Whom ever is reading this, I want to point out that Bono has made some brilliant and forward thinking steps towards eliminating AIDS and Extreme Poverty. His contributions to this are amazing! I hope that many people in this world take steps towards this cause to eradicate it! Your leadership has been truly generous. If anyone puts in even a 10th of what you do, we will reach solving this tragic situation that Africa is in, and many other contienets that will face this!

I know that getting the media, the governement and companies to be community responsible, to be leaders that seek good solutions (and may not get the greedy profit they all try to gain) is tough. But in the long run, I believe they will have place in history that speaks volumes.

I have an idea for you. Mind you, this is an idea. I have no idea how to bring this together or the work that would be involved. But it goes along with the celebrity arena lending their voices, their faces, their message in order to help educate people, to gain donations, and to raise the bar in stopping this! It is the modern day “We are the World” lead by you, Bono, and all those celebs. that have joined you in this fight.

1. Create a song that speaks about the tragedy, the triumph, the help that is needed. And the the world is their voice for change! The song should have African influenced rythms in the back ground. All those that are known in Africa from the many tribes. It is so melodic and wonderful! It is partly their voices! Plus by mixing them we ar also showing how they can work together. The variations in musical talent can be added from your rock style, to the hip hop style, to more blues/jazz/R&B styles and even country styles.

2. This music/song/video should embrace the work that everyday people are doing (either educating, having meetings, attending concerts, having a vigil, fundraisers, etc.) to the story of the people all over Africa. Those stricken with Aides, those suffering from malnutrition, malaria, no clean water, Genocide, no food, shelter, no jobs, no school, and suffering from curruption. then overlaying that show all that is being done and giving hope from those donations, travelling workers, doctors, humanitarian groups, etc. And of course some footage of media comapnies, movie stars and music artists and all that they are doing to help out.

3. All proceeds from this should directly to either the ONE campaign, the RED campaign or the Global Fund Campaign.

4. Use this to educate, to ask people to put pressure on organizations, to raise the awareness of the world that there is a problem and we don’t have time to cut through business or political red tape.

I would love for 60 Minutes, CNN, World News Tonight, Oprah and all other outlets to do stories to compliment this. (at their cost!) Possibly even a documentry made that can be sold in conjunction with the song.
Start with YouTube and Myspace to launch it. Let it build momentum and then each piece cn be released as necessary to keep it in the face of people!!!!!!! (video, CD, documentary, etc.)

And for goodness sakes it is okay to outright ASK for help!

Good luck to you and I hope we can someday bring this heart wrenching extreme poverty and illness to an end!

KB