A wide range of activists, both African and European, is furious about the New Alliance(6). But the ONE campaign, co-founded by Bono, stepped up to defend it(7). The article it wrote last week was remarkable in several respects: in its elision of the interests of African leaders and those of their people, in its exaggeration of the role of small African companies, but above all in failing even to mention the injustice at the heart of the New Alliance – its promotion of a new wave of land grabbing.
Why's Bono "painting Africa as a pathetic place whose wide-eyed, infantile populations need a loudmouth rock star to fight their corner"? And what's "changed in world politics to allow a silly singer to [be] a spokesperson for Africa...at G8"? [Aviva, mut