WHAT DOES MUSICIAN AND ACTIVIST BONO SAY?

Written from his speech in 2005

Bono, the lead singer of U2, uses his celebrity to fight for social justice in Africa.

JOIN MY CALL TO ACTION TO AFRICA.

February 2005.

You must see this video after you finish reading this article.

TellMeWhy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzLZ32kZT5M

What really turns me on about technology is not just the ability to get more songs on MP-3 players; this revolution is much bigger than that. I hope, I believe. What turns me on about the digital age, what excites me personally is that you have closed the gap between dreaming and doing. See, it used to be that if you wanted to make a record of a song, you needed a studio and a producer. Now you need a laptop. If you wanted to make a film, you needed massive, massive equipment and a Holy Wood budget. Now, you need a camera that fits in your palm and a couple of bucks for a blank DVD.

Imagination has been de-coupled from the old constraints. That really, really excites me. I am excited when I glimpse that kind of thinking rip large. What I would like to see is idealism decoupled from old constraints, political, economic, psychological, whatever. The geopolitical world has a lot to learn from the digital world. From the ease with which you swept away obstacles that no one knew could even be budged.

First, I would like to explain why and how I got to this place. It is a journey that started 20 years ago. You may remember that song, "We are the world" or "Do they know it is Chrismas?", "Band-Aid", "Live aid". Another very tall, grizzled rock star, my friend Sir Bob Gedof, issued a challenge to feed the world. It was a great moment and it utterly changed my life.

That summer, my wife Ally and myself went to Ethiopia. We went on the quite to see for ourselves what was going on. We lived in Ethiopia for a month, working in an orphanage. The children had a name for me. They called me the "girl with a beard". Don't ask. Anyway, we found Africa to be a magical place. Big skies, big hearts, big shining continent, beautiful royal people. Anybody whoever gave anything to Africa, got a lot back. Ethiopia didn't just blow my mind, it opened my mind.

Anyway, on our last day at this orphanage, a man handed me his baby and said, "Would you take my son with you?" He knew in Ireland that his son would live and in Ethiopia his son would die. It was the middle of an awful famine. Well, I turned him down. It was a funny kind of sick feeling. But, I turned him down and it is a feeling I can never quite forget. And in that moment, I started this journey. In that moment, I became the worst thing of all. I became a "rock star with a cause", except this isn't a cause, is it?

6,500 Africans dying every single day from AIDS, a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can get in any pharmacy. That is not a "Cause", is it? That is and "Emergency". 11 million AID orphans in Africa, 20 million by the end of the decade. That is not a "Cause", that is an "Emergency". Today, everyday, 9,000 Africans will catch HIV because of stigmatization and lack of education. That is not a "Cause", that is an "Emergency".

So, what we are talking about here is Human Rights. The right to live like a human. The right to live, Period! What we are facing in Africa is an unprecedented threat to Human Dignity and Equality.

The next thing I would like to be clear about is what this problem is and what this problem isn't. Because, this is not all about charity. This is about justice. Really. This is not about charity. This is about justice. That is right. That is too bad, because we are very good about charity. Americans, like the Irish are good at it. Even the poorest neighborhoods give more than they could afford. We like to give and we give a lot. Look at the response to the Tsunami. It is inspiring.

But, justice is a tougher standard than charity. You see, Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice. It makes a farce of our idea of equality, it mocks our pieties, ducks our concern. It questions our commitments. Because, there is no way we can look at what is happening in Africa and, if we are honest, conclude that it will ever be allowed to happen anywhere else. Not here, not in America, not in Europe.

In fact, a head of state you are all familiar with, admitted this to me. It is really true. There is no chance that this kind of hemorrhaging of human life would be accepted anywhere else, other than Africa. Africa is a continent in flames. And deep down, if we accept it that Africans are equal to us, we would all do more to stump the fire out. We are standing around with watering hose. And what we really need is the fire brigade.

You see, it is not as dramatic as the Tsunami. It is crazy really, if you stop and think about it. It has to be like an action movie these days, to exist in front of our brain. The slow extinguishing of countless lives is not as dramatic enough, it would appear. Catastrophes that we can avert are not as interesting as ones we could avert. Funny that. Anyway, I believe that that kind of thinking offends the intellectual rigor in this room.

