussion. Apparently Jello Biafra, lead singer of the Dead Kennedy's, is not a big U2 fan. That's fine. Maybe the U2 fan in me can't help but become irritated when someone--especially someone clearly of inferior talent, popularity, merit and musical achievement--takes a cheap shot at a legendary band. Bruce Cockburn also chimes in, although he makes a fair point about politics, not the music. Oh well. At least these 2 see the positive intentions in Bono anyway.

Enjoy!





The Express: Musicians Strike a Sour Note with U2 Star



June 27, 2002
From The Express:

MUSICIANS STRIKE A SOUR NOTE WITH U2 STAR WHO IS FLYING TO SUMMIT TO
MEET LEADERS

BONO IS ROCKED BY CRITICISM OF G-8 TRIP

By Mark Jagasia, Showbusiness Correspondent

BONO has been slammed by fellow rockers as he jets to Canada where he's expected to
have an audience with the G-8 summit leaders this week.

The U2 singer's efforts to persuade world leaders to cancel Third World debt has come
under fire from musicians protesting at the G-8 summit in the ski resort of Kananaskis.

The Dead Kennedy's outspoken lead singer, Jello Biafra, and Canadian folk rock legend
Bruce Cockburn say they believe that Bono is being naive and that he'll be used by the
summit leaders "He's a photo opportunity to the G-8 leaders, " said Cockburn. "He's giving
them credibility and that's the trade-off. "They'll talk a good game but whether or not they
do anything is another question.

If he can make it work, more power to him, but personally I wonder about the value in what
he's doing." Former punk band leader, Biafra, said he applauds what Bono wants to achieve but suggests that leaders should agree to cut Third World debts in return for U2 not making any more records.

"I agree with Bono 100 per cent, these World Bank debts that poor countries are being
gouged for have to be forgiven immediately, " he said.

"Maybe what the leaders should do is agree to aid Africa anyway Bono desires - if he will in
turn stop playing such lousy music!"

Both artists are attending the G-8 summit even though, unlike Bono, they know they will not
be invited to meet President George Bush or any other world leaders. "I'm going to infect
people's brains, specifically focusing on the way the Bush administration is conducting its
war on terrorism, " said Biafra.

"I feel more frightened of the Bush administration than I do of Osama bin Laden, Saddam
Hussein and big bad North Korea combined." Biafra hopes to urge activists to pressure
their governments "to stand up to Bush and his cowboys" and "help prevent World War III".

Bono's other music opponent, Cockburn, says he's attending the summit to educate people
to the dangers he sees in corporate globalisation.

"We elect these guys to run things for us but there's always the creeping suspicions that their
interests don't really lie with the people that elected them, " he said.

[Sherry Darling]

PM's efforts boosted by Bono
It's a beautiful day, Jean

JAM! Showbiz/Toronto Sun, June 27, 2002


Maria McLintock


(Calgary) Rock star Bono called Prime Minister Jean Chretien on Tuesday to tell him to keep his chin up about his Africa plan.

The lead singer of U2 called the PM from Ireland and spent about 20 minutes talking about Chretien's efforts to get other G-8 leaders to commit to an action plan to help Africa.

"Bono thanked the prime minister for having brought this to the summit, and kept it on the agenda," a senior government official said yesterday.

"He said there were going to be pressures to diverge from the initiative, but he hoped that it would continue."

There were reports that Bono would make an appearance at the two-day summit, but there were scheduling problems and he couldn't make the trip.

Last October, Bono arrived in Ottawa looking for a meeting with former finance minister Paul Martin, and when he wasn't available, he met for 90-minutes with Chretien at 24 Sussex.

(c) JAM! Showbiz/Toronto Sun 2002



I'll post whatever else I find. Meanwhile, did you call yet?

SD

PS-- Lousy music me arse!

[verte76]

Jello Biafra is a bad joke. "Lousy music my arse"--gotta agree with that. I agree, when someone of obviously inferior talent, etc, etc takes a stab at a legendary band I want to stuff a sock in their mouth. I guess it's the fan in me.......sigh........can't be perfect.

[U2Kitten]

I'm disappointed to hear he won't be going but he's done his part. It would have been great to have him on the news again as our hero for all to see, but he still is our hero anyway.

[verte76]

I'm wondering, aside from the scheduling deal, if perhaps he thought it would be overkill to show up on the news again a month after the trip with O'Neill? At any rate, yes, he's absolutely done his share, and good grief, let him have a life!

[Sherry Darling]

Yeah, if he can't be with me, he should be spending some quality time with the babe in my avatar.

Vertre, I just sent a Jubilee letter to the Wash. post and the Free Lance Star, my local paper. Thanks for the heads up on that.

I'll post what I find, as always. We're at 41 angels. Who will make it 42? There can't be a more important time to speak out on this issue, as the worlds 8 most powerful people are set to talk about helping Africa.

