International
La Stampa July 2009
We love Italy
I wanted to give everyone an update on how our cheeky online game “Hurl Berl” is doing. The response has been incredible. So far it has been played 1.7 million times by 435 thousand people. And it’s only just over 1 week old.
The game has also created some good debate and discussion on the ONE blog, facebook, twitter and beyond.
One thing the ONE team really want to clear up is that WE LOVE ITALY. The game is just a bit of fun aimed at a political leader who didn’t keep his promises, not at Italy itself.
But it has a serious message, which is that political leaders shouldn’t make promises to the poorest people on the planet and then do nothing about them. That’s what Prime Minister Berlusconi has done. The game is a criticism of his policies, not of the wonderful country he represents.
You can read more in an article from last year about Italy by ONE’s founder Bono here and in English here.
Alhaji Ado Bayero: Eradicate poverty: invest in peace
Bob Geldof guest-edited Sunday’s edition of the Italian publication La Stampa. In the coming days we’ll be posting English language versions of the featured articles, including this one from Alhaji Ado Bayero:
As a religious leader in my country, the most populous in Africa, I have come to understand the strong relationship between social and economic welfare and the establishment of equality and fairness in relationships. I have seen peace eroded by insecurity, social injustice, economic inequality, political and religious radicalism. A hungry man they say is an angry man. So attention must be focused on building economic welfare that promotes economic and social justice and ensures peace.
It has been argued that Africa has in the last couple of years achieved some success in the fight against poverty. But with the recent world economic meltdown from which the continent is not immune, these successes seem set to be eroded unless some drastic measures are taken by African governments. In the case of my country, Nigeria, previous policies aimed at poverty alleviation seem to have had limited success due to poor implementation and limited partnerships. But there is a policy that holds the key to success in the fight against poverty and that is microfinance. Poverty is defined as the state of being poor i.e. the inability to earn income necessary to be able to afford the basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter.
Microfinance offers an incredible tool for helping the poor work their way to a life of sustainability, opportunity and ultimately economic self empowerment. Nigerian men and women are known throughout history to be industrious but the modern economy has made access to finance (no matter how little) extremely necessary for self reliance.
Self reliance is an important factor in the consideration of the relationship between poverty and peace. (more…)
Colin Firth: Why do you have to hear from an actor?
Bob Geldof guest-edited Sunday’s edition of the Italian publication La Stampa. In the coming days we’ll be posting English language versions of the featured articles, including this one from Colin Firth:
Why do you have to hear it from an actor? I have a profound dislike of activism. I do not enjoy hearing dispatches from the crisis zone delivered by actors and rock stars. I get no joy from fund raising events, op-eds, posters, t-shirts, speeches, slogans, petitions and rock concerts. I’m tired of it. And I’m tired of the crisis.
If your profession somehow gives you a public voice, you quickly find that you have a new relationship with those who don’t have one. Your voice quickly becomes a cherished commodity. Not for its merits but for its sheer volume. You may have nothing to say, but those who do, the wise, the desperate and the better informed are all clamouring to make use of your easily earned media connection.
Imagine passing the scene of a car accident. Someone is dying. There is a doctor on the scene but he doesn’t have his equipment and he doesn’t have a phone. He asks if he can use your phone. Do you say “Sorry, not my job. Sorry I have no credibility …” or do you stop thinking and just do it? That is frequently the position of the guilt-ridden celebrity.
We are not in a position to choose whether or not we have a relationship with our own society or with world’s poorest people. We can choose the nature of those relationships, but, either way, they’re there. We’re business partners. If we choose to ignore them we are simply choosing to make that relationship a negligent and destructive one.
As voters and consumers we are directly complicit in the misery of the millions we do business with. If we let our governments and businesses think we are indifferent to their cynicism they will go on practicing it on license from us and every cup of coffee we drink and every piece of cotton we wear will continue to be an act of cruelty.
Sophia Loren: Every day wasted can be the waste of a life
Bob Geldof guest-edited Sunday’s edition of the Italian publication La Stampa. In the coming days we’ll be posting English language versions of the featured articles, including this one from Sophia Loren:
They say once you go to Africa, you will always want to go back. I know they also say that about Paris and Berlin. I keep saying it about Rome and Naples. And of course I always go back there because Roma and Napoli are in my blood and eternally part of me.
Africa is not part of me and yet has always been a magic place, so far away, so different, so exciting. And frightening – I never thought I would ever have a chance to go to Africa. But I did go there and yes, it was a life changing experience for me.
The world promises to help Africa and Africa waits. Every day wasted can be the end of a life. Every hour is the final breath. Each moment more lights go out. The longer they wait, the more will perish. Poverty is not blameful. It does not make people bad or less important. It is cruel way of life. And yet poor people have given the world the greatest riches of art, culture, passion and leadership.
