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junho 12, 2005
Entrevista de Bono à Sky News após a decisão do G8
Irish rock star and activist Bono hailed the agreement by Group of
Eight finance ministers on debt relief, although much more needs to be
done to eradicate poverty in Africa.
"What we have here today is a little piece of history," the U2 frontman
told Britain's Sky News television after the G8 agreed to wipe away 40
billion dollars (33 billion dollars) of debt owed to multilateral
institutions by 18 of the world's poorest nations, most of them in
Africa.
"There's more to go to really make this an end to extreme poverty, of
course," he said, speaking from the German city of Cologne.
"But this is one of the three asks that we have -- debt (relief), a
deal on an increase in aid flows, and a deal with the unfair trading
that goes on between the richest countries and the poorest."
Bono has been a leading figure in a long-running campaign to lift
billions of dollars of debt off the backs of African nations, enabling
them to use money otherwise spent on interest payments to pay for
schools and health care.
He acknowledged that debt relief cannot be divorced from the issue of
better governance in Africa, saying: "Corruption is Africa's problem --
it's actually the most important problem."
"There's no point in cancelling the debts and ending up redecorating
presidential palaces," he said. "That's not the point."
He held up Uganda as an example of best practice, citing its "poverty
action fund" in which savings from debt relief are ring-fenced for
development purposes and "everyone can see where the money is spent".
Bono added that it was as important as ever for demonstrators to gather
by the thousands in Scotland ahead of the G8 summit on July 6-8 to
stress the need for more action to combat global poverty.
"We have to still turn up at Gleneagles," he said.
"Believe me, politicians love to sign cheques, but they hate to cash
them. Unless we turn up at Gleneagles en masse, the world will try to
fudge things -- not the debt stuff, but other things."
"This is an important moment. We have to finish the job."
Publicado por Cícero às junho 12, 2005 03:04 PM