BTW, just spent a bit of time at Prof Sachs site, CID at Harvard. He's got a couple of great essays that are easy to understand and read (for stoopid english people who don't get economics). I enjoyed 'em and am glad to feel at least a little more knowledgeable about ins and outs.

O'Neill 202 622 0190
Bush 202 456 1414

It takes less that 4 min. to make that call!

SD

[Sherry Darling]

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

[BEAL]

Typical politics.

Read an interview with Bono. He isn't pleased at all.

Why even bother with this crap. Especially here in the U.S., where nearly 99.9% of our leadership is interested in U.S profits.

sucks butt

[Sherry Darling]

Here it is..part 1

June 28, 2002
From CBC TV Transcripts:

SHOW: THE NATIONAL ( 10:00 PM ET )
June 27, 2002, Thursday
ANCHOR: PETER MANSBRIDGE

The front man

PETER MANSBRIDGE: He's known simply as Bono. Short in name, long in reputation.
As the front man for the rock band U2, he uses his fame to get the world to listen, to
hear about global poverty, the need fro foreign aid, but especially the problems of Africa.
We spoke to Bono a few hours ago in Monte Carlo where he had just received the final
communiqu from the G-8 summit. That interview in a moment, but first why he's a rock
star to be reckoned with. In a world of music, no band is bigger than U2 and no lead
singer of a rock group more political than Bono. He's been mixing politics and music
since the late 70's. And since 1984 when he sang in Band-aid, Africa has been a priority
for Bono. This year in New York, Bono and Bill Gates announced a new plan to help
Africa. It's called the data agenda and it aims to resolve the continent's debt problems.
With Bono behind this initiative, Africa has received a lot of attention. He's toured the
continent with the U.S. Treasury Secretary. He's met with the Presidents of France,
Russia, Britain. And to ensure Africa was front and centre at Kananaskis, Bono met with
Jean Chretien in February.

Bono, earlier this year, you had hoped that this Kananaskis G-8 could produce the
Marshall plan for Africa. You've seen the final communiqu now, is that what you're
looking at?

BONO: No. No, I'm not looking at that at all. And it's, there's a lot of people's hopes and
not dreams, but real work dashed here as far as I'm concerned. And you know, it was
an inspired thing, I think of Prime Minister Chretien to have the African leadership
present. It was inspired to have as a centerpiece at this year's G-8 but really, what I'm
looking at is a lot of rhetoric, a lot of the old numbers just kind of fiddled with. There is,
I mean maybe I'm being disingenuous. I'm feeling disappointed. There is some progress
here. There is some smart things on the debt they've done looking at debt sustainability
in this. There's a little bit more money going around but no, none of the vision we were
hoping for. Basically, the scale of the response does not match the scale of the problem.

MANSBRIDGE: Well, what do you think happened here? Where did it break down?

BONO: Well, I don't think Mugabe's efforts helped in Zimbabwe. I mean when you have
a crackpot like that, it just reinforces what a lot of people think about Africa, that it's a
hopeless case, you know. But it's not a hopeless case. There is new leadership. There's
some, there's some great people like Obasanjo who's there in Kananaskis. There's
Thabo Mbeki, even though he's been slow to turn on the AIDS problem, he's a very
brilliant man. There is a great new African leadership and they deserved, in my opinion
a new and historic approach to this problem. And you know, it's all our problem. You
know, that's the thing. People say well why, you know, why should we care. It's a long
way. It's Africa. And there is some sort of, I mean, there's some sort of I guess inherent
racism in the fact that we can, we can let this problem go on and on and on. But I think
also being fairer. I think it's more just to do with the fact that people think it's a hopeless
case. Well it's not.

MANSBRIDGE: Well who's, who's not getting it then? I mean, you've met with a lot, many
of these leaders. You've had access unprecedented really for somebody who's been as
concerned about an issue as you have, who's not getting it?

BONO: You know, they're not, they're not bad guys. They're just busy guys, you know. It's
just bureaucracy. It's that old thing, you know. It's just, it's heartbreaking really. I mean, I
know how much Tony Blair has put into this and Gordon Brown has put into this. I've
been on a tour of Africa with the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, you know.
I'd like to tell you these people are the devil. Well they're not, you know. They're, they're
people who want to put this right. The problem is when it comes down to it, people are
dying for the stupidest of reasons. Money. I mean since last year's Genoa, the G-8 in
Genoa, 2.3 million Africans have died of AIDS. I mean there's drugs available. We have
interventions that are great advertisements for our ingenuity and innovation in the wealthier
countries. They're not getting, they're not getting to the people. They'll always say oh, the
delivery systems aren't in place. It's too difficult. That classic line. Africans don't have wrist
watches. And so they can't take these medications. I've been in Africa. I've been in clinics
in South Africa where the nurses and the doctors are saying to us, we could do, we could
do 200 percent more than we're doing now, if we had the money. Others saying, you
know, we could do a thousand percent more if we could do the money. You know, but these
are the old excuses and it comes down to money.

