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Bono’s Latest NYT Piece Covers Some Notable History
ONE co-founder Bono is a contributing columnist for the New York Times and his latest column appears today.
Written as a screenplay that spans 20 years, the piece focuses on both the artistic process and some important work in Germany during the 2007 G8 summit. Below is an excerpt from a scene at the 2007 G8 in which Bono, Bob Geldof, Youssou N’Dour and ONE’s policy team speak with Chancellor Angela Merkel about Germany fulfilling its aid commitments. You can read the full piece here.
The atmosphere is tense. The activists are not getting what they want. The leaders are not getting what they want, either, which is to be left alone by the activists, including the Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour, Bono and another grizzled Irish rocker, BOB GELDOF, and their policy team from ONE. The organization took its name from the song — over the protests of the songwriter, who felt that if history eventually repeats itself as farce, then irony, the next time around, sounds annoyingly earnest.
BOB (whose humor and intellect more than excuse the percussive expletives that pepper even the most formal meetings) Chancellor, what Germany has done is awe-inspiring. You’ve spent most of the last 20 years spending something like 4 percent of your G.D.P. on reunification … and yet you’re still willing to commit 0.7 percent of G.D.P. to global economic development. The lives of people you will never know or meet will be owed to this decision…. The 2008 budget backs that up, but the rest of the world will need to see ’09 to know you’re serious.
BONO (interrupting) Trajectory is everything. If the ‘09 is like ‘08, Germany will show the rest of the G-8 that they have to put money on the table as well as words.
MERKEL (who has met these men before and appeared to enjoy the encounters, but today is running out of patience with anyone who threatens to rain on her G-8 parade) I’m not prepared to commit beyond 2008. We will of course do our best.
BONO (at his least appealing) Let me just say, Madam Chancellor, that, like Bob, I’m intoxicated by the new Germany. Fifty thousand turned up today to stand in solidarity with the world’s poor. You yourself are so committed…the government…the coalition. And we absolutely take you at your word, but if the others don’t come through … well, you know nothing creates cynics faster than when leaders accept applause for commitments they then fail to meet. It’s one thing to break a promise to yourself or to your own electorate, but to break a promise to the most vulnerable people on the planet is profane.
MERKEL (in a quiet, calm voice) My father taught me a very important lesson when I was a girl growing up in East Germany. He said, “Always be more than you appear and never appear to be more than you are.”
Article ONE: How did we do?
Following the German elections in September, the new government in Berlin is now formed of 3 parties – the CDU, the CSU and the FDP. In order for them to be able to work productively during their 4 year term they have agreed on a coalition treaty, which points the way for the for the future political direction of the German government.
As the goal of our ‘Article ONE’ campaign was to influence the content of the coalition treaty, we’ve picked apart the Article ONE and the treaty to see how we did.
Article ONE: “The German government has the duty to act decisively against extreme poverty….”
The coalition treaty speaks of values and interests in development politics. There is also an important reference, containing the commitment to fight extreme poverty, to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Article ONE: “…The successes of the past years show that there is a way out of poverty….”
There is no reference to development successes of recent years in the coalition treaty.
Article ONE: “…Germany keeps its promise to Africa and will allocate 0,51% in 2010 and 0,7% of its gross national income no later than 2015 for development assistance….”
The international commitments to finance development are enforced in the treaty. However, whilst the 0.7% goal is named, concrete timing is not. However by referring to “international commitments” the treaty implies that this goal – through an intermediate goal of 0.51% ODA/GNI by 2010 – shall be reached by 2015. The CDU/CSU’s “Government Program 2009 to 2013” contains similar wording. ONE asked the Secretary Generals of the CDU and CSU to clarify this wording and they confirmed that the above interpretation is accurate. ONE therefore assumes the meaning is the same in the coalition treaty. There is, however, a reservation clause on the budget of which the exact relevance and meaning remain unclear to us.
The coalition treaty ensures a “design of development assistance tailored to the need at hand in the areas of biodiversity as well as the fight against climate change and hunger”. This will make substantial Overseas Development Aid (ODA) increases necessary.