The life of one child could change the world. And to promise to help that child and not do anything is worse than refusing to help.
Diarmuid Martin: Solidarity is stability- promises to the poor
Bob Geldof guest-edited Sunday’s edition of the Italian publication La Stampa. In the coming days we’ll be posting English language versions of the featured articles, including this one from Diarmuid Martin:
One global crisis after the other reminds us just how “global” the world has become. We realise today that it is no longer just what happens in another part of the world which can have its effects where we live. We see today how the greed of individuals and the inefficiency of regulatory control can have direct effects on the stability of our banking or economic system or political system globally.
The global word needs rules; it needs trust; it needs stability. Few will disagree with that. We tend, however, to look on this as stability for us in the wealthier world. What about stability in Africa, for African countries, for African communities, for African families? On so many occasions world leaders have recognised that stability and growth in Africa depend on reforms, but that there is also need of focussed investment in human capacity and basic human infrastructures.
Promises have been made and promises have been consistently watered down or forgotten about. The investment of solidarity which will bring stability to Africa has been quantified and measured and set out in time-bound commitments such as the Millennium Development Goals. These are promises made to the poor; but it seems that promises made to the poor are of less moral weight than the promises made to “the system”.
Nicholas Stern: Poverty and climate change- the two great challenges of our century
Bob Geldof guest-edited Sunday’s edition of the Italian publication La Stampa. In the coming days we’ll be posting English language versions of the featured articles, including this one from Nicholas Stern:
Poverty and climate change are the two great challenges of the 21st century. Our responses to them will define our generation, and because they are linked to each other, if we fail on one, we will fail on the other. Unmitigated climate change poses huge risks for the planet. If we carry on emitting carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, global average temperature could eventually rise by more than five centigrade degrees, to levels not seen on Earth for more than 30 million years.
However, we understand the scale of the action that is necessary to reduce emissions and the areas on which we must focus: greater energy efficiency, more low-carbon technologies, and a halt to deforestation.
We also know which policies and economic instruments will make these ambitions happen, and we can see a path for investment and economic growth that is attractive for all parts of the world. All we need now is the political will.
The United Nations conference on climate change, due to be held in Copenhagen in December, will be the most important international meeting since the Second World War. It must result in an agreement to halt and reverse the growth in annual global emissions, leading to a reduction of at least 50 per cent by 2050.
Developed countries should lead the way by cutting their annual emissions by at least 80 per cent. The people of developing countries are least responsible for the current levels of greenhouse gases, but they are the most numerous.
Naomi Campbell: Millions of women are dying needlessly
Bob Geldof guest-edited Sunday’s edition of the Italian publication La Stampa. In the coming days we’ll be posting English language versions of the featured articles, including this one from Naomi Campbell:
It has been another extraordinary year for me not to mention my many trips to Italy for both work and pleasure. Bella Italia! I am honoured to share with you a project, which I have recently been dedicated to, and something I am deeply passionate about.
A year ago I visited Downing Street in London to meet with Sarah Brown, the prime minister’s wife. At the meeting Sarah spoke at length about The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood (WRA), which she is a patron of, and their grassroots network which campaigns to stop women dying in childbirth around the world. That was the start of my work with the WRA right then and there. As Sarah spoke eloquently about her work with the charity, I was shocked at the extent of the problem, a problem I was completely unaware of at that point.
Millions of women are dying needlessly around the world. In the developing world a woman dies every minute giving birth, and almost always her baby will die too. In these places, women are often the breadwinners and leaders in the family. So, when a mother dies it affects not only her children but also her entire family, their livelihood and future.
There are solutions to this problem and they are immediately attainable. However, we must act quickly in support of this cause. By acting, we will help save half a million young women’s lives a year. It’s important for our global future; healthy families are vital to peace, stability and prosperity everywhere.
Last September I hosted with Sarah a catwalk show in aid of the WRA at London Fashion Week to raise funds and awareness of the cause. (more…)
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf: Keeping Africa’s Turnaround on Track
Bob Geldof guest-edited Sunday’s edition of the Italian publication La Stampa. In the coming days we’ll be posting English language versions of the featured articles, including this one from Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf:
For more than a decade, much of Africa has been moving forward. Economic growth is rising, poverty is falling and democratic governance is spreading. But the global financial crisis threatens to undo this progress by reducing investment, exports and aid just as they should be expanding to build on these successes.
While international attention has been understandably focused on events in Darfur, Somalia and Zimbabwe, countries across the continent including Ghana, Tanzania, Mozambique and Liberia have been quietly turning around. Economic growth rates regularly exceed five percent in many nations.
The key to this progress is stronger African leadership and more accountable governance. Today, more than 20 African countries are democracies, up from just three in the 1980s. They have competitive elections and improved human rights, and a much freer media. These efforts have been supported by increasingly effective development assistance.
