Despite the one-day, lacklustre meeting between G8 and African leaders, there are a few people left in Toyako keeping the ‘buzz’ on African issues. NGOs like DATA, Oxfam, ActionAid and the Global Call to Action Against Poverty have a number of technical experts and campaigners, but standing out among this group is Sir Bob Geldof, the British rocker and celebrity advocate.
Since arriving at the international media centre Monday night, he has created a stir most leaders are unable to achieve. In the morning Japanese paper, the Asahi Shimbun, Geldof had the lead editorial provocatively posing, Japan Must Play a Pivotal Role in Africa Aid. In classic style, he did not sugar coat his views. On the summit documents, he said: “I am appalled that there are attempts in the draft communiqué to blur the commitment to fund universal access to AIDS treatment by 2010 … This kind of bureaucratic deception will fail. The promises have been made; they cannot be undone.”
He continued, arguing that “the vast differences in wealth and poverty on this planet are not only morally reprehensible; they are also potentially very dangerous. Investing in Africa is a clever, long-term strategy.” Pulling Africans out of poverty cannot depend exclusively on aid, it can be done strategically by investment and comprehensively by calming crises like those occurring in the food and energy sectors.
His tactics and firm language have results. It’s been leaked that he’s scored two key bilateral meetings, with U.S. President George W. Bush and with U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Earlier reports said if he couldn’t get access, he’d plan to lead a march of NGO leaders towards the heavily guarded Windsor Hotel where the leaders are meeting.
Evidently, celebrities have reached a level of prominence within international affairs few occupy. And yet, their activities are easily dismissed by their critics. Not without its flaws, celebrity diplomacy is an emergent, albeit contested, pathway to bolster the legitimacy of international public policy. Geldof is the lead provocateur, with a long record of urging accountability of G8 leaders.
He does this will a balance of buzz (inflammatory tongue) and bite (technical, professional support). Here in Toyako, he is surrounded by a small but skilled team led by DATA campaigner Oliver Buston. No stranger to media himself, Buston has complemented Geldof’s approach by speaking to the facts compiled in the DATA Report 2008. His message to media has been one about numbers, measuring G8 aid delivery at $3 billion against the pledged $25 billion at the 2005 Gleneagles Summit. By putting Geldof at the front of the campaign, DATA can gain a level of name recognition, media access and exposure that most NGOs crave.
In a sense, celebrities provide a conduit between citizens, advocates and sites of power, in a fashion that no one would have imagined a decade ago. Serious activists like Geldof – and his regular compatriot U2 frontman Bono – are changing the diplomatic discourse. Their ability to gain extended face-time with prominent national leaders, while their message is heard at both the mass and elite level means that they are engaging in the kind of widespread communication that underpins successful diplomacy.
Posted by Andrew F. Cooper and Andrew Schrumm
Tags: Africa, Aid, Bono, Celebrity Diplomacy, DATA, G8, Geldof, Health, ODA