Article ONE: “…Ownership as well as transparent and coordinated aid is key to highly effective development assistance….”
Strengthening the individual responsibility of the developing countries is named as a central element and the importance of coordination on a national as well as an international level is picked up broadly in the treaty. There is a strong emphasis on streamlining and co-ordinating donors’ assistance (as called for in the Paris Declaration on the effectiveness of development aid) but there is no explicit reference to the importance of transparency. The increase in efficiency and effectiveness is mentioned several times.
Article ONE: “…The efforts need to be focused on the MDGs….”
The MDGs are seen as central goal of development politics.
Article ONE: “…Thus the German government extends its engagement in the sectors health, agriculture, education and infrastructure….”
The key sectors named in the Article ONE are also named by the next government as key in development politics.
Article ONE: “…In addition, Germany supports a trade initiative for Africa…”
A trade initiative for Africa is not explicitly supported. However, several key elements to fairer trade with Africa are named.
Article ONE: “… and a fair debt process for countries that are threatened by unsustainable debt.”
The coalition treaty contains this Article ONE demand.
So as you can see: overall we didn’t do badly. Thanks to the support of thousands of ONE members we got several of our asks into the directive for the new German government. Now the real work begins: to see those directives turned into action!
New video: Be ONE of us!
What is ONE? What would you say if you had to explain it to your neighbour? We often say ONE is an advocacy group. We say ONE is lobbying politicians to fight poverty and preventable disease. And we often say ONE is a about a spirit of being a community of people around the world who strongly believe that where you live should not determine if you live.
All right. A long explanation. And not very visual. The team of ONE Germany tried to tell about the strong community that ONE can be – a community of left and right, student and manager, housewife and movie star. With a video spot.
The story: A man and a woman are talking in a restaurant. He talks about Africa, bragging a bit about what he knows about achievements and success stories by the poorest countries. But he can’t really tell what he wants to. The lady at his table seems to know everybody in the room and they keep being interrupted. By the waiter, the newspaper man and also by really famous actors and singers including Bono, Benno Fuermann, Michael Mittermeier, Katja Riemann, Jan Josef Liefers, Rea Garvey, Minh-Khai Phan-Thi, Cherno Jobatey, Jana Pallaske. At the end she asks him: Ok, and what are YOU actually doing about Africa?
And there it is: what ONE is about. Anybody can join to encourage policy makers around the world for more and better efforts in the fight against extreme poverty.
We shot this spot in just ONE day with such tremendous help from so many people – it is hard to thank them adequately. They contributed their skills and work just to help ONE: the extras, the technical crew, the production, Anne von Keller and Philip Mauritz who are starring in the spot, our director Benjamin Quabeck, Bono and as much as 8 famous German artists. We probably had the most impressive cast of all film productions in Germany this year!
A great thank you should also go to the movie theatre group CineStar. Thanks to their support we will be able to show the spot on 437 screens across Germany. A great thanks to MTV which will also screen our spot and to the social network studiVZ/meinVZ for their continued support.
All of this comes at a crucial point in time: the parties CDU/CSU and FDP won the German elections and currently are negotiating their common policies in a government coalition. With the support from more and more Germans who support ONE we might be able to convince them to make the fight against poverty a strong part of German politics for the next four years. More and more people will join. Be ONE of us.
Germany voted
…but what do we expect to see from Germany’s development policies over the next 4 years?
School children in Tanzania write messages for the new German government.
The general elections in Germany on September 27 resulted in heavy losses for the Social Democrats (SPD). The market liberal Free Democrats (FDP) gained the most and will now form a coalition government with Chancellor Merkel´s Christian Democrats (CDU), which lost some voter confidence but remains by far the biggest party.
The coalition negotiations of FDP and CDU/CSU started on October 5 and are still ongoing. They will result in an agreement on ministerial appointments, as well as an agreement about the general framework of the new government policies for the next 4 years. The coalition contract will probably be signed in late October or early November. FDP leader Guido Westerwelle will possibly become foreign minister and vice chancellor and Angela Merkel will remain Chancellor.
