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American Morning
Interview With Singer Bob Geldof
Aired May 26, 2003 - 08:15 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.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Eighteen years after he organized Live Aid, Bob Geldof is still fighting the good fight. The landmark Live Aid concerts in 1985 raised global awareness of the famine in Africa along with millions of dollars to fight it.
Yesterday, some Ethiopian musicians held their own Live Aid style concert, hoping to relieve the famine that's plaguing the country.
Sir Bob Geldof is traveling to Ethiopia with UNICEF.
He is with us now from London this morning.
Good morning to you, Mr. Geldof.
SIR BOB GELDOF, SINGER/HUMANITARIAN: Good morning, Heidi.
COLLINS: I'd like to ask you, if I could, you know, it's been almost 20 years, 1985 to be exact, since the first Live Aid concert. Can you tell us a little bit or update us on the famine situation in Ethiopia today?
GELDOF: It's pretty tragic. There are 14 million people affected. There seems to be enough food there to get them through to July. But -- or August, should I say. But after that, it's looking fairly grim.
About two thirds of what's necessary has been promised. As usual, the United States has been extremely generous. Britain has been overtly generous. The European Union needs to do a bit better. But if by August all the commitments haven't been made, you're going to look at about four million people in danger of imminent death.
COLLINS: And the pictures we're looking at obviously very disturbing this morning.
You are headed to Ethiopia, though, obviously to talk about famine, but also the problem of AIDS in Africa.
What do you hope to accomplish with your visit?
GELDOF: Well, myself and my other old Irish friend, Bono, we're sort of like the Mutt and Jeff of Third World debt and AIDS, you know? And it's important that we keep the focus on AIDS because all of these things are interrelated, whether it's famine, AIDS, the debt crisis or the inequity of the trade imbalance between us and them. And you can't divorce one from the other. But while I'm in Ethiopia, obviously I've been looking at that situation and how it affects the famine affected areas. But you've got about a million AIDS orphans in Ethiopia, a population of 65 million, roughly 10 percent of the population affected by AIDS. A lot of mother to child transmission, which we could prevent by just giving them a 60 cent injection. Of course, we're not doing that and that's one of the questions we have to ask why?
It's particularly important, though, that I go back this week because over in France at the end of the week, they have the next G8 summit. The seven richest countries in the world meeting, really, I think this time to squabble over past differences. It's what I call the yahoo sucks summit. I don't think the French will be particularly friendly with the Americans, the Americans vice versa. Yet both have got important programs to push.
Again, the Americans last week very radical in Congress, pushing the administration's extra monies for AIDS through, amazingly and brilliantly, and then on top of that putting through a better deal for debt, which the administration has yet to go along with. But I hope that could be resolved in Evian.
But these things aren't even to be discussed and yet 2,000 miles south of Evian in France an entire continent is crippled, in its most watched agony and it's drifting further and further away from us, and I don't see why that should be allowed.
COLLINS: You're speaking of the $15 billion aid package that could be going, hopefully, some of that money to Ethiopia. Do you see any sort of positive step there? Is this at all hopeful to you?
GELDOF: Well, it's entirely positive, entirely surprising and a brilliant achievement for this government, for your government. In fact, it was a serious wake up call for the Blair government, who are -- Blair and Brown over here are very radical on this issue. I mean Tony Blair started the Band-Aid cross party parliamentary committee when I did the Band-Aid record back in '84. He was just a young guy in parliament.
So it's a generational thing for the European leaders.
But in this case, the Bush administration had made the running. What isn't there yet is the actual money for the $15 million. So we have to stay focused on that, that the administration actually gets the money and puts it into the pot.
But it's still something that has to be looked at in Europe, because last week, again, the administration added an extra billion to the global fund for malaria, T.B. and AIDS. But on the proviso that the rest of the world come to the party, as well, on a two to one basis. So America puts in a billion and 33 other countries put in $2 billion.
Now, for the Europeans, that's about a billion they've got to match them with. In British terms, that's $28 million. You can't even count that on the national budget. COLLINS: There's certainly an awful lot of need.
GELDOF: So we're going to push that in this summit, as well.
COLLINS: That's right, an awful lot of need in the country, indeed.
You're going to be hearing more about the Live Aid concert put on by Ethiopians themselves this time.
Thank you so much, Sir Bob Geldof, joining us this morning from London.
