Bono was in Berlin this week, explaining that 'getting on the right side ofhistory' means defeating poverty and AIDS in Africa.Speaking at the Global Business Council for HIV/AIDS Awards Dinner, otherguests included Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and James Wolfensohn, Presidentof the World Bank.
Here's what Bono had to say:
"Guten Abend. My name is Bono, Ich bin ein Rock star.. Ich bin einDubliner
I don't think my group U2 has opened for a fish before - I hear atleast it's going to be salmon. This is a first for me. Herbert Groenemeyersitting there, I'd open for you anyday. You are one special mensch.
I want to thank Ambassador Holbrooke for the excuse to come to Berlin. Ilove this city. Like so many people from so many countries, I was firstdrawn here as the Wall was coming down, and I stayed a while; U2 recorded awhole album here, at Hansa Studios, right in the shadow of the Wall. Ofcourse, the whole continent was in the shadow of the Wall, but we were rightthere up against it, just as it crumbled. The dust is under thefingernails of that album.
We arrived on the very last flight into the old divided city. Itwas a remarkable moment. The streets were flooded with people as we arrived,it was totally overwhelming and we wanted to be a part of it.
So this ragged Irish bunch of musicians went out to party and celebrate withthe people of Berlin, East and West. You know I'd heard about bierfestivalsand bohemia, but as I looked around I thought, 'Everybody looks sodepressed, maybe these rumours about Germans working too hard are true ?'Or maybe they were worn out from dancing on the wall.
But you know it's just that we had somehow joined the wrong parade - theone group in Berlin that was
protesting against the Wall coming down. Sobriefly, there, I was on the wrong side of history. I want to come cleanabout that.
Tonight I'd like to talk about getting on the right side of history. Notjust me but all of us. If you thought this dinner was off the record, itsnot. History is taking notes right now. Like one of those journalists thatfollows you into the bathroom to ask all those annoying but importantquestions.
Now please don't get me wrong here. Frankly, history couldn't care lesswhat you or I say tonight. History only cares what we do when we leave, inthe weeks, months, years even, that follow.
Every age has its defining struggle; and the last one, in large part, waswaged and won here in Berlin - the fight against fascism and Sovietism.People braver than me won that one.
But
our generation has its own defining struggle, and it's the fight againstAIDS and the extreme poverty that fuels its spread and against our ownindifference. That's our struggle. And unlike before, Berlin's not thefrontline, although there are definitely battles to be fought here.
No, the frontline is Africa. I know that's hard to take when all we see onthe nightly news in the Middle-East. But history will remember this age forthree things. Yes, the war against terror; the internet; and I promise you,how we let an entire continent burst into flames, while we stood around withwatering cans.
Of all the people speaking tonight, I'm painfully aware that thisstuff sounds odd, indeed, the worst coming from a spoiled rotten rockstar.Feel free to wince - lots of people do.
But despite the bleak bedtime reading I get about the state of the worldfrom Jim Wolfensohn over there, I want to reassure you that what I've cometo say here is not all depressing. In fact, it's inspiring.
As I look at Jim Wolfensohn, I'd like to say what an extraordinaryman I think he is. And what an extraordinary idea HIPC was, the heavilyindebted poor countries (initiative) that he started, and what a great giftfor all these years of service, if he was allowed to finished what hestarted.
Because the thing that ought to be clear as we sit here tonight is not thatwe've beaten this disease, nor that we're even
close to beating it, but thatwe
can. But it doesn't stop there. We are the first generation that can endnot just AIDS, but
extreme poverty. By that I mean the kind of stupidpoverty that allows a child to die for want of food in its belly, or forwant of medication readily available over the counter in any other part ofthe world.
For the first time in history, we have the brains, we have the cash, we havethe drugs. Do we have the will.
Ja, ich bin ein Rockstar, but ich bin keine dreamer. I'm noPollyanna. I didn't come of age in the Sixties, with flowers in my hair; Igrew up in the depressed Dublin of the Seventies. I come from punk rock.
But in the face of a lot of evidence to the contrary, I think we have achance here - a historic opportunity. And I say that having seen what AIDS isdoing to Africa, to Africans. I've sat in meetings of South African AIDSactivists as they go through waiting-lists of their volunteers, deciding whoshould get the anti-retrovirals they have to give - who lives, who dies.The power no human should have.
Look around the room, imagine if that meeting was at your table. This is achoice that no-one should have to face.
But they do. Every day.
Fact is no-one really has to face that choice, or, they wouldn't if wedecided they didn't. If we looked at Africa, looked at ourselves, anddecided, enough! no more Africans are going to die for lack of drugs then we could pretty well end this thing. In our lifetimes. With time andmoney left over for putting men on Mars and rockstars in the South ofFrance.
Ok, yawn, rich rockstar asking for money again. Sorry. The outstretchedhand is unseemly in any time... I've seen a lot of them. And I understandthat at the moment many rich nations are having to tighten their own belts.Serious stuff. Hans Eichel works hard for Germany.
Gerhardt Schröder works hard for Germany. But 9,500 new infections and6,500 AIDS deaths every day, in Africa alone...?
This is when leadership really matters.
France has tripled its contribution to the Global Fund at the same time asbeing harangued by Brussels. Germany needs to do at least same, so does theUK.