The ONE team in Germany has launched various actions to support advocacy and awareness-raising in this critical phase while the new government team is straightening out their course for the coming years.
One example of this is ‘The Article ONE’ - a summary of our demands for the next German government that was presented by Bob Geldof and others to the media earlier this year. It alludes to the first article of the German constitution which compels any form of public authority to focus on human dignity. So far, the Article ONE has been signed by several thousand ONE supporters, many high profile personalities, and by more than 110 current members of parliament from all parties.
The Article ONE petition will soon be handed over, together with handkerchiefs carrying messages from our recent trip to Tanzania. This will mark the end of ONE’s Germany election campaign – but certainly not the end of our activities. Our advocacy work with Germany’s new government will just be beginning!
Where’s Africa?
Earlier this month Angela Merkel and Frank-Walter Steinmeier (the 2 main contenders in the upcoming German election) went head to head in a debate on German television. The debate was hosted by 4 presenters from 4 different TV stations, which all broadcast the debate simultaneously. Observers were hoping for a substantial political debate that would highlight their different political positions and what they would do differently. Unfortunately, however, it ended up being broadly perceived as a duet rather than a duel, and it was particularly disappointing that there were no questions during the debate relating to Africa and the future development policies of both candidates.
In the run up to the debate, ONE, together with the German anti-poverty campaign “Deine Stimme gegen Armut” and the UN Millennium Campaign, initiated the “Chancellor Question”. In a joint effort, we asked the TV hosts to question the candidates about Africa and the fight against extreme poverty.
Almost 7000 people signed the online petition, which was brilliant but unfortunately, it was not enough. The economic crisis dominated the debate and neither Africa nor development policy was mentioned. In fact international issues more generally only played a small role in the debate, when the candidates argued about Afghanistan and international financial regulation. It was interesting to note that other very important issues such as family, education and climate change were also not discussed.
Nevertheless, we are very happy about the remarkable number of people who signed the online petition; we had hoped to get 5000 supporters and so it was great that so many people signed up. We’re now entering the final phase of the electoral campaign and will continue to push awareness on keeping the promises made for the people living in extreme poverty.
Thank you for your support!
Germany has the choice. But it doesn’t feel that way.
The situation is a bit odd. The world’s third largest economy will have national elections in less than a week’s time. More than 62 million men and women eligible to vote can set the country’s course for the next four years. But the country hasn’t seen much of a campaign. No ferocious fighting over tough issues. Even the media seem to be somewhat halfhearted when covering the candidates and their positions. Germany’s national election campaign 2009 is boring.
Why? The current government lead by Angela Merkel rests on a majority of Germany’s two major parties: CDU and SPD. Ms. Merkel’s principal contender is vice-Chancellor and Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. When the world financial crisis hit at the end of last year both parties declared that the German people expected crisis management. Not mudslinging about the upcoming elections. And they were probably right. So the crisis forced the two ruling parties into a discipline at work. During the very last weeks before Election Day we could watch a bit more efforts by both sides to explain the political differences between the two. But nevertheless – the key political decisions of the last four years were made by the two large parties together. A government running against itself… how exciting is that?
So everyone in Germany is watching the polls to have a notion of what will happen in this country after September 27. And from the arithmetic of Germany’s five parties which are likely to make it into the next Bundestag the most likely alternatives are a continuation of the current coalition of SPD and CDU lead by Ms Merkel or a coalition of CDU and the more market liberal FDP. And then again – you never know: It is still possible that Mr. Steinmeier will become chancellor of a coalition made up by SPD, FDP and Green party.
What does this mean for Germany’s role in the global fight against poverty? Most parties are quite close in their positions on development as ONE found out in a questionnaire it sent out to the most important candidates. Even Ms Merkel was quite outspoken about Germany’s responsibility to keep the aid promise – but became clearly less forthright during the recent months when the burdens of the financial crisis became more and more evident. Now there is a clear danger that political decision makers overlook the necessity and potential for economic recovery which lies in development of the poorest countries. This is why we need to act.
