Phew! The U2 360 Tour has been fun, exciting, and a ton of work. As you know I’ve been traveling with the tour from city to city signing up ONE Members, coordinating volunteers, sorting out logistics… and “Kissing the Future”.
After the tour’s launch in Barcelona, we headed to Milan, Italy where lots of volunteers turned out to help sign up concert-goers to become ONE Members. One really cool thing about the volunteers in Milan was that it really seemed to be a family affair, with parents showing up with kids in tow just to help out. It was great to see different generations coming together to work as ONE. Some of the youngsters were pretty shy at first, but I found the trick was to get them out of their parents’ shadows, and then they really started to get into the fun. As more and more concert-goers poured in, I found the inter-generational dynamic of the volunteers actually perfectly reflected the make-up of the crowd, with people of all ages coming to enjoy the music and—assuming we did our job right—learn a little about ONE.
After Milan we headed to Paris for a couple concerts at the Stade de France. Stade de France is that it’s not only the biggest stadiums I’ve ever been in, but one of the biggest structures I’ve ever stood in, period. It was absolutely huge. While an awesome sight, this also made coordinating ONE volunteers that much more difficult. Security was also an issue, not leaving us with much room to catch eager U2 fans as they made their way towards the stage. Fortunately on the second night we went TO the crowd waiting in lines outside the Stade and signed up hundreds of ONE Members.
From Paris we headed south to Nice, which ended up being a bit of a trick in terms of transporting all of our tabling kit. I ended up enlisting the aid of a crew of men in the middle of the night to help me push a cart of equipment back to my hotel, then hired a van with a faulty petro meter to drive down to Nice. But once I was there, it was amazing. Informally referred to as U2’s “second home town”, The crowd there really treated U2 as one of their own and the atmosphere was very warm, pun on the 34 C weather not intended. Just as the other stops along the tour, lots of music and lots of sign-ups.
From Nice we went to Berlin (which Carola was kind enough to write about here) and then to Amsterdam for another two concerts. There we set up kiosks inside the stadium as there was absolutely no space to set up our tents outside. Interestingly, the security there asked that we not sign people up to become “ONE Members” but asking that they sign a “petition” was perfectly okay. With a little finessing, everything worked out. I also followed the old rule “when in the Netherlands…” and hired a bicycle for my stay in Amsterdam. While I normally have to take taxis to freight my equipment from place to place, I managed to load most of it up my bike and cruise around on the beautiful bike path between my hotel and the stadium. It turned my otherwise stressful commute into a peaceful morning and evening ride.
All in all, a very successful tour so far, with over 16,000 sign ups by the end of Amsterdam. I’ll have more for you from on the road soon!
One of my favourite moments of the U2 360 show is Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s stirring speech about taking action together as ONE. The Archbishop is ONE’s international patron, and has more authority to talk about the power of collective action than just about anyone. It is humbling to hear him say that as we take action against extreme poverty we are proving ourselves to be the same people as those who have engaged in other great humanitarian movements, like the struggle to end apartheid which he championed.
I’m including a video here from the folks at U2.com, but really you have to be there to feel the impact. As a ONE campaigner it just floors you.
ONE members from all around the world submitted questions for the launch of ONE’s 2009 DATA Report today. These were voted on by members earlier this week to decide which would be posed to the panel this morning. The winning question came from ONE member Simon Sentamu in Tanzania who asked:
Why should we Africans expect Pres. Sarkorzy, Chancellor Merkel and PM Berlusconi to live up to their 2005 promises and Gleneagles commitments while many of our leaders are not living up to their promises to eliminate grand corruption nor are they meeting their commitments to the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM)?
And this morning in London, the DATA Report launch panel answered:
This Thursday, we’re releasing the 2009 DATA Report, our annual report on the G8’s delivery on their promises to Africa. At that launch the panelists will answer questions, including one submitted and voted on by ONE members, and Bob Geldof is here to explain why:
In just a short amount of time, ONE members all over the world sent in hundreds of thoughtful questions to be asked at the launch of our 2009 DATA Report. We narrowed down the options and picked out five of the most important questions, and now you get to have the final say on which question will be asked.
William Wallis’s lead article in the supplement makes a powerful case for G20 taking urgent action to provide the resources developing countries need to weather this downturn, saying:
“Today many of sub-Saharan Africa’s 47 states are seeing their incomes evaporate, leaving holes in national budgets and foreign reserves as wide as the pits from which their resources have been extracted.
Without urgent measures to limit the damage, fragile recent development gains could be swept away, conflicts will reignite and more states will fail, warns Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia’s prime minister, who is representing Africa at today’s summit of the Group of 20 nations in London.”
Today, ONE joined with 150 other organisations for the Put People First rally in London. I was down on the streets with the crowd of 35,000 calling on the G20 for fairness for the developing countries, and people around the world who have been adversely affected by the financial crisis.
The mood at the rally was jubilant. There were lots of families and even a makeshift marching band adding to the cheer. It was exciting to meet people brought together by so many different organisations, but sobering to remember why we were all there – the 53 million more people the World Bank estimates will slip into extreme poverty this year. Hopefully this rally, along with other efforts like our petition asking Obama to advocate for the needs of developing countries at the G20, will help.
At the IMF conference in Tanzania, Bob Geldof took a moment to share his thoughts on what he would like to see the upcoming G20 summit in London do for Africa.
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After Milan we headed to Paris for a couple concerts at the Stade de France. Stade de France is that it’s not only the biggest stadiums I’ve ever been in, but one of the biggest structures I’ve ever stood in, period. It was absolutely huge. While an awesome sight, this also made coordinating ONE volunteers that much more difficult. Security was also an issue, not leaving us with much room to catch eager U2 fans as they made their way towards the stage. Fortunately on the second night we went TO the crowd waiting in lines outside the Stade and signed up hundreds of ONE Members.
