When Bono and Bob Geldof pushed for Live 8, I thought they made a big mistake by cosying up to leaders like Tony Blair, trying to persuade them to do the right thing. Instead, in my humble opinion, they should have used their huge influence to threaten political leaders. The modest undertakings that they did manage to get from the G8 meeting at Gleneagles back in 2005 have not been respected, in particular by Mr 3% Berlsuconi. Bono, writing in a Bob Geldof edited version of La Stampa writes about his connection with Italy, and its aid committments to the third world.
Fast forward to now and 34 million more children are going to school in Africa because people got out on the streets around the world. Three million people in Africa are on life-saving medication since the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria was created that year in Genoa. This is all good news.
But the good news makes the bad news worse. Overall, the fanfare and parade promises made by the G8 to the poorest of the poor have not been kept. What does it mean to break a promise to the most vulnerable?
At a fundamental level, it calls into question the moral underpinnings of the Judeo Christian? Enlightenment? value system of the West. On a practical level, it threatens to erode existing good will towards us based on past support we have shown. On a political level, it undermines the credibility of gatherings such as the G8, about to take place in L’Aquila.
The hosts, Italy, have fallen behind more than any of the other G8 countries, promising to increase aid to Africa, but the brutal fact is that this aid has been slashed. So we find ourselves here loving Italy as much as ever, but agitating once again. This agitation on the subject of extreme poverty comes mainly from mothers, school teachers, students, churchgoers. When it comes from spoiled rotten rich rock stars it gets more attention, but it’s much harder to take — particularly when those rock stars are Irish. We know that’s an absurdity. But so is a child dying of a tiny mosquito bite in the 21st century.
I remember Il Professori, Prime Minister Prodi, up all night at a G8 meeting, having to listen to Bob Geldof and myself berate him on Italian aid. His grace and patience and determination I can never forget.
And now, in recession and tough times, Mr Berlusconi has to listen to the same exhortation and exclamations as his G8 comes around. Who would want to be a politician in these times? Now more than ever we need leaders who have an ability to leap forward in time to a world differently envisioned, then spring back and make the changes required to realize it. What will we see of that this week, here in this dynamic country whose generosity of spirit infects everyone who visits?
He’s still playing the personality card - both his own, and that of the politicians he deals with. But the signs of indignation are there - and I for one think that a Bono pissed off with the powerful of this world, rather than one cosying up to the Blairs, Bushs, and Berlusconis (The ‘good’, the bad, and the downright ugly), will be far more useful. Instead of relying on Berlusconi’s moral character (you’ll be waiting some time), people, he would be better to speak out and support calls to boot Italy out of the G8 if it doesn’t keep its committments.
