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CNN Live Today

Bono, O'Neill Continue on Trip Across Africa

Aired May 24, 2002 - 11:50   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Rock star Bono is traveling with Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill. They're now on day five of their mission, focused on helping poverty-stricken areas of Africa. So far they've made stops in Accra, Ghana, Pretoria, South Africa, and Soweto, South Africa. And let's check in on my friend, Daryn Kagan. She has been traveling with the pair. She is just a few miles away from Soweto, I understand, in our Johannesburg bureau, and she joins us there live. Good evening there. Daryn, how you doing?

DARYN KAGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm doing well, Leon. I think the last time you saw me, I was getting blown away by a rain storm in Ghana. Well, we did indeed dry out and made it here to South Africa. So taken with this country. It's a lot hillier and chillier. Can you believe I'm wearing a turtleneck in Africa? But it is chilly here. It looks a lot like my native Southern California to me, except they drive on the other side of the road here. That's why I know I'm not at home in Los Angeles.

I can tell you today for Bono and the treasure secretary, the focus was, A, the number of people who are battling the disease in this country is absolutely staggering, and a lot of people call it a war. So Bono and the treasury secretary headed to the front lines today in Soweto.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN (voice-over): It seems fitting that Bono and U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill were greeted by song on Friday. At one of their stops, a prenatal HIV clinic. After all, it's the power of music which Bono says gives those less fortunate hope and strength.

The two travel to Soweto, one of the first sites of student uprising against apartheid.

(on camera): When you are from here in Soweto, your battle against the AIDS begins even before you're born. From this area, 28,000 women will deliver babies this year, and 31 percent of those mothers will test positive for HIV.

(voice-over): Secretary O'Neill fell for baby Ivy, just one of the many thousands of children who've been helped at (UNINTELLIGIBLE) hospital.

Three-year-old Sababa (ph) is another. Her mother, Rejoice Hapakani (ph) came here four years ago, when she discovered she was four months pregnant and HIV positive.

(on camera): And how important is it to have those drugs to have a healthy child?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is important. Because the child, like they get cured. Yeah. It shields (ph) the child from the virus.

KAGAN: Today, Rejoice (ph) is still alive, and amazingly the treatment that she received while pregnant means that her daughter was spared the disease.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like my life now is going to change. There is going to be an attitude, and like, people pointing fingers on me, but I don't care. As long as my mom and my husband, they are always there for me and my baby. And I don't have a problem. The whole family is always there for me.

KAGAN: Rejoice's (ph) type of treatment is encouraging, but it's available only to a few here in South Africa. Because of costs. Because some victims would rather hide than seek treatment, and because there is a lack of political will. Obstacles that Bono and Secretary O'Neill are repeatedly finding on their trip throughout Africa.

BONO, SINGER: Why I like him, is he is annoyed, I think, by...

PAUL O'NEILL, TREASURY SECRETARY: Angry, actually.

BONO: He's getting angrier by the day, as he sees the great potential of this continent and how it's not being used. Is that fair?

O'NEILL: That's fair.

BONO: That's fair.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: There you have these two men are rubbing off on each other. Earlier today, even before we went (AUDIO GAP) we toured a -- excuse me a second. We toured a Ford factory, and the secretary had Bono geeking out over worker productivity charts. And then you heard the secretary starting to say things like, you know, big business is not the answer to solve everything. So you are hearing in both men; their language is changing just a little bit as they spend this time together as they cross Africa.

Now, hold on a second. I will put my earpiece back in and see if I can hear what you have to say. All right. Go ahead.

HARRIS: You know, that's the CNN salute there. OK. Good. Listen, let me ask you about the...

KAGAN: No, I can hear you, Leon.

HARRIS: Good. Let me ask you about the chemistry. You know how it is, relatives can't stay together five days without there being some kind of, you know, some kind of something starting somewhere. Do you see any changes in their chemistry or the way they are communicating or anything?

KAGAN: You know, even from the first, when we went -- and actually I can tell you, the problem with my ear piece is I think...

HARRIS: Well, Daryn, if you can hear me, we just lost the satellite feed. Looks like the digital feed is frozen there. And I'm sorry we couldn't get that answer. We will have to get it -- get her on the telephone.

Daryn is going to stick around. And maybe she can answer on the Web site. She is going to be filing reports on the Web site at cnn.com. So make sure you folks check with that. And stay with us here on television for continuous coverage as Bono and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill continue this African aid mission with our good friend, Daryn Kagan.

We are back after a break. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Well, it appears the force is with us. We did manage to reestablish communications with Daryn Kagan, who's down just outside of Soweto, South Africa, where it's winter time almost now. OK, Daryn, let me get you to go ahead and answer the question about what you have noticed so far.

KAGAN: About the chemistry between these two men, Leon, it's been really fascinating. Even from the first plane that we took -- we all met up in Frankfurt, Germany and then flew to Ghana together, and I had a chance to sit down and get an exclusive one-on-one interview with these two gentlemen.

They're fascinating. These are two men who have very passionate beliefs, and very different beliefs. But what's making this trip different and which has the hope for this trip, they left their politics at home, in Ireland and in the United States. And they both came here with open minds. Not necessarily trying to change the other person, but to educate the other person. And what makes it work is they both realized that -- each realized that they have something to learn from the other man. So that's why the trip is working.

HARRIS: All right, real good. Real quick, where to next?

KAGAN: Next, we are here for another couple of days, and then we are going up to Uganda. So I will see you live from Uganda, if everything works, but as we are learning in Africa, you kind of go with the flow, you know.

HARRIS: So I see. That's what you are doing, and with the hair. We like that here too. Keep that going, all right? And travel safely, my friend.

KAGAN: Oh, the hair? The blow dryer doesn't work in Africa. HARRIS: So there had to be a reason. You just blew it. We though there was some mysterious thing here. All right, got to go.

KAGAN: That's the reason.

HARRIS: You be good, travel safely.

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