We're pleading with the Americans to increase their contributions to theGlobal Health Fund, but on their bilateral AIDS initiative their figures arevery impressive. There's a man here tonight, Randall Tobias, who is workingall hours to put 150,000 Africans on ARVs by the end of the year. Randall,please help us with this generics problem, it's ridiculous and obscure thegreat work you are doing.
There are a lot of great people in the room. Richard Feachem who heads theGlobal Health Fund, Peter Piot from UNAIDS, Jack Chow from WHO theprofessionals. We amateurs depend on them.
Mr Schroeder, you're a capable man and I admire you. Your country has beenthrough many traumas, even recently. It's a country I love, full of smarthard working people (with impeccable taste in music).
Mr Schröder, I'm a rockstar -- it's my job to be a pain in your arse, butthis doesn't have to be painful. You started something great in Cologne in1999. Let's finish it. History will be a much bigger pain in the arse than Iever could be if we miss this opportunity.
For a half a percent of our GNP, that is half a percent of the wealth ofwealthy nations, we can stop the deaths of hundreds and thousands, indeedmillions, of people dying for the lack of drugs we take completely forgranted. Now a lot of you are business people: that's a hell of a return oninvestment, isn't it?
Up the road, the Swedes, the Danes, are going further than a half a percent to 0.7%. Indeed France, Spain, even little ole Ireland, have committed tojoining the Point Seven club. We need Germany to sign up for membership You're at .27 now.
Some say we can't afford to I say we can't afford not to. The war againstterror is bound up in the war against poverty. I didn't say that, ColinPowell said that, and when a military man says that military might alone isnot enough to win the war against terror, we should take notice. We knowthat poverty breeds despair; and despair breeds violence.
But in turbulent times it's cheaper, and smarter, to make friends out ofpotential enemies than to defend yourself against them. A better worldhappens to be a safer one as well. That's a pretty good bargain.
Almost 60 years ago, another continent was in danger of terminal declineourown. Europe. That we are standing here today is in part thanks to theMarshall Plan. The United States offered 1% of their GNP for four years.$100bn in today's money to rebuild our ruined continent. It was great forEurope, but it was also great for America. Brand USA never shined brighter.
No-one is saying that Africa is the same as post-war Europe. But we needthe same audacity, the imagination, and the all-out commitment of a modernMarshall Plan.
That was thinking big.
In the cold war, the Marshall Plan built a bulwark against sovietism; in thehot war, for half the cost, this generation can build a bulwark against theextremism of our age. It's worth remembering that every week religiousextremists take control of another African village. They are attempting tobring order to chaos, why aren't we?.
I haven't heard a better idea, and I don't think we've got a betteropportunity up ahead. Let's push our leaders to use their run-of-the-millIMF, World Bank, WTO meetings, G8 summits to put a plan in place. Let'sshow the world we are serious about this. These months ahead of us arefertile ground for changing these tense times, fertile ground for thisgeneration to prove its worth.
But we need you. Tonight we're here to recognize some of the great workbeing done to fight AIDS by the private sector. A 21st century Marshallplan couldn't be just governments. It would be governments and corporations...CEOs and NGOs... churches and students, activists -- and their mothers. Andthe countless Africans who already know how to get great results. TheMarshall Plan didn't impose American solutions, it provided the climate andthe leg-up for Europeans to do what they thought would work best.
But the Marshall Plan also offered expertise, technology, science. Thepeople in this room make medicines that save lives, and engines that cantransport medicines. This stuff is what we are good at --- what Germans inparticular are great at -- so why not show it off? We need the corporateworld.
A rock star is not supposed hang around men in suits, let alone wear one.But this rock star isn't afraid to admit he really needs you. Thank you forcoming.
We need you to help beat AIDS. We need you for your ingenuity, your energy,your expertise. We need you for your
influence. If money talks, this room islouder than any rock show I've been to.
We need you to show us what you can do.
Show us how you can make the drugs cheaper, high quality, and easier toadminister.
Show us the way to an AIDS vaccine.
Show us that if its possible to get a cold fizzy drink just about anywherein Africa, it's possible to do the same with medicines.
Show us what markets can do, by all means; but show us you know what markets
can't achieve.
I implore you ...Let's not miss the opportunity to be the generation that canput an end to extreme poverty.
We're the first generation that can. Because we can, we must.
One last thing. There's a song that I wrote here in Berlin 12 years agowhen the wall came down. It's a song I hold onto very tightly in tensetimes:
"Wir sin eins, aber wir sind nicht gleich... Geminsam koenen wire wielerreichen"
'We're one, but we're not the same... we get to carry each other.'
We come from different places, different countries, different professions.We do different work. But in the end, it can all add up or it can takeaway. To carry each other is not a burden at all but a kind of privilege.
Thanks for listening."
Bono was addressing the GLOBAL BUSINESS COUNCIL FOR HIV/AIDS AWARDS Dinner,in Berlin on April 21st.
More on the campaign to fight poverty in Africa here
www.data.orgPress photos here
gettyimages.comMore on the German campaign
'Gemeinsam für Afrika' ('Together ForAfrica') here
www.gemeinsam-fuer-afrika.de
