I was joking around with my mother back in December that she may want to get in touch with Bono and Peter Gabriel to organize a "Africa's response to Live 8" concert. The premise of the event would be to have the best artists from all over Africa mingled with a few of the live 8 participants in a one day concert in Addis-Ababa. The concert would emphasize the fact that not only Africa is not ungrateful for the global effort initiated by many but also that Africa is able to get things done to help herself in eradicating Malaria, AIDS and extreme poverty.
Although the idea was appealing to me, I was mainly just kidding around. My mother replied to my idea,deadpanned, that I should give her a list of "must have"African artists to and people to contact in order to make it possible. In other words, "son, either you think practically about making things happen and I may help you or you quit wasting my time with your daydreaming ..." Ouch, reality is painful... :) ( my putative list is comprised so far of Eric Manana, Extra-Musica, Ladysmith black Mambazo and Youssou N'dour.... :( Oh well, it's not happening anyway....)
I am rambling about this because Bono is now touring 4 African nations to keep the "one campaign" going. In his latest stop in Tanzania, he explains that he is encouraged that a local factory has taken on locally mass-producing mosquito nets treated with insecticide to prevent malaria spreading. Here is a funny quote of Bono on world economics: " There are two things coming together here for me that are giant ideas," he says. "One is the end of malaria is within sight, and the second thing you're seeing is Africa responding to China in the apparel sector."You're seeing the beginning of a fight-back against Chinese domination in the apparel sector and funny enough as a result of scaling up to fight malaria that this has become possible."
Hummm, love you and love the idea, Bono but I still think you should let the experts on world economy handle this one.
The other news is that Brian Williams NBC nightly news will broadcast Bono live from Tanzania tonight to further expose the fight against AIDS and poverty. It sometimes seems like Bono is pushing the issue down our throats, however I'd rather have it this way that watching the news debating over whether sporting events are fixed or not (football scandal in Italy or NBA play-offs). It's just a tad more relevant , don't you think ? ;)
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that's a pretty cool idea you have.
ReplyDelete--RC of strangeculture.blogspot.com