Bono Receives “Man of Peace” Award
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U2 lead singer and ONE cofounder Bono was presented with the Nobel laureates “Man of Peace” award on December 12 for his activism in the fight against extreme poverty. He received the award in Paris during the 9th Annual Summit of Nobel Peace Prize winners.
Italian left-wing leader Walter Veltroni, who co-hosted the event, said, “[Bono] has put pressure on the world’s governments to reach the UN’s Millennium Goals. To give him the prize, is to say that fight will carry on.”
Mikhail Gorbachev spearheaded the creation of the award, and this year’s event was attended by many Nobel Peace Laureates including Northern Irish politician John Hume and former South African President FW De Klerk.
As part of the ceremony the Nobel Laureates and Bono issued a call for the liberation of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winning Burmese politician who is under house arrest.
“I am an over-awarded, over-rewarded rock star. You are the people who do the real work … So I am very, very pleased to be in such esteemed company,” Bono said at the event.
-Jessica Gomez-Duran
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December 16, 2008 at 8:35 am
THANK YOU, ONE, for posting this info in the Blog - I was hoping that you would recognize this very auspicious award to the co-founder of ONE.
I was ECSTATIC when I first heard this news a week ago because I immediately understood the symbolic importance of it. This award is as close to a Nobel Peace Prize as a person can come and anyone who knows the significance of the Nobel Peace Prize knows that with the award comes international prestige and renewed interest in the organizations and “causes” that the awardee is involved with.
For Bono, that “cause” involves the fulfillment of the MDG’s and the elimination of AIDS & extreme poverty in our world.
Thus, with Bono receiving the “Man of Peace” award from these Nobel Peace Prize winners, our movement would receive an always welcomed boost in the international arena.
That is why I was, and still am, overjoyed at this award for Bono.
And from his response, it appears that Bono understood the significance of this award to him too.
CONGRATULATIONS, B0N0 - you truly have become a “man of peace”.~
ONE HEART, ONE HOPE, ONE VOICE, ONE LOVE - debbie
http://www.mpwn-uganda.org