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U2's Bono says Africa is timebomb
Posted on Friday, January 04 @ 08:52:07 CET by Macphisto
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(Worldpop) -- U2 frontman Bono says that the current famine in Africa could trigger calamitous events on the scale of Afghanistan. Speaking to CNN about his third world debt cancellation campaign, Bono said: 'Take the country Botswana for instance... 40% HIV infection. You're in a crowded street, in a marketplace and you look around and nearly half the people you're standing with have a death sentence. That kind of despair, that kind of lack of hope when you can't get access to medicines to treat you, is exactly the kind of powder keg that set off Afghanistan. The abject poverty makes people very susceptible to the likes of Al Qaeda. I think if you look at Africa there's potentially another 10 Afghanistans in Africa. Are we going to leave them the way we left Afghanistan?'
The singer also says the events of 11 September had changed America forever. 'I think before it was a continent acting like an island. I think now it is clear that you cannot be an island of prosperity in a sea of despair. If September 11 has taught us anything it's taught us that the world is a much more interdependent and interconnected place.'
In the interview Bono also mentions his favourite albums of 2001 included The White Stripes' White Blood Cells, The Charlatans' Wonderland and Ryan Adams' Gold.
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