Occasio

Noreena, Bono and Economic Activism in Africa

Last night I stumbled across a thoughtful documentary. Noreena's Agenda: The New Activism highlights Noreena Hertz's work as an economist and activist on behalf of the world's poor. In the film she interviews Bono and Bob Geldof, discusses the move from nation-states to corporations as the largest economic units in the world, artiulates the importance of debt-forgiveness, and investigates the impact of G8 policy making.

In one particularly fascinating segment she demonstrates how monetary aid to Africa can be so poorly managed. In an act of benevolence the Finnish government built three wells. But today two of the wells don't work, the other is in poor condition and no one was trained to repair or do basic maintenance on the wells. To make matters worse, most of the money pledged in aid was used to build a compound for the Finnish workers, a compound full of saunas and swimming pools. This "drop and run" mentality is all too common among western benefactors.

The show will air again in the coming weeks. See the LinkTV website for a schedule. Or, check out the producer's website and view the whole 52' episode online.

Bono in Africa

Though I haven't been blogging, I have been following Bono's recent activities closely. He has been a mad man, running around the world advocating for the poor. There is so much to talk about: Two speeches - one in Grand Rapids and one in Dallas, the RED campaign, his stint as guest editor of The Independent, and a six-nation tour of Africa. I found a great summary of his trip to Africa by Matt McGee in his "Off the Record" column. Sounds like places Jesus would go....

Tuesday, May 16

• flies to S. Africa, but is barred entry in Johannesburg because there are no empty pages in his passport; a call to Nelson Mandela takes care of the problem and the trip continues
• arrives in Maseru, capital of Lesotho to start a six-nation tour of Africa
• meets King Letsie III, Queen Masenate Mohato Bereng Seeiso, and the minister of trade and industries, co-operatives and marketing, Mpho Malie
• traveling with executives from GAP and Motorola, two companies involved in Product RED
• at news conference, announces support for a new initiative in Lesotho that will give textile workers access to testing and treatment for AIDS; says Europe's treatment of the apparel industry in Lesotho is "unfair"; says he will campaign in the U.S. for extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act
• visits Lesotho Precious Garments in Maseru, one of the country's biggest clothing factories, speaks to HIV-positive workers -- this is where some of the GAP's RED products are made
• attends dinner showcasing the country's fashion industry (????)

Wednesday, May 17

• visits Paballong, a rural AIDS clinic in BUTHA BUTHE, Lesotho with Ali
• meets with a family of 3, all with AIDS, who are being treated with antiretroviral drugs
• "It is a proud moment to see what is happening here ... AIDS used to be a death sentence and now it's not."
• then walked to a nearby clothing factory where EDUN t-shirts are made
• also visits a school in Butha Buthe and speaks with students (who wear ONE Campaign t-shirts to greet them on arrival)

Thursday, May 18

• visits Rwanda for the first time, arriving in Kigali
• visits Kigali University hospital where patients share beds in poor facilities and speaks with Malaria patients there
• visits a memorial to the 800,000 victims of the 1994 genocide, listening to Eugenia Nyirakiruzamye, a 42-year-old survivor of the slaughters with deep scars on her face and neck, recount her ordeal in almost unbearable detail
• places an arrangement of white lilies on a vault housing the remains of mainly minority Tutsis who were killed while seeking shelter in the church as Hutu extremists rampaged through the country.
• then visits a nearby village, Mayange, targeted for UN development aid, where he's met by school children singing, drumming, and dancing
• speaks at the school

Friday, May 19

• in Rwanda, meets with President Paul Kagame and Minister for HIV/Aids and Other Infectious Diseases, Dr. Innocent Nyaruhirira, at State House in Kiyovu
• after meeting, tells reporters: "We have been talking about the new Rwanda with a sense of excitement that's here and how we need to be better telling the success stories of the African continent. We believe Rwanda will be a success story."
• travels to Tanzania, from where he phones in to the afternoon editorial meeting of the NBC Nightly News in New York; NBC already has a crew in Africa with Bono, and news anchor Brian Williams will join him over the weekend in preparation for special coverage next week

Saturday, May 20

• in Arusha, Tanzania, is welcomed by Maasai women as he visits their traditional Shambasha village
• visits A to Z Textile Mills, which makes insecticide-treated bed nets to keep mosquitoes away
• visits Ngarenaro health clinic for pregnant women
• records a 3-minute "video blog" segment which NBC uses on Monday to promote the network's special coverage of the tour of Africa

Sunday, May 21

• in Abuja, Nigeria
• meets with African finance ministers to stress the need to eliminate corruption in govt. for aid to continue

Monday, May 22

• Bono meets up with UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown and NBC news anchor Brian Williams, both of whom arrive together in Africa
• visits Ido primary school in Abuja, Nigeria to meet teachers and students
• travels to Mali
• visits cotton-growing town of Dafara, outside Mali's capital, Bamako
• does interview with Larry Elliott of The Guardian
• with some of his aides, visits the Piroge bar and restaurant in Bamako in the evening and listens to the Samaquera band, which is playing songs that are more than 1,000 years old; During the last song, Bono stands up, takes a microphone and joins in for about 10 minutes in an African chant, adding words as he went along

Tuesday, May 23

• flies with Brian Williams from Bamako, Mali to Accra, Ghana -- a 620-mile trip -- and does an interview on the plane, telling Williams he just wrote some lyrics to a new song the night before
• they visit Nima community clinic, a medical facility that had been in debt and cutting services until richer nations dropped the country's debt; the clinic is now thriving and adding services

Wednesday, May 24

• in Ghana, visits the Agblogbloshie market in Accra with Hajia Alima Mahama, Ghana's Minister of Women and Children's Affairs
• meets with businesspeople to discuss trade issues
• does interview with Reuters' Lesley Wroughton, who has been following the tour since the beginning
• meets Ghana's president, John Kufuor

Back to Blogging

It feels like I've been away for a long, long time. While gone I have read term papers, graded finals, visited ministry students on site, completed a portion of my doctoral studies at Fuller, and taken my family to Disneyland.

The summer holds some great opportunities and projects: continuing my doctoral studies, planning a new course entitled, "Culture, Theology and U2," and finishing the landscape in my backyard. I plan on retreating to the Sierra Nevadas multiple times as well.

It's time to start blogging again....