Unhappy Bono pans 'bureaubabble' of G-8 promises

by Mark Silva

ROME - The commitments to combating AIDS and other initiatives of the Group of Eight summit that concluded today in Germany fall short of the mark in specifics and won't necessarily all benefit Africa, says Bono, lead singer for the rock band U2 and co-founder of Debt AIDS Trade Africa or DATA.

Bono, accusing the G-8 of "slipping up" rather than "stepping up" to the challenges of world poverty and disease, complains that the $60 billion which the eight nations have pledged to a global fight against AIDS and other diseases is open-ended and not targeted for Africa.

At the same time, Bono complains of the "bureaubabble" in the G-8's closing communique, it paves over a pledge that these nations made to double aid to Africa by 2010 - a $25 billion pledge in its own right which the United States and United Kingdom but few others are on track toward fulfilling.

"G-8 leaders say they are serious about keeping their promises from 2005, but today they have made their job seriously harder," Bono said in a statement issued today, press conference to follow, in Heiligendamm.

The commitments made today do not match the commitments of a G-8 summit convened in Gleneagles, Scotland, the superstar singer and advocate for the poor complains.

"They say $60 billion for AIDS, TB and malaria and it sounds great, but that's not earmarked for Africa," Bono said. "It's a global figure and there's no timeline.

"Even if their laudable commitment to put five million people on lifesaving drugs had a due date of 2010 - which it doesn't - it would only be half their stated ambition of 2005."

It gets worse:

"This summit outcomes document isn't readable in any language," Bono said. "It's called a communiqué, but it seems to have been deliberately designed not to communicate the real facts.

"Do they think we can't read or count? We are looking for accountable language and accountable numbers. We didn't get them today," he said. "The G-8 do reiterate their commitment to the $25 billion for Africa in 2010, but the whole point of this year's Africa piece of the G-8 puzzle was to show a critical path for how these great nations would keep their great promise to Africa.

"Clear year-by-year steps were needed, but this labyrinthine language offers no path - it's a maze designed to lose an ever increasing movement of engaged global citizenry," the singer said. "But we are not lost. Right now it's the G8 that are lost.

"It's worth remembering that these aren't statistics: These are hospitals without the electricity or clean water they've been promised, schools without roofs. Mothers without vaccinations for their children.

"The bureababble reveals a struggle within the G-8," he said. "Some leaders have been stepping up but collectively they are slipping up.

"We've had plenty of fights with them this week - but they've had more with each other," he said. "Maybe the biggest achievement of 2007 is the emerging passion and commitment of the German people, including the Chancellor herself - if only we could have turned her passion into more cash."

Jamie Drummond, executive director of DATA, explains the complaint.

"It's crucial that commentators do not get too distracted by the $60 billion figure - we must keep our eyes on the promised prize of 25 billion more for Africa in 2010," he said. "There are some good specific numbers on health and education in the text, but the words walk around actually committing the G-8 to delivering these sums.

"There was a plainly a good fight for specificity and accountability waged by some - but the fudgers won," he said. "We will hold the G-8 accountable to these sums even though the commitments aren't clear."