The American public can increase aid to Africa by telling politicians that they want their money spent for the cause, said lead singer of U2 and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Bono said Friday night at The Nation's Capital Distinguished Speaker Series.
According to Bono, the American "no problem we can't fix" attitude is vital to changing the amount of aid donated to Africa.
"We will transform the way these millions of people see us," he said.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has said military might is not enough to win the war on terror, and the world should take notice of this because despair breeds violence in poor countries, Bono said.
Bono also spoke on the worldwide battle against HIV/AIDS.
The U.S. recently tripled funding for international HIV/AIDS programs, and this increased spending has been used to put millions of people on regiments of anti-retroviral drugs to battle HIV/AIDS, he said.
Even with the threat of AIDS, malaria is the number one killer in Africa, and the United States has sent eight million bed nets to Africa to help protect children from mosquitoes, according to Bono.
Despite these efforts, there is a large gap between the scale of the energy behind the cause and the scale of the response to the continent's problems, Bono said. The U.S. gives less than one percent of its gross national product as foreign aid every year. Giving an additional one percent could be seen as an investment in national security for trying to improve people's lives so that violence does not occur because of desperation, he said.
"Is giving ... one percent more really such a crazy idea?" he said.
Bono said he first became involved in issues affecting Africa as part of the Live Aid response to the Ethiopian famine in 1984. The July 13, 1985, concerts in London and Philadelphia were organized by Boomtown Rats singer Sir Bob Geldof to raise money for famine relief. Bono and his wife then traveled to Ethiopia and lived there for a month while working at an orphanage.
Ever since that trip, Bono said he vowed to fight for the 12 million AIDS orphans in Africa. He co-founded Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa, or DATA, to raise awareness about poverty and health crises in Africa and press wealthy governments for more resources for Africa, according to DATA's Web site.
"Children bringing up children - that's not a cause, that's an emergency," he said. "This is not about charity, this is about justice."
Bono encouraged audience members to join the ONE Campaign, co-founded by DATA to encourage the U.S. to use one percent more of its federal budget to help achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, according to the campaign's Web site.
Bono said he asked Congressman Tom Lantos, D.-Calif., a Holocaust survivor, if the loss of life in Africa is comparable to the Holocaust. Lantos said yes.
"We are watching people being loaded onto trains," Bono said. "You and I need not be complicit."
The event, "The Future in Front of Us: Living a More Involved Life," was sponsored by the American Society of Association Executives and the Center for Association Leadership, two organizations that represent the association community. The series, in its 12th year, originally was open only to association members, but now the general public is invited to the events, according to Susan Sarfati, President and CEO of the Center and executive vice president of ASAE.
ASAE and the Center bring speakers like Bono to showcase people who are much more than celebrities and to show how they came to do such extraordinary things with their lives, Sarfati said.
"They consider themselves ordinary people like the people in the audience," she said.
