Bono`s Speech

[Hilly]

Last night at the Canadian Liberal`s Leadership convention rock star Bono, member of the band U2, made one hell of a speech. He is a activist for forgiving debt to developing/third world countries, increasing aid to Africa, and also the fight against AIDS. At one point in his speech he rallied many groups including atheists! ;D which I thought was really cool. Hopefully the CBC will put the speech on their site. At the very least I expect the text will be available somewhere. If anyone knows where the full audio can be found of the speech please let me know. An article and a quick video can be found here.
www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/14/bono031114

[AuntieSocial]

Thanks Hilly! There is a 24 minute clip on the site now ... great speech!

After giving an account of an Auschwitz surviver's staory that he is still bother by the fact that none of the people who watched the trains being loaded asked where the train was headed, Bono concluded his speech with:

"Religious people here tonight, are you ready to ask some hard questions? Atheists here tonight, are you ready to ask some hard questions? Mothers, students, workers, bosses, are you ready to stand in the way of that train because we do know where this train is going. What we don't know is how many people are prepared to lie [sic] across the track. I'm one. I'm here because I believe that Paul Martin is another. And more importantly, I'm here because I believe that Canada is ready to lie [sic] down across the track. Thank you very much"

[Yaw]

It does look like a great speech. The cynic in me says that Paul Martin might not be that ready to "lie across the tracks", and Bono may have to be more of a "pain in the ass" than he wants. That being said, I think that most of Canada does care, and would certainly support debt relief and foreign aid going to HIV/AIDS related causes.

One person who certainly is willing to "lie across the tracks" is Stephen Lewis. And he has a foundation that accepts donations. Cash raised goes to help grassroots organizations in Africa in their efforts to prevent the disease, and help people who are already infected live with it.