18 May 2006
I’ve never been able to get U2 tickets back home. I’ve always wanted to get them, always meant to get on line early in the morning when they went on sale. But a combination of cheapness, laziness and bad luck has kept me from ever seeing them live.
It took moving to Kigali to get even close. Bono is here today, and one of the side benefits of being a journalist in a country like Rwanda – even when there I don’t have a story to do – is I get to go to the press conferences.
Bono – or Mr. Bono, as the Rwandan emcee called him – is here to launch the Red Campaign. Motorola, Giorgio Armani, the GAP, Converse, Nike, American Express and other companies are selling red products and a portion of the profits goes to fund the U.N.’s Global Fund Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Motorola is even doing something near and dear to my heart – they’re building their Red cell phones at factories in Nigeria. Ah, private business enterprises. Not only did it take me moving to Rwanda to come in close contact with Bono, it took me coming to Rwanda to become a free market capitalist. Anyway, Rwanda is the first country to benefit from the Red campaign. That makes sense, since unlike many African countries, when a country donates money to Rwanda, it can be confident that all the money will go where it is intended.
Mr. Bono is shorter than I thought. That’s one of those things I always notice, because I’m crazy. And he tried his best to say hello in Kinyarwanda. He got it right up to the last syllable. He said “Murahoo” rather than “Muraho”. At least he tried. That’s more than I can usually say.
I had a long list of questions I wanted to ask Bono. They weren’t softball questions; they were going to be tough ones. No, "What's your favorite song?" "When's the next record coming out?" kinds of things. Real questions. He was here touring AIDS clinics. Well, AIDS isn’t the biggest killer here – not like in other parts of this continent. Does the flow of money into AIDS keep other important development projects from receiving money they need? Bono talks about trade being key, but he means trade with the rest of the world. I don’t disagree. But African countries don’t trade with each other. In fact, they have ridiculous taxes on goods going from country to country. Does Bono think that trade will get Africa out of poverty if there is no inter-African trade?
But I had a violent case of the hiccups that lasted until now. So I didn’t want to embarrass myself. Plus, there were all these people from associations for people living with HIV/AIDS, and they wanted to ask questions of the big Irish pop star/activist. It felt wrong taking their time. I also wasn't able to get him onto my friend Sunny's radio show. Stupid hiccups.
The good thing about Bono is that he could’ve answered my questions intelligently, because he knows his stuff and is serious about it. He’s not some doofus celebrity spokesperson. He passionately talked about how the House of Representatives cut $2.5 billion from President Bush’s aid budget, after saying they wouldn’t. You could practically see him shaking with anger. You could also see that he knew the legislative process in the United States better than I did, which is kind of embarrassing. Get me the School House Rock videos fast. When someone asked about the dangers of foreign donors stopping money for anti-retroviral drugs that keep people alive – they pay for pretty much all of them in Africa – Bono simply said, “I think we have to be sanguine about that fact” and keep lobbying, and keep getting private companies involved in the process.
We’re not invited to the big Bono cocktail party and dinner tonight. That’s okay. I’m losing my voice. At least the hiccups are gone, after 10 hours.
I’ve never been able to get U2 tickets back home. I’ve always wanted to get them, always meant to get on line early in the morning when they went on sale. But a combination of cheapness, laziness and bad luck has kept me from ever seeing them live.
It took moving to Kigali to get even close. Bono is here today, and one of the side benefits of being a journalist in a country like Rwanda – even when there I don’t have a story to do – is I get to go to the press conferences.
Bono – or Mr. Bono, as the Rwandan emcee called him – is here to launch the Red Campaign. Motorola, Giorgio Armani, the GAP, Converse, Nike, American Express and other companies are selling red products and a portion of the profits goes to fund the U.N.’s Global Fund Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Motorola is even doing something near and dear to my heart – they’re building their Red cell phones at factories in Nigeria. Ah, private business enterprises. Not only did it take me moving to Rwanda to come in close contact with Bono, it took me coming to Rwanda to become a free market capitalist. Anyway, Rwanda is the first country to benefit from the Red campaign. That makes sense, since unlike many African countries, when a country donates money to Rwanda, it can be confident that all the money will go where it is intended.
Mr. Bono is shorter than I thought. That’s one of those things I always notice, because I’m crazy. And he tried his best to say hello in Kinyarwanda. He got it right up to the last syllable. He said “Murahoo” rather than “Muraho”. At least he tried. That’s more than I can usually say.
I had a long list of questions I wanted to ask Bono. They weren’t softball questions; they were going to be tough ones. No, "What's your favorite song?" "When's the next record coming out?" kinds of things. Real questions. He was here touring AIDS clinics. Well, AIDS isn’t the biggest killer here – not like in other parts of this continent. Does the flow of money into AIDS keep other important development projects from receiving money they need? Bono talks about trade being key, but he means trade with the rest of the world. I don’t disagree. But African countries don’t trade with each other. In fact, they have ridiculous taxes on goods going from country to country. Does Bono think that trade will get Africa out of poverty if there is no inter-African trade?
But I had a violent case of the hiccups that lasted until now. So I didn’t want to embarrass myself. Plus, there were all these people from associations for people living with HIV/AIDS, and they wanted to ask questions of the big Irish pop star/activist. It felt wrong taking their time. I also wasn't able to get him onto my friend Sunny's radio show. Stupid hiccups.
The good thing about Bono is that he could’ve answered my questions intelligently, because he knows his stuff and is serious about it. He’s not some doofus celebrity spokesperson. He passionately talked about how the House of Representatives cut $2.5 billion from President Bush’s aid budget, after saying they wouldn’t. You could practically see him shaking with anger. You could also see that he knew the legislative process in the United States better than I did, which is kind of embarrassing. Get me the School House Rock videos fast. When someone asked about the dangers of foreign donors stopping money for anti-retroviral drugs that keep people alive – they pay for pretty much all of them in Africa – Bono simply said, “I think we have to be sanguine about that fact” and keep lobbying, and keep getting private companies involved in the process.
We’re not invited to the big Bono cocktail party and dinner tonight. That’s okay. I’m losing my voice. At least the hiccups are gone, after 10 hours.
posted by Evan Weinberger at 7:23 AM
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