O'NEILL-BONO 'ODD COUPLE' TO VISIT AFRICA. Odd couple, US Treasury chief Paul O'Neill and rock singer Bono will make a joint tour of Africa starting next week underlining renewed Western interest in the world's poorest continent, Reuters and CNN.com report.
Their visit coincides with efforts by African leaders to promote their own bold rescue plan to fight crushing poverty, debt and disease. Republican O'Neill is known for his cynicism about foreign aid to developing nations. Debt relief campaigner Bono has set out to persuade him that aid can work and that Africa needs a lot more of it.
As they visit Ghana, Uganda, South Africa and Ethiopia from May 20 to 31, the home-grown New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) -- which some experts say is the region's best chance to win back Western support after years of neglect -- is certain to be a key talking point.
NEPAD's selling point is the promotion of democracy and good governance in Africa. In return, Western nations worried that failed states in Africa could be breeding grounds for terrorism would pump up to $64 billion annually into the continent -- more than seven times foreign investments in 1999.
In a separate piece, Reuters says O'Neill's aim in part is to put a compassionate face on Washington's position that it wants to help the world's poor but there must be full accounting for aid dollars.
O'Neill admitted on Thursday that the idea of the rock star, a committed anti-poverty advocate, and the ex-corporate titan traveling together "has raised eyebrows," but he also revealed some cold-eyed calculation on the subject. "It's very important that the world have a deeper understanding ... of the need for results-accomplishing economic assistance and I think he will help us to bring eyes to this subject in a way that we couldn't do by ourselves and, frankly, he couldn't do by himself," O'Neill said.
"Bono has said to me that one of the experiences he has had is to go and see AIDS clinics where three people are in the same bed, dying together," O'Neill said. "these are not pretty things to see, but I think it is very important for people who would make good policy to see the real world."
The FT reports meanwhile that O'Neill promised to listen rather than preach during his ground-breaking trip to Africa. Speaking to reporters in Washington, O'Neill said that the visit was a fact-finding mission that would help the US devise ways to spend its new $5bn-a-year aid package. "The purpose of this trip is not to tell people we have all the answers," he said. "If that were so, we could just write a prescription from here."
Also reporting on the O'Neill-Bono trip, the Washington Post (p. E1) says that for Bono, who has been deeply involved for the past three years in the movement to cancel the debts of low-income countries, the trip provides an opportunity to exploit his celebrity by focusing attention on some of the world's most appallingly poor places and the urgent need of their inhabitants for health care, schools and clean water.
"My job is to be used. I am here to be used," Bono said in a telephone interview Thursday. "It's just, at what price? As I keep saying, I'm not a cheap date." If the trip helps advance progress on forgiving debts, beefing up a global fund for fighting AIDS and lowering trade barriers to African products in rich-country markets, "then I'm very, very happy to be used," he said.
On the eve of their trip, the piece says, both O'Neill and Bono were at pains to play down their differences. O'Neill cited Bono's support for President Bush's recently announced plan to increase US foreign aid by $10 billion over three years, with the funds earmarked for countries that show significant progress toward reducing corruption, improving their investment climate and devoting resources to education and health.