6,500 people dying every day may be Africa's crisis. But the fact is in the last 19 years, we in Europe and you in America are not treating it like an emergency. I want to argue with you tonight, that that is our crisis. I want to argue that, though Africa is not the front line in the war against terror, it could be soon. Every week, religious extremists take another African village, they are attempting to bring order to chaos. Well, why aren't we? Poverty breeds despair, we know this. Despair breeds violence, we know this. In turbulent times, isn't it cheaper and smarter to make friends out of potential enemies than to defend yourself against them later. The war against terror is bound up in the war against poverty. And I didn't say that, Colin Powell said that. Now, when the military are telling us that this is a war that cannot be won by military might alone, may be we should listen. There is an opportunity here and it is real. It is not a spin, it is not wishful thinking. The problem facing the developing world afford us in the developed world, a chance to re-describe ourselves to the world. We will not only transform other lives, but we will also transform the way those other lives see us. And that might be smart in these nervous dangerous times.

Don't you think, on a purely commercial level, that anti-retroviral drugs are advertisements for Western ingenuity? Doesn't compassion look well on us? Let us cut the crap for a second. In certain corners of the world, brand Europe, brand USA is not at its shiniest. The neon sign is fizzling and crackling. Some one has put a brick through the window. The regional branch managers are getting nervous. Never before have we in the West been so scrutinized. Our values, if we have any, our credibility, these things are under attack around the world. Brand USA could use some polishing. I say that as a fan, you know, as a person who buys the products. But, think about it. More anti-retroviral could make sense. That is just the easy part or ought to be.

Equality for Africa. That is a big, expensive idea. You see, the scale of the suffering mums us into a kind of indifference. What on earth can we all do about this? Well, much more than we think. We can't fix every problem. But, the ones we can, I want to argue, we must. And because we can, we must. This is the straight truth, the righteous truth. It is not a theory. The fact is, ours is the first generation that can look disease and extreme poverty in the eye, look across the ocean to Africa and say this and mean it. We do not have to stand for this. A whole continent written off, we do not have to stand for this.

So, let me say this without a trace of irony, before I back it up to a bunch of Ex-Hippies. Forget the 60s. We can change the world. I can't, you can't, as individuals. But, we can change the world. I really believe that the people in this room, look at the Gates Foundation, they have done incredible stuff, unbelievable stuff. But, working together, we can actually change the world. We can turn the inevitable outcomes and transform the quality of life for millions of lives, who look and fell rather like us when you look up close.

I am sorry to laugh here, but you do look so different than you did in Haight- Ashbury in the 60s. But, I want to argue that this is the moment that you were designed for. It is the flowering of the seeds you planted in earlier headier days. Ideas that you gestated in your youth. This is what excites me. This room was born for this moment, is really what I wanted to say to you tonight. Most of you started off to change the world didn't you? Most of you did, the digital world. Well now, actually because of you, it is possible to change the physical world. It is a fact. Economist confirm it. They know more than I do.

So, why then are we not pumping our fists in to the air? Probably because, when we admit we can do some thing about, we've got to do something about it.

This equality business, actually, is a pain in the ass. But for the first time in history, we have the technology, we have the know-how, we have the cash. We have the life saving drugs. Do we have the will?

I hope this is obvious. But, I am not a Hippie. I am not really one for the warm fuzzy feeling. I do not have flares in my hair. Actually, I come from punk rock and the clash of big army boots not sandals. But, I know toughness when I see it. All the talk of peace and love on the West Coast, there was muscle to the movement that started out here. You see, idealism detached from action is just a dream. But, idealism allied with pragmatism, with rolling of your sleeves and making the world bend a bit, is very exciting. It is very real, it is very strong and it is very present in a crowd like you.

Last year at Dayton, this organization I helped set up, we launched a campaign to summon this spirit in the fight against AIDS and extreme poverty, and we are calling it the "One Campaign". It is based on our belief that the action of one person can change a lot. But, the actions of many coming together as one, can change the world.

Well, we feel that now is the time to prove we are right. There are moments in history when civilization redefines itself. We believe this is one. We believe that this could be the time when the world finally decides that the wanton loss of life in Africa is just no longer acceptable. This could be the time that we finally get serious about changing the future for most people who live on planet earth.

Momentum has been building. Lurching a little. But, it is building. This year is a test for us all, especially the leaders of the G-8 nations, who really are on the line here, with all the world and history watching. I have been of late, disappointed with the Bush administration. They started out with such promise on Africa. They made some really great promises and actually have fulfilled a lot of them. But, some of them they haven't. They don't fit their foot on the ground when they push is the truth. But, my disappointment has much more perspective when I talk to American people and I hear their worries about the deficit and the fiscal well-being of their country. I understand that. But, there is much more push from the ground than you would think, if we got organized.