Consider what has happened in my country, Liberia. (more…)
Bono: A Love Letter to Italy
Bob Geldof guest-edited Sunday’s edition of the Italian publication La Stampa. In the coming days we’ll be posting English language versions of the featured articles, including this one from Bono:
In the back of my head from childhood, was the notion that singing was born of Italy. As a kid in Dublin, I grew up listening to my father’s record collection: La Traviata, Tosca, the Barber of Seville. Outside the house, rock and roll was my addiction, but it was ‘operatic’ rock and roll that I was drawn to. Roy Orbison’s voice. David Bowie’s voice.
Opera, like rock and roll, is about vowel sounds more than it is about constanants. To hit high notes, As and Bs, or even top Cs you need those wide open words like Amore, like Love. In a lyrical sense, ‘Pride, In the Name of Love’, one of U2’s songs began as Opera.
I guess you could say I was in love with Italy even before I knew there was an Italy. I knew it as soon as we arrived. Our version of soul music did not have to be explained the way it did in Northern Europe. It was immediately understood. U2 never bought into the Northern European version of cool — which was just another word for cold. We were Italians who didn’t know how to dress. Ours was a Latin temperament, furious at injustice, loving being alive. Loving The Life, food, drink, friendship, family. We too had an unusual relationship with the concept of religion. Annoyed often by its conservatism, and buoyed often by its fundamentals, of faith, hope, and love. We marveled at Italian genius, from da Vinci to Marconi, from Fellini films to futurism, from Ferrari and Fiat to Armani and Diesel.
I teach my children to take mental snapshots that they can play back later. Me too. These are my snapshots of Italy: the shows… my voice being drowned out. by the crowd’s bel canto … escorted by armoured car through a riot outside one of our shows in the early eighties and noticing how no one was hurt , how it was more of a dance. Up early in the morning to discover the ghosts and relics of Turin and see the shop fronts being dressed in Milan…The treat of a Bellini in the Villa San Michele on my 40th birthday in Florence… In Rome, soaking up the light in the dark room compositions of Caravaggio… Understanding why the poet Keats would choose to die there – and trying not to understand why he chose as his epitaph: “Here lies a man whose words were written on water”. Visiting also Shelley and observing his epitaph: “Seize the day.”
And that’s it right there, that’s the Italian energy: seize the day. ….now cut to 1999, in Castel Gandolfo with Bob Geldof, Quincy Jones and the world reknowned economist Jeff Sachs. The Pope puts my glasses on as we talk about debt cancellation… 2001, in the tense tear-gassed streets of the Genoa G8, marching with the great Jovanotti for debt cancellation and greater resources for the poorest countries.
Fast forward to now and 34 million more children are going to school in Africa because people got out on the streets around the world. Three million people in Africa are on life-saving medication since the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria was created that year in Genoa. This is all good news.
But the good news makes the bad news worse. (more…)
Mo Ibrahim: The changing face of Africa
Bob Geldof guest-edited Sunday’s edition of the Italian publication La Stampa. In the coming days we’ll be posting English language versions of the featured articles, including this one from Mo Ibrahim:
Africa has had a painful history. Even if we do not consider the evils of slavery and colonialism, independence, some 50 years ago for most African countries, coincided with the start of the Cold War. That period was devastating for the newly independent states of Africa.
While the super powers were locked in a deadly game of chess, African nations were no more than pawns – suppliers of essential raw materials and sites for military bases – but most importantly strategic ideological buffers against the advance of communism or capitalism (depending on which side you were on!).Corrupt and dictatorial regimes were propped up as dependable allies. Dictators were either “our bastards” or “their bastards”.
These policies brought disastrous consequences – we witnessed the rise of dictatorships, the culture of the “big man” and associated corruption. The end of the Cold War was probably the best thing which ever happened to Africa. At last African people were able to address their needs for state and institution building; for the democratic transformation of their societies; and above all for tackling poverty. However negative external perceptions of Africa persisted and, in many cases, continue to this day.
To take a personal example, when we decided to invest in a mobile network in Africa, all of my friends thought we were mad! Then as now, the perception of Africa as a risky investment destination prevailed. Africa seemed to lack infrastructure and a skilled workforce, disposable incomes and above all, the rule of law. This was broad-brush. It picked the failings of some corrupt regimes, and civil wars or genocide in other countries, and created a toxic mix which tarnished all 53 countries in Africa. This is like claiming that all Europeans are guilty of genocide on the evidence of what happened in the former Yugoslavia!
Yes, some African countries are failed states but let us always remember that Africa is 53 countries and most of them are peaceful and pleasant places to live and visit. (more…)
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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.
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TAGS: Bono, G8, Italy, La Stampa July 2009