Bono and Geldof sign up Zapatero for poverty reduction campaign

ThinkSpain, September 27, 2008

U2 singer Bono and former Boomtown Rats frontman, Bob Geldof, have signed up Spanish president José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to champion the ONE campaign to halve extreme poverty by 2015.

At a meeting at U.N. headquarters in New York earlier today, Mr. Zapatero agreed to propose at the next European Council meeting in Brussels on October 15th that the UE releases the (EU)1,000 million euros it has saved out of the Common Agricultural Policy fund to support farmers in fifteen African countries.

During the meeting, Bono and Geldof outlined their plans to focus global attention on the situation in Africa, using the 2012 World Cup to gain maximum attention. The biggest concert ever staged on the continent is being organised, and Mr. Zapatero was told that, among others, Antonio Banderas, Penelope Cruz and Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas have already pledged their support.

After less positive reactions from a number of other European political leaders previously approached, and bowled over by Mr Zapatero's enthusiasm for the initiative, Bono reportedly said during the meeting that he wished he were Spanish.


© ThinkSpain, 2008.