During the last months ONE has been mobilizing thousands of voices – famous and non-famous – across the country to sign the Article ONE. The Article ONE is an abbreviated version of our demands for Germany’s policy during the next four years. As soon as the ballot is cast and the protagonists of the next four years begin to shake out we will confront them with all the impressive names which support the Article ONE. We will even go on a trip to Tanzania with well known German artists to gather stories from first hand that aid is working. The poorest people of the planet do not deserve that the promises given to them can be reneged because too many billions were given to bankrupt banks. We are ready to go. The weeks after the elections will not be boring at all.
-Carola Bieniek
We’ve got ONE question
The German elections are looming closer and it seems like the electoral campaign is finally gaining momentum.
September 13 is going to be particularly decisive in the run up to the elections, since this is the day of the one and only TV debate between the top candidates. Chancellor Angela Merkel from the Christian Democrats (CDU) and her Social Democratic (SPD) rival Frank-Walter Steinmeier will share their policies and challenge each other in front of millions of viewers. We know that there are lots of pressing issues on the agenda, but nevertheless we’ve got ONE very specific question for them: How are you going to fight extreme poverty?
In order to make sure that this crucial issue is being addressed, the German ONE team is running a campaign together with the UN Millennium Campaign and Deine Stimme gegen Armut, the German chapter of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty. In the campaign we are asking the presenters to include one question on development policy during the TV debate. Over 3,000 people have already signed the petition but there’s still time left to sign up, so please tell your friends in Germany to participate and ask for this ONE very important question.
Volunteering with ONE – at U2’s Show in Gelsenkirchen
On August 3rd U2 played their second and last show for Germany in Gelsenkirchen. As in Berlin, ONE staff and volunteers were at the show in Gelsenkirchen to sign up new ONE members. ONE volunteer Leonie describes her experiences during the exhausting yet fulfilling day.
The sun is shining so things look promising! Everything is explained and soon enough, me and the other volunteers from all across Germany are ready to hit the crowd. There’s a huge queue of people all waiting in line for the doors to open, and they seem keen to join ONE.
Later that afternoon it’s my turn to photograph as many people as possible as they demonstrate their creative take on kissing the future. This job is really fun!
As we hear Snow Patrol perform their last song we hurry to take down our stand in time. Everything needs to be packed into the truck again, so it can hit the road for Chorzow, the next stop on the U2 tour, right after the show.
Until the doors opened, I was busy signing up plenty of new German, Dutch and Belgian ONE supporters, handing out a bundle of flyers and above all, having great conversations with so many people. Most people are really open to ONE’s issues and so we manage to cross all cultural and language barriers easily.
The ONE team are taking photos of people who’ve signed up to ONE so they can be part of a section of the show called ‘the future needs a big kiss’. Unsurprisingly, people are really keen to participate as there’s a chance their photo will go up on the screen during the show.
Finally, U2 come on stage and we get to watch the show. I really enjoyed dancing and listening, along with 74 000 fans, in a very impressive setting. After the show, we approach the concert-goers as they’re leaving, which is a nice end to the evening. There are still plenty of fans who are really curious about ONE, especially after all the great ONE elements featured in the show.
All in all, it was a great day, characterised by diverse encounters, an impressive show, four Irish musicians and unlimited sunshine.
-Leonie Adam
German campaign focuses in on budget
Budget negotiations are about to begin in Germany for the 2010 fiscal year. It is also an election year as the country will elect a new national parliament and a new government in September.
ONE continued it’s ‘Be ONE of us campaign’ with a new video and billboards in the streets of Berlin to encourage the government to keep its promise to Africa.
Alongside other G8 members, Germany still has some way to go to deliver on its commitments from the 2005 Summit in Gleneagles. They agreed to invest 0.51% of Germany’s Gross National Income to overseas development assistance but currently stand at 0.31% and therefore need to make a big effort in the upcoming budget.