MANSBRIDGE: You now, I've got to tell you, you not only sound disappointed, you look
disappointed. But one assumes you're not going to give up as a result of this. What
happens now?

BONO: No, I think, I think, I wanted for especially in Canada, you know, Prime Minister
Chretien said to us a year ago, I'm going to put, I'm going to give you your voice and I'm
going to give you your chance meaning the movement. And it's a worldwide movement
that wants to put the relationship between the developed and the developing countries
right. I mean it's a relationship that's been wrong for so long. We just, this is the time and
stop, the message we are trying to get to the politicians is don't move in baby steps. Make
a giant leap here. We'll give you the applause. This money that we're asking for, I think
they're talking about $6 billion a year en masse if the Americans agree, and that's still I
think $24 billion less than what the UN are saying is necessary to deal with AIDS and
hunger and starvation in that continent. But $24 billion, it sounds like a lot of money, but
when you think of the cost of, for instance, the war in Afghanistan and you realize what
happens, you know, it's cheaper to prevent the fires than to put them out. There's another
ten Afghanistans potentially in Africa. I just thought they'd have the imagination to make
a giant, giant leap here.

MANSBRIDGE: But do you think, still think that something can happen? You're not going
to give up. People who agree with you are not going to give up.

BONO: No, no, we're not going to give up. We're not going to give up. And guess what?
It's such a strange panoply of characters here. You have the churches. You have student
activists. I mean we're people who don't normally all hang out together. And people are
waking up to what George Bush himself described as a genocide, referring to AIDS and
I see us as complicit by our inaction in that genocide. And it's bewildering to me that we're
not treating this as an emergency. I think the penny is slowly dropping. I think people are
getting out on the streets. You know people criticize the globalized, the anti-globalization
people. They feel that they're, you know, they haven't figured out an agenda. But you know,
there's some, there's some you know, nut cases, I agree, out on the streets, but a lot of
these people are responding at a gut level to what they see as the ever widening gap
between the richer countries and the poorer countries. In history, within our own borders,
we know that when that happens, revolt is around the corner.



Thanks to Gina Marie for posting this in PLEBA. Thought I'd share it here. Be back with part 2

[Sherry Darling]

Part 2


MANSBRIDGE: Let me just ask you one last question and it's a personal on in a way and I
don't want you to take it the wrong way. You know on a day like this, some people are going
to wonder whether, in a way, you got had. You've had incredible access to some of the
most powerful people in the world. You're committed to this cause. At the end of the day,
some of them got campaign photos with one of the most popular figures in the world and
you're disappointed and depressed and you didn't get the commitment you wanted.

BONO: Um, yeah, I might be one of those people. If I'm speaking to you, Peter, next year,
and there hasn't been a real historic movement to deal with the problem of AIDS in the world
and to deal with a continent like Africa bursting into flames while we all stand around with
watering cans, I'm going to feel like I have been had. And worst than that, I'm going to feel
like I've been a tourist in other people's tragedies. And I'll feel I let those people down. And
I'll tell you, I've always felt it was more glamorous to be on the barricades. You know, it's
much more rock 'n roll to be on the barricades with a handkerchief over your nose and
throwing rocks. And I always felt, you know, get into the ruin. The argument has a certain
moral weight, moral force. If we can get into the era of presidents and prime ministers like I
have with Tony Blair and last week with President Chirac, I know that, I know I can make
these people's case in a way that sometimes even the African leaders can't because they're
beholding to the institutions like the World Bank and the IMF whose shareholders are the
G-8. You know, and I, and I, I'm still, I'm still going to go there. I'm going to represent a broad
movement and, but we will be back next year and you'll be hearing from me. And you'll be
hearing from the sleeping giant that is the church. I mean the church, what is going on with
the, with the churches? It is incredible. I tell these evangelicals, you know, in the United
States, there's 2,300 verses of scripture about the poor. It's the central message outside of
personal redemption, is the idea of dealing with the poor. And I'm asking them where are
they? Where are they on this? You know, on a recent poll of evangelical churches, only six
percent said they wanted to do something about AIDS. I mean it is, it is unbelievable and
the leprosy of our time, if you like, but it's starting to turn, the church is starting to wake up.
The students are getting louder and louder. And we are getting messages even from
corporate America saying, I get calls saying what can we do? Can we help? And I think over
the next year you'll be hearing from us and closer to elections, in all these countries who
have met in Kananaskis today, they'll really be hearing from us.

MANSBRIDGE: Bono, it's been good of you to talk to us and we will talk to you a year from
now. Thank you.

BONO: Okay. Thanks Peter. Bye.

MANSBRIDGE: We have to take a short break. But when we come back, the performance of
the Prime Minister at the G-8 summit. Our at issue panel is standing by with their score cards.

Bush is at 202 456 1414 and O'Neill is at 202 622 0190

Happy calling. Remember to let me know if you want some public props for taking action. Check the link in my sig.

SD