Tomorrow, Bono (with Alicia Keys) will release a re-recording of the 1986 hit "Don't Give Up" on iTunes in order to help raise funds for a charity providing free AIDS medicines to Africans.
Given the dilapidated health-care infrastructure in many parts of Africa, it makes some sense for charities to deliver and administer treatment for illness and diseases in resource-poor settings. Indeed, the Rotary Club has been successful in all but eliminating Polio by spearheading and managing vaccination programmes where public health ministries have failed.
But the African healthcare crisis is about more than delivering AIDS medicines. It has far deeper roots.
Without the economic conditions to create wealth in the first place, millions of people living in absolute poverty will die needlessly, and not just of headline grabbing diseases like AIDS, but from diarrhoea and respiratory infections. These two claim the lives of 15,000 Africans a day - far more than HIV/AIDS.
Admittedly, singing about aids drugs is slightly sexier than clean water and good nutrition and all of the other (seemingly unnoticed) things that came to more prosperous countries long ago. But these things are still far away from the vast majority of those who live in absolute poverty.
If Bono, and others like Annie Lennox, actually wanted to make a serious contribution to the lives of these millions, they could start by pointing out the real reasons why Africa is poor: the repressive regimes that restrict economic freedoms. Without them, people will be hard pushed to afford clean water and hygienic living conditions - which are absolutely fundamental to good health.
Until we get the basics right, there's no chance of ever being spared Bono's philanthropic warbling - or even that of his great grandchildren.
Comments