What I try to communicate, and you can help me if you agree, is that aid for Africa is just great value for money, at a time when America really needs it. Putting it in the crassest possible terms, the investment rips huge returns, not only in lives saved, but also in good will, stability and security that we will gain. So this is what I hope that you do, if I could be so bold and not have it deducted from my number of wishes.

What I hope is that, beyond individual merciful acts, you will tell the politicians to do right by Africa, by America and by the world. Give them permission, if you like, to spend their political capital and your financial capital, your national purse, on saving the lives of millions of people. That is really what I like you to do. Because, we also need your intellectual capital, your ideas, your skills, your ingenuity and you at this conference are in a unique position. Some of the technology we have been talking about, you invented them or at least revolutionized the way that they are used. Together you have changed the Zing guys from analog to digital and pushed the boundaries, and we like you to give us that energy, give us that kind of dreaming, that kind of doing. As I said, two things are on the line here. There is a continent, Africa. But, there is also a sense of ourselves.

People are starting to figure this out. Movements are spreading up. Politicians, pop starts, priests, CEOs, NGOs, models unions, student unions. A lot of people are working together under this umbrella I told you about, the "One Campaign". I think they just have one idea in their mind which is, where you live in the world should not determine whether you live in the world. History, like God, is watching what we do. When the history books get written, I think our age will be remembered for three things. The digital revolution, yes. The war against terror, yes. And what we did or did not do to put out the fires in Africa. Some say we can't afford to. I say we can't afford not to. Thank you.

OK, my three wishes:

You see, if this is true and I believe it is, that the digital world that you all created has uncoupled the creative imagination from the physical constraints of matter, this should be a piece of piss. I should add that this started as a much longer list of wishes. Most of them impossible, some of them impractical and one or two of them certainly immoral. This business can get to be addictive, you know, when some body else has to pick up the tab. Anyway, here is number one.

I wish for you to help build a social movement of more than one million American activists for Africa. I believe it is possible. From Holy Wood to the heart lands of America, we know there is more than enough energy to power this movement. We want all of you here, Church America, Corporate America, Microsoft America, Apple America, Coke America, Pepsi America, Nerd America, Noisy America. We can't afford to be cool and sit this one out. I do believe that if we build a movement that is one million Americans strong, we are not going to be denied. We will have the ear of congress. We will be the first page on Condi Rice's briefing book and right into the Oval Office. If there are one million Americans who are ready to make phone calls, ready to be on e-mail, I am absolutely sure that we can actually change the course of history literally, for the continent of Africa.

My second wish:

I would like one media hit for every person on the planet who is living on less than a dollar a day. That is one billion media hits! Could be on Google, could be on AOL, could be NBC, could be ABC. We need some air time for our ideas. We need to get the statistics out to the American people. I really believe that old Truman line, "if you give the American people the facts, they will do the right thing". This has to be described as an adventure not a burden. Please visit www.ONE.ORG and help us.

My third wish:

I wish for TED to truly show the power of information. It's power to rewrite rules and transform lives by connecting every hospital, health clinic and every school in one African country and I would like it to be in Ethiopia. I believe we can connect every school in Ethiopia, every health clinic, every hospital. We can connect to the internet. That is my wish. I think it is possible. I think we have the money and brains to do that. And that would be a mind blowing wish to come true. I have been to Ethiopia, as I said earlier. It is actually where it all started for me.

The idea that the internet which changed all our lives, can transform a country and a continent that has partly made it to analog let alone digital blows my mind.

But it didn't start out that way. The first long distance line from Boston to New York was used in 1885, on the phone. It was just nine years later that Addis Ababa was connected by phone to Harare, which is 500km away. Since then, not that much has changed. The average waiting time to get a land line in Ethiopia is actually, about seven or eight years. Wireless technology wasn't dreamt up then.

Anyways, you know I am Irish and I know how important talking is. Communication is very important for Ethiopia. We will transform the country. Nurses getting better training, pharmacist able to order supplies, doctors sharing their expertise in all aspects of medicine. It is a very, very good idea to get them wired. That is my third and final wish for you at the TED Conference.

Thank you very much.

To help with this wish please contact – tedprize@ted.com

Subject: Join me in fighting poverty!

Hi,

I've just signed the ONE Declaration committing myself to help fight the emergency of global AIDS and extreme poverty.

I'm asking you to make that commitment, too, by adding your voice.

I think your name belongs on that declaration, too. You can put it there by visiting:

http://www.one.org/declare/

ONE is a new effort by Americans to rally Americans - one by one. So far, over two million have signed the declaration in support of a historic pact for compassion and justice to help the poorest people of the world.

