Treasury Secretary and Rock Star Relive "Special Moments" in Africa

O'Neill and Bono have casual session with reporters May 30

Addis Ababa -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill joined reporters traveling with him on his 12-day Africa sojourn in a "no-holds-barred" give-and-take in the breezy Ethiopian air at their hotel in Addis Ababa May 30.

The treasury secretary and his trip partner, rock star Bono, sat at a poolside table with about 15 members of the press to give impressions of Africa on the last day of their tour.

O'Neill, speaking with conviction, said that one of his prime concerns is to show Africa to Americans as he has seen it during the past two weeks and to communicate to the youth of America the immediacy and urgency of the continent's problems, or what he terms its basic needs: help for the HIV/AIDS scourge, clean water, and adequate educational opportunity.

The reporters agreed that this is a prime concern for them too.

"How do you connect all this for 12- and 14-year-olds?" he asked rhetorically. "They are very egocentric," and Africa's concerns are "a tough idea -- it's pretty hard to latch onto."

Asked about the conundrum of giving money to countries whose governments are opposed to many of the ideas generated in the United States, he said: "We have to respond to hunger no matter what the government is doing. ... We're sending food assistance even to places where we have serious, clear differences with leaderships of governments, [such as] North Korea and Cuba. We still send their people food. ... There is no basis on which you can let people starve to death."

Asked about corruption and aid, he cited the New Millennium Challenge grants proposed by President Bush and said, "We're going to be really insistent that governments have an active campaign against corruption as a gating [qualifying] question about whether or not they are going to be able to participate."

As to the goals he will help formulate to assess whether countries qualify to participate, he said there would not be "too many," and that he didn't think he would make a recommendation to President Bush until September. "But my view is they should be less than 10 ... the closer to five the better because if you have too many goals, it diffuses energy." His aim would be "clear goals that are measurable [so] you can tell whether or not you're succeeding." When O'Neill and Bono were asked how each may have been changed by the other's presence on the trip, Bono was first to respond, saying what is more important is "how we have both been changed by the people we've met as we've traveled through Africa."

The singer said that on a previous visit to Africa he had told himself he would always remember, but "I went back to my life and back to my band. What we've got to do is keep the impetus. Keep this hot. That's what I'm taking away from it."

Speaking of the enormous increase in funds he thinks it will take to deal with the HIV/AIDS emergency and other problems in Africa, Bono said: "For a half a cent in every dollar these people on this continent would have the chance to transform their lives. And I think if Americans get that" and if the people in charge of supplying aid "can really assure that it goes to the people and not to the corrupt regimes that we've had in the past, I think Americans will do that [donate the money]."

O'Neill said that if he is good at anything, "I am good at producing results that are good for human beings." For example, he said, the thing he is proudest of doing while he was chairman of Alcoa Aluminum is creating "the safest company in the world" by designing a system where all the employees had access to computers, and "in 36 countries if somebody was hurt, in 24 hours they knew where it was, what happened, what the diagnosis was, and they corrected the behavior in their own environment so it didn't happen again -- and it is [now] the safest corporation in the world."

Asked about the experiences he'll most remember from this Africa trip, O'Neill said there were "so many," but he singled out three. First, there was the small infant placed in his arms by his daughter at an AIDS clinic in South Africa "in a pink sleeper. She was so sweet and trusting and her eyes were ... big and sparkling." From this he drew a strong belief in the importance "of treating mothers who are HIV-positive so that their children don't get the disease. Holding that baby was really an emotional experience.

"If you really want to change my mind about anything, just give me a baby and talk to me about whatever it is you want!" O'Neill continued. The reporters laughed. "I'm sorry, I can't help it. They are so trusting and uncalculating."

Then there was "the 13-year-old girl who gave the brilliant speech in Uganda. ... She was symbolic of what children everywhere have the capacity to do if they're given the opportunity to do it. That was a special moment."

"And holding Sister Benedicta's hands [at The Sisters of Charity hospital and orphanage in Addis] and talking to her, that was a really special moment."

Bono mentioned a woman named Grace, gravely ill with AIDS, saying: "I heard Grace sing three or four months ago and she sang beautifully a few days ago, but I can tell you, she's a very sick girl. And she got out of bed to come and sing for us. I was very humbled by that."

In another vein, O'Neill spoke of his meeting with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. "He was talking about devolution of power in Ethiopia as a way of accomplishing the things that need to be done. He's not a command and control [person]; he knows that doesn't work." O'Neill mentioned the 1976 book called "Beyond Human Scale," by Eli Ginsberg, a Columbia University professor, and George Vojta, who was a senior executive of Citibank. "They wrote a really brilliant book about how you accomplish things and I mentioned it to the prime minister and he said, 'I know about it.'

"This is a great guy -- and one of the really interesting things about this trip: [Ghanaian President John] Kufuor, [South African President Thabo] Mbeki, [Ugandan President Yoweri] Museveni, and the prime minister here [in Ethiopia]. These are people with real leadership qualities. They need some help ... and they need reinforcement."