Bush, Bono Discuss AIDS, Malaria at White House Meeting
President Bush on Wednesday at the White House met with Irish musician Bono to discuss AIDS, malaria, debt relief and world trade, according to White House press secretary Scott McClellan, the AP/San Francisco Chronicle reports (Pickler, AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 10/19). Bono -- who co-founded the AIDS, debt relief and trade advocacy group DATA -- is in Washington, D.C., to perform with his band U2, and Bush invited him to the White House for lunch (Orin, New York Post, 10/20). Prior to the meeting, Bono gave an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in which he said he is not afraid to meet with Bush or other world leaders. "They should be afraid because they will be held accountable for what happened on their watch," Bono said, adding, "I'm representing the poorest and the most vulnerable people" (AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 10/19). In June, Bono praised Bush for doing "an incredible job" fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa and said Bush could turn "the fate of that continent around" by continuing health initiatives in his second term (GlobalHealthReporting.org, 6/28). During the July meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized nations in Gleneagles, Scotland, Bono joined musician Bob Geldof, actor George Clooney, and several African heads of state, writers and artists in urging G8 leaders to increase efforts to prevent the 30,000 to 50,000 deaths that result from poverty and treatable diseases every day in Africa (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 7/7).
"The World" -- a production of BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston -- on Wednesday included an interview with Chip Huber, dean of spiritual life and coordinator of the Zambia Project at Chicago's Wheaton Academy, about Bono's HIV/AIDS advocacy on the campus in 2002 (Mullins, "The World," PRI, 10/19). The complete segment is available online in Windows Media.