Thanks again.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 26, 2003 - 08:15 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Eighteen years after he organized Live Aid, Bob Geldof is still fighting the good fight. The landmark Live Aid concerts in 1985 raised global awareness of the famine in Africa along with millions of dollars to fight it.
Yesterday, some Ethiopian musicians held their own Live Aid style concert, hoping to relieve the famine that's plaguing the country.
Sir Bob Geldof is traveling to Ethiopia with UNICEF.
He is with us now from London this morning.
Good morning to you, Mr. Geldof.
SIR BOB GELDOF, SINGER/HUMANITARIAN: Good morning, Heidi.
COLLINS: I'd like to ask you, if I could, you know, it's been almost 20 years, 1985 to be exact, since the first Live Aid concert. Can you tell us a little bit or update us on the famine situation in Ethiopia today?
GELDOF: It's pretty tragic. There are 14 million people affected. There seems to be enough food there to get them through to July. But -- or August, should I say. But after that, it's looking fairly grim.
About two thirds of what's necessary has been promised. As usual, the United States has been extremely generous. Britain has been overtly generous. The European Union needs to do a bit better. But if by August all the commitments haven't been made, you're going to look at about four million people in danger of imminent death.
COLLINS: And the pictures we're looking at obviously very disturbing this morning.
You are headed to Ethiopia, though, obviously to talk about famine, but also the problem of AIDS in Africa.
What do you hope to accomplish with your visit?
GELDOF: Well, myself and my other old Irish friend, Bono, we're sort of like the Mutt and Jeff of Third World debt and AIDS, you know? And it's important that we keep the focus on AIDS because all of these things are interrelated, whether it's famine, AIDS, the debt crisis or the inequity of the trade imbalance between us and them. And you can't divorce one from the other. But while I'm in Ethiopia, obviously I've been looking at that situation and how it affects the famine affected areas. But you've got about a million AIDS orphans in Ethiopia, a population of 65 million, roughly 10 percent of the population affected by AIDS. A lot of mother to child transmission, which we could prevent by just giving them a 60 cent injection. Of course, we're not doing that and that's one of the questions we have to ask why?
It's particularly important, though, that I go back this week because over in France at the end of the week, they have the next G8 summit. The seven richest countries in the world meeting, really, I think this time to squabble over past differences. It's what I call the yahoo sucks summit. I don't think the French will be particularly friendly with the Americans, the Americans vice versa. Yet both have got important programs to push.
Again, the Americans last week very radical in Congress, pushing the administration's extra monies for AIDS through, amazingly and brilliantly, and then on top of that putting through a better deal for debt, which the administration has yet to go along with. But I hope that could be resolved in Evian.
But these things aren't even to be discussed and yet 2,000 miles south of Evian in France an entire continent is crippled, in its most watched agony and it's drifting further and further away from us, and I don't see why that should be allowed.
COLLINS: You're speaking of the $15 billion aid package that could be going, hopefully, some of that money to Ethiopia. Do you see any sort of positive step there? Is this at all hopeful to you?
GELDOF: Well, it's entirely positive, entirely surprising and a brilliant achievement for this government, for your government. In fact, it was a serious wake up call for the Blair government, who are -- Blair and Brown over here are very radical on this issue. I mean Tony Blair started the Band-Aid cross party parliamentary committee when I did the Band-Aid record back in '84. He was just a young guy in parliament.
So it's a generational thing for the European leaders.
But in this case, the Bush administration had made the running. What isn't there yet is the actual money for the $15 million. So we have to stay focused on that, that the administration actually gets the money and puts it into the pot.
But it's still something that has to be looked at in Europe, because last week, again, the administration added an extra billion to the global fund for malaria, T.B. and AIDS. But on the proviso that the rest of the world come to the party, as well, on a two to one basis. So America puts in a billion and 33 other countries put in $2 billion.
Now, for the Europeans, that's about a billion they've got to match them with. In British terms, that's $28 million. You can't even count that on the national budget. COLLINS: There's certainly an awful lot of need.
GELDOF: So we're going to push that in this summit, as well.
COLLINS: That's right, an awful lot of need in the country, indeed.
You're going to be hearing more about the Live Aid concert put on by Ethiopians themselves this time.
Thank you so much, Sir Bob Geldof, joining us this morning from London.
Thanks again.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
