Blogging Bono's trip to Africa

Here is a nice entry from the http://joinred.blogspot.com blog, in which an individual who joined Bono on his recent trip to Africa writes of her experiences. The "Red"" movement by the way is a movement to get corporate sponsors involved in aid to Africa. American Express will soon have a "red" branded card in which a certain portion of transaction fees will be donated by AmEx to African charities. The Gap store is also involved in the "red" movement.

But what I like about this entry the most is that it really captures the generous and optimistic spirit that is characteristic of the African people, and is indeed a testimony as to the power of first-hand experiences in foreign countries in helping to have a realistic picture of other cultures...

We converge in sub-Saharan Africa. First stop – the mountain kingdom of
Lesotho. For me, this was the most amazing leg of the journey. I’ve
spent the past decade on efforts to buoy the economic competitiveness
of countries in this region. But no policy debate in Washington DC or
Brussels has ever been remotely as compelling as the sight of a dozen
factory workers vamping down the runway at the fashion show put on by
the Lesotho garment manufacturers association in the 100 percent
African t-shirts that they themselves produced. It was a beautiful,
beautiful moment, but hardly the last of the trip.

Looking
back, I don’t know that we ever passed a person in the street – man,
woman or child – who didn’t wave and smile. The vibe was infectious. I
think we all felt that incredible energy, so much in contrast our
“busy” “stressful” lives in America, London, Dublin… A third of the
population in Lesotho is HIV positive and they are fired up about
making a better future for themselves. Bono one night recalled a quote
that nailed this determination: “Don’t kick the darkness/make the light
shine brighter.”

I guess if I could communicate one thing that
most struck me in the visits to Lesotho and Rwanda, it’s the honest
lack of cynicism. Rwanda went through a horrifying civil war. The first
hand account given by one survivor was hard even to hear. And yet,
listening to everyone from government officials, health workers, the
hilarious guy that runs the coffee processing facility that supplies
Starbucks to the beautiful women who make baskets in their spare time
to sell to department stores in the U.S., they are determined to
succeed.

It’s funny but sitting in the bar my last night in
Kigali, I realized that Bono wasn’t the only rock star on the trip. If
the commercial equivalent of an autograph is a business card, then the
admittedly groovy Leslie Dance of Motorola was the hot ticket that
night. Motorola has a legacy of engagement in Africa on business and
philanthropic ventures, but it was excitement over the new MotoSLVR for
red, and interest in building components of phones and packaging in
Africa, that really stirred up the crowd.

Wish I had been able
to stay on through to Mali to meet the women who make mudcloth. The
Converse mudcloth high-tops for (product) RED are the perfect
embodiment of the spirit behind this brand we’re building. What’s deep
is cool. Those shoes are the real deal!