Together as ONE we can make a difference!

Thanks!

TELL ME WHY:

TellMeWhy.wmv (video/x-ms-wmv)

IN MY DREAM, CHILLS OF SIN

A SONG OF LOVE FOR EVERY BOY AND GIRL

THE SKY IS BLUE, THE FIELDS ARE GREEN

AND LAUGHTER IS THE LANGUAGE OF THE WORLD

THEN I WAKE IN DAWN I SEE

IS A WORLD FULL OF PEOPLE IN NEED

TELL ME WHY?

DOES IT HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS

TELL ME WHY?

IS THERE SOMETHING I HAVE MISSED?

TELL ME WHY?

I DON'T UNDERSTAND

WHEN SO MANY NEED SOMEBODY

WE DON'T GIVE A HELPING HAND

TELL ME WHY?

EVERY DAY I ASK MYSELF

WHAT WILL I HAVE TO DO TO BE A MAN?

DO I HAVE TO STAND AND FIGHT

TO PROVE TO EVERY BODY WHO I AM?

IS IT WORTH MY LIFE TO FALL

TO WASTE IN A WORLD FULL OF WAR?

TELL ME WHY?

DOES IT HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS

TELL ME WHY?

IS THERE SOMETHING I HAVE MISSED?

TELL ME WHY?

I DON'T UNDERSTAND

WHEN SO MANY NEEDS SOMEBODY

WE DON'T GIVE A HELPING HAND

TELL ME WHY? X 3

JUST TELL ME WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY?

WHY, WHY, WE DON'T CELEBRATE?

SOME ONE TELL US WHAT THE CHALLENGES WOULD BE

* Bono's wishes

Bono

WISH ONE: I wish for you to help build a social movement of more than 1 MILLION American activists for Africa.

Goal:

* Empower Americans to fight stupid, crushing poverty in Africa and AIDS by making a big noise.

Actions Taken:

* Rights to the URL www.ONE.org secured and delivered by the Jane Addams Hull House.
* Sun builds cool SMS technology that allows instant sign-ups at U2 concerts; a team from Sun travels with the U2 tour to run it.
* Multi-company team of Sun, Macromedia, Microsoft and Tribe, redesigns the www.ONE.org website.
* Anonymous TEDster commits $10M over five years to Bono's team.

Result:
1.4M signups ahead of G8 summit where major debt cancellation/AID package agreed. www.ONE.org signups subsequently exceed 2M.

WISH TWO: I wish to tell people ONE BILLION times about ONE, with as much of this as possible before the G8 Africa Summit in July 2005.

Goal:

* ONE billion media impressions for the mass-market campaign to tell everyone in the US about www.ONE.org and the global fight against poverty.

Actions Taken:

* John Kamen, of @radicalmedia, creates ONE film which plays all over TV networks and the Internet
* Google contribute adwords
* Jay Amato and Viewpoint negotiate 1.5 BILLION online ads with help from 24/7 Real Media, About.com, Accuweather, ad pepper, AOL, Boston.com, Burst Media, CBS, UPN and CBSNews, Ebay, Gamespot, iVillage, MaxOnline, Monster.com, MSN, MSNBC, NowPublic, Right Media, UGO, ValueClick, VIEWPOINT Search, Whitepages.com

Results:
Exceeded 1 BILLION impressions target before the G8 summit. Total impressions granted eventually exceeded 2 billion.

WISH THREE: I wish for you to show the power of information -- its power to rewrite the rules and to transform lives -- by connecting every hospital, health clinic, and school in one African country, Ethiopia, to the Internet.

Goal:

* Track and improve public health with information technology; expand the resources available to local schools

Actions Taken:

* Sun, AMD, HP, Cisco, and TEDsters Taylor Milsal and Joseph Mouzon meet with DATA for a half-day brainstorm.
* NYC meeting with Jeffrey Sachs' Earth Institute team from Columbia.
* TED delegation are hosted in Addis Ababa by Tom Darden's Cherokee House.
* TED delegation visits schools, clinics, and meets with government: Ministry of Health, Ministry of Information, Ministry of Building Capacity, The World Bank, State Department, Ethiopian Telecommunications, local NGOs.
* Big problems are encountered: Pushback from teachers and doctors, government telecoms monopoly and erupting political violence.

Results:
After in-depth research, TED reports back to Bono ... this is NOT the best way for TED to help in Africa. Instead, TED decides to connect the community to remarkable people, projects, businesses in Africa and announces TED Global in Tanzania, June 2007.