Bono is quite a character and has done an amazing amount to help poverty around the world. Read the latest story about how the G* are not fulfilling their promises on Africa:
BERLIN - The world’s biggest industrial countries are failing to keep up with financial promises they made to Africa, rocker-activist Bono said Tuesday, calling a new progress report “a cold shower” for the Group of Eight.
G-8 members in 2004-2006 contributed less than half the amount needed to make good on promises to double Africa aid to $50 billion by 2010, according to a report released by DATA — Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa — an advocacy group founded by Bono, the 47-year-old frontman for Irish band U2.
“The G-8 are sleepwalking into a crisis of credibility. I know the DATA report will feel like a cold shower, but I hope it will wake us all up,” he said.
Money that gets there helps
Bono is urging German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who chairs a G-8 summit in Germany next month, to ensure that members contribute what they said they would.
The report shows the G-8 increased aid by $2.3 billion but says they need to increase aid by an additional $3.1 billion to substantially help the people of Africa.
“These statistics are not just numbers on a page,” Bono said. “They are people begging for their lives, for two pills a day, a mother begging to immunize her children, a child begging not to become a mother at the age of 12.”
The DATA report said aid money that does arrive has an effect. “Every day 1,450 Africans living with AIDS are put on lifesaving drugs,” the organization said, and 20 million African children are going to school for the first time, thanks in part to debt cancellations and aid increases.
Still, Bono warns that insufficient increases in aid could reverse progress already made. DATA says the G-8 must contribute $7.4 billion this year alone to reach its goal. If Germany makes good on its promises to help Africa, he said, the other G-8 members will do the same.
Britain and Japan have contributed most of the aid increase so far, it said.
U2 lead singer Bono and German singer Herbert Groenemeyer address a news conference to present the DATA 2007 report in Berlin on Tuesday.
Lead singer, Bono from the band U2 has recieved a knighthood. I couldn't think of any celebrity more deserving. His high profile has helped shine la ight on the issues of poverty around the world. Read the story -
Singer Bono was recently honoured with a knighthood - though he won't have the title 'Sir.'
The 46-year-old U2 singer and campaigner has been named a knight of the British empire during a special ceremony in Dublin.
Bono's U2 bandmates The Edge and Adam Clayton were present at the special event, which was led by British Ambassador David Reddaway.
Bono will not qualify for the right to be called 'Sir' because he is not a resident of the UK. Bono said, "You can call me pretty much anything you want, except sir."
In a letter Tony Blair wrote that Bono was a source of inspiration for his campaigning against poverty around the world. Bono has been an acitivist for struggles in Africa for many years and was heavily involved in last year's Live 8 concerts and the Make Poverty History campaign.
