Posted on 05/15/2007 8:27:29 AM PDT by libertarianPA
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.
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.
Sorry, it's all tied up in of shore tax shelters.
No, wait, they don’t have as much money as they should because a self-righteous rock band named after a spy plane decided to move their business operations to the Netherlands to avoid taxes.
Interesting. Now what does Cher have to say?
Unless he’s found a magic wand to keep corrupt despots out of the funding loop, the money is going to be squandered anyway....
I’m not belittling his cause. I’m holding him accountable to the fact that he ALWAYS blames Euros and America for ignoring or “not doing enough” in Africa.
This man, in his ivory tower above the world of consequences, preaches that Africa is the way it is because the West refuses to give adequate financial support. Never once does he admit the true root of that continent’s woes. Even Bob Geldoff admitted that we can send all the money in the world to these places and it will do no good as long as these socialist warlord dictators are in charge.
No pun intended, but he’s been singing the same song for years and everytime he shows how clueless he is.
I
If he cares so much, why does he not live there?
The problem with Bono is that he is demanding that OUR government flush billions of OUR tax dollars (not his own personal funds, mind you) down the African toilet. If he were out there giving away 80 percent or more of his own fortune to his pet cause, then I would be more impressed. He’s not, so I’m not!
But his *trying to do good* includes demanding my government erase a debt off the books of another government, the money loaned being that of MY TAX DOLLARS. Bono's *doing good* has manifested itself in nothing more than governmental hand-outs to countries HE deems deserving and making politicians feel guilty that we should dare think it reasonable to believe a debt made is a debt owed. The poor, the hungry, the needy of these nations are not one bit better off by this ... he fails to understand, along with so many do-gooders, Christ's lesson of Give a man a fish/Teach a man to fish.
Hmmm...I thought that he was killed a few years back in an unfortunate skiing accident.
True. Someone needs to get in Bono’s face and explain to him that the “African” people (a misnomer since Africa is a continent), are not helpless children. They are adults and should be treated as such. They are not the “White Man’s Burden”. They are full human beings who must make their own way in life starting with casting off the evil governments and tribes who impede their progress.
That, and we should force him to take Econ 101 and 102 - the puppet is clueless. He is a charlatan, nothing more. He cares, but so does everybody. I don’t care about his feelings, I care about results. He doesn’t pay his share of taxes, but he wants your tax money.
How many years have religions and governments been pounding financial and personal aid into Africa? Many years with absolutely no result. Where are the people helped years ago, and why are they not helping those in need now. Why is there so much need now? Foolish waste of money.
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