Bono ups the ante in debt relief crusade

U2 FRONTMAN Bono has threatened to lead protest marches and begin an international campaign of civil disobedience if the world’s richest nations do not do more for its poorest.

The singer and third world debt relief campaigner warned he and fellow activists would adopt a much more aggressive approach than to date.

“I for one am taking off my suit. I am ready to march with my activist friends, to begin campaigns of civil disobedience. We are about to get very noisy, we’re about to bang a lot of dustbin lids,” he vowed.

“This is the defining issue of our time and some of us are prepared to go to work on it. I am going to be a real pain in the arse about this for the rest of my life.”

Bono was speaking in Dublin at the international launch of the United Nations Human Development Report which shows sparse progress towards the Millennium Goals agreed in 2000.

The goals included halving extreme poverty among the world’s 1.2 billion destitute, halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and establishing universal primary education by 2015.

The report predicts that unless wealthy nations increase their development aid contributions to 0.7% of GDP, or national wealth, some of those goals will take over 100 years to achieve.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern reiterated the Government’s commitment to increasing Ireland's contribution from its current level of 0.41% to the 0.7% target by 2007 but he refused to say how this could be achieved given the current economic downturn.

He said “negative spin” by the media would not help.

Ireland is contributing 450 million in overseas development aid this year but close to double that amount goes on military expenditure each year.

Another damning statistic shows the EU pays $913 in subsidies annually for every cow in Europe while donating just $8 per person in Africa's poorest regions.

Bono warned the unrest caused by extreme poverty and deprivation would spill over into developed countries.

“There is no way we can escape the repercussions of what’s going on in Africa. There is not a wall we can build high enough. It’s not an option to ignore this.”