Bono, the lead singer of U2 met Bill Gates much before he met him on the cover of Time magazine. In fact, their partnership that began more than three years ago has got them here along with Bill’s wife Melinda. The three of them have been named Time Persons of the Year 2005.
Time named Gates and Bono "for being shrewd about doing good, for rewiring politics and re-engineering justice, for making mercy smarter and hope strategic and then daring the rest of us to follow".
Bill and Bono shared the stage at a World Economic Forum meeting in New York in 2003 when they said, “We have an agenda.”
The agenda was christened DATA: Debt, AIDS and Trade for Africa in return for democracy, accountability and transparency in Africa.
Bono was of the view that Africa is in the same kind of vulnerable position that Europe was after the Second World War. And thought it would be very smart for the West to invest in preventing the fires rather than putting them out, which is a lot more expensive.
For years, the Irish rock star has been campaigning for third-world debt relief and creating awareness on the plight of Africa.