The short animation we launched called ‘Promises’ therefore asks which of the five major parties will deliver in the forthcoming budget and elections in September.
See what you think of the new spot (translation below):
The video explains how the economic crisis threatens to undermine the progress made in Africa towards fighting poverty. In order to keep supporting the efforts of the poorest countries in areas like education, good governance, education and agriculture, Germany should stick to its commitments. Chancellor Merkel and her opponent Mr Steinmeier have repeatedly stated how important they think this is (hence we quote them on their word).
We have also launched a billboard campaign in the German capital and so there are now over 1,000 posters around the city serving to remind the Germans government of the promises it made. And on the day of the launch we thought that was a good enough reason for German ONE supporters to show up wearing masks of the candidates of all five major parties at the German chancellery!
Translation below:
This is the year 2009.
Nine years ago 189 countries gave their word.
[speaker] “The Millennium Development Goals. Not to shy away from any effort to fight global poverty.”
But a threat is approaching.
The global economic crisis hits the poorest countries and threatens to cause poverty and hunger where there was just a glimpse of hope for the better.
Now courageous men and women are in demand.
Angela Merkel says [readable text / speech bubble]: “We as the Federal Government feel obliged, also now in a time of crisis and decreased tax revenue, not to scale down our ODA spending but to increase it, as this is of utmost importance for the people in the regions concerned.”
Frank-Walter Steinmeier says [readable text / speech bubble]: “If we want to prevent the crisis we have to take care of the structural causes for conflicts. Part of this is the fight against hunger and poverty and the facilitation of economic development.”
They know: This is about 0,2%. An important step between now and the promise to invest 0,51% of economic power in development by 2010. Will Germany keep her promise and support the poorest in their efforts, for more trade, good governance, education, infrastructure, agriculture, health systems and sanitation?
Millions of Germans are looking at the men and women who hold this in their hands.
[as text underneath the picture]For 67 percent of Germans the credibility of politics also depends on keeping the promises to the World’s poorest.
Time is running out. Promises have been made. But who will act as they promised?
You can obligate them. With your name. For the article ONE.
Vote already today. Until September 27th
-Sergius Seebohm
Germany increases development assistance by $1.1 billion
Last Friday, the German parliament (the Bundestag) approved its 2009 budget with a $1.1 billion (800 million Euro) increase in development assistance spending for next year.
This is great news and marks the third year in a row that Germany has made impressive increases in development spending. This is an increase of more than 12% since 2008, the largest for any ministry in Germany. We know that this money will make a difference- it can be used, for example, to buy and distribute 180 million insecticide treated bed nets or to supply 5.5 million AIDS-patients with antiretroviral treatment for a whole year.
A substantial portion of the increase (225 million Euro) will be generated through an innovative financing scheme launched by the German government last year. Through this scheme, Co2-certificates are auctioned off to German industry to help pay for development projects. Development funding from this source has almost doubled since 2008- from 120 million to 225 million Euro. Steep increases can be expected in the years ahead. And for the first time, in 2009 these funds can be partly used for development assistance in any sector (as opposed to being fully earmarked for funding climate-related activities like adaptation and mitigation).
This decision pushes Germany a step closer towards fulfilling its aid commitments to the world’s poorest countries. However, increases from Germany and the rest of the G8 will need to accelerate much faster to meet the promises made in 2005 at the Gleneagles summit. Here in Europe, we’re hopeful that President-elect Obama’s commitment to meeting the Millennium Development Goals and doubling foreign assistance will play an exemplary role for Germany and the rest of the EU and inject new momentum into meeting these commitments.
-Andreas Huebers, ONE Germany
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About the Blog
The International ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, with guest contributions from ONE volunteers, members and allies.
The content of each post and each comment represents the views of that author and does not necessarily reflect the views of ONE. ONE does not support or oppose any candidate for elected office, and any post expressing support or opposition for a candidate is not endorsed by ONE.
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TAGS: Bob Geldof, Bono, Germany