• 2007: BONO'S CALLING
Washington Post, November 26, 2007
“How did this happen? How did a man who spent an entire concert tour crank-calling the White House become a power punk in Washington?”
full text »

• 2007: ROCK STAR STILL HASN'T FOUND AFRICAN AID HE'S LOOKING FOR
The New York Times, May 15, 2007
“In its country-by-country analysis of aid to Africa, DATA found that the seven wealthy nations in the G-8 … have increased aid by less than half of what would be expected to reach the goal they set in 2005 to double aid to Africa by 2010.”
full text »

• 2007: CITIZEN BONO BRINGS AFRICA TO IDLE RICH
The New York Times, March 5, 2007
“I wanted him to change the title and call it 'Fair Vanity,'” Bono said. “He said he'd do that just as soon as I change the band's name to 2U.”
full text »

• 2006: FASTER PACE NEEDED FOR G8
U.S. Newswire, June 29, 2006
“The G8 strode forward down the promised path on debt, but have shuffled at half-pace on aid, and fell backwards on trade," said Jamie Drummond, Executive Director of DATA.”
full text »

• 2006: BONO'S TOUR OF ARUSHA
The Arusha Times, May 27, 2006
“Learning that 26,000 Tanzanians are now on ARVs, up from less than 1,000 in 2004, Bono exclaimed, "We love this--lovely, it's great to see how PEPFAR and Global Fund dollars are working together to bring off services. I'm always interested when something abstract becomes real.”
full text »

• 2005: WHAT WOULD BONO DO?
The Ottawa Citizen, May 22, 2005
The latest book from acclaimed economist Jeffrey Sachs begins in an overcrowded Malawi hospital. “The posted occupancy rate is 150 beds. There are 450 people in the ward,” he reports from the African nation’s largest facility. “This is a dying chamber where three-quarters or more of the people this day are in late-stage AIDS without medicines. Family members sit by the bed, swabbing dried lips and watching their loved ones die.” And then, from Sachs, an admonishment: ‘Each of these patients could rise from the deathbed but for want of a dollar a day ... the problem is simply that the world has seen fit to look away.’
full text »

• 2005: THE STATESMAN
New York Times Magazine, September 18, 2005
“When I saw him the day after the summit ended...he said, "I feel like I've got a right to punch the air." And so he did. Bono had moved the debate on Africa, as five years ago he moved the debate on debt cancellation. This past week he was trying to move the debate set to take place at the big United Nations summit meeting...”
full text »

• 2005: ROCK CHANGES THE WAY IT CALLS FOR CHANGE
The Los Angeles Times, July 4, 2005
“By going on Meet the Press, where he followed an interview with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Bono spoke directly to the opinion makers and government officials in this country who could help influence the U.S. in its G-8 stance, and he spoke with the eloquence of his best songs.”
full text »

• 2005: CAUSE IS TO ERASE POVERTY
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 22, 2005
“Two decades ago, an Irish singer, while working a month at a feeding center in famine-ravaged Ethiopia, met a father who begged him to take his son. The man was afraid his son would starve to death. 'At that moment,' said Bono, lead singer of the group U-2, 'I became the worst scourge on God's green Earth: a rock star with a cause.' Today, Bono's cause is nothing less than to make poverty history through the ONE campaign.”
full text »

• 2005: BONO 'ANNOYED' WITH FOREIGN AID DELAY
Globe and Mail, April 22, 2005
“Rock superstar Bono is irked by Mr. Martin's refusal to meet a long-stated standard for foreign aid increases.... 'I implore this prime minister. I think he's a good man, and I think this is the moment to be a real leader.'”
full text »

• 2005: U2's STAGE MASTERPIECE
San Jose Mercury News, April 10, 2005
“During its 23-song, two-hour-show at San Jose's HP Pavilion Saturday night, the quartet not only was excellent musically, it was thought-provoking and politically stirring... [Bono] used his bully pulpit to weave his political and economic concerns in with his music. No rock star today has become more of a thoughtful world figure (the bumper stickers endorsing him for president in 2008 weren't far off the mark).”
full text »

• 2005: BONO--MUSIC AND HIS MISSION ARE ONE
Los Angeles Times, April 4, 2005
“Against considerable odds, the 44-year-old singer-songwriter's continuing commitment to social issues and the excellence of U2's music have won over those who once mocked him as 'Saint Bono.'”
full text »

• 2005: BONO FOR THE WORLD BANK?
The New York Sun, March 4, 2005 Friday
“Over the past decade, Bono has steadily built up credibility on the issues of forgiving Third World debt, alleviating extreme poverty in Africa, and funding the global fight against AIDS. He is not shy about using the currency of his celebrity to advance these ideas and he has an uncommon talent for bringing people together. While domestic politics in the world’s sole superpower is deeply polarized, Bono may be one of the few people to be on friendly speaking terms with both President Bush and President Clinton, Senator Helms and Senator Kennedy - all of whom he has successfully lobbied for multimillion dollars of support.”
full text »

• 2005: TED PRIZE
The San Francisco Chronicle, February 27, 2005
“You rewrote the rules for the rest of us. ... You changed the digital world. You can change the physical world.”
full text »

• 2005: BONO FOR THE WORLD BANK
Los Angeles Times, February 25, 2005
“Don’t be fooled by the wraparound sunglasses and the excess hipness. Bono is deeply versed in the issues afflicting the least-developed nations of the world, as former Treasury Secretary Paul H. O’Neill learned when he traveled the continent with the musician.”
full text »

• 2002: STARS OF A DIFFERENT STRIPE
The Toronto Sun, June 9, 2002
“Well, consider this: You’ve got two eminent persons travelling through Uganda, Ghana, South Africa and Ethiopia,...one emissary’s big idea is forgiving Third World debt to give countries a chance to get back on their feet. The other’s is using those debts as leverage to get governments to cut social spending -- on a continent that faces every health problem known to man. You tell me who's got the nuttier political agenda.”
full text »

• 2002: HEART OF CHEAPNESS
The New York Times, May 31, 2002
“In one of the oddest enterprises in the history of development economics, Bono -- the lead singer for the rock band U2 -- has been touring Africa with Paul O’Neill, secretary of the treasury. For a while, the latent tensions between the two men were masked by Bono's courtesy; but on Monday he lost his cool.”
full text »

• 2002: BONO’S MISSION
Time Magazine, February 23, 2002
“With his glad-handing complete, Bono-founder, spokesman and chief benefactor of DATA, a nonprofit, debt-relief advocacy group-sat down at the edge of the table and, at 1 a.m., recounted the details of his early-morning session with 30 G.O.P. Congressmen. ‘I am not willing to give up on the Republicans,’ he said of his efforts to convert the Congressmen on debt relief and increased aid to Africa. ‘They're tough, but they're willing to listen.’”
full text »

• 1997: U2’S UNFORGETTABLE FIRE
San Diego Union-Tribune , October 5, 1997
“We put out that album, ‘Zooropa,’ because we were so maddened by this concept of ’European unity,’” Bono said. “It seemed meaningless in light of the war in Bosnia, because (the rest of) Europe was just arguing about what to do, and there was fighting between the British, Germans and French about who should do what.”
full text »