By Andrew William Smith, Editor

January 19, 2009

Rhetoric holds power. The primal matter of political meaning fused to my consciousness at a very young age, sitting on the living room carpet in my childhood home in Cleveland, Ohio. My folks had an old vinyl record with the landmark speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and I wore that thing out sitting on that floor, often crying, often memorizing the words as this audio replica of King spoke them.

Born in late 1967, I always took pride that I shared the earth for just a few months with Dr. King, that my daddy had marched with him in Selma and heard him speak at Soldier Field. I still listen to and study those speeches today, and I am sure that our president- elect studied those speeches in developing his unique stage presence on the stump.

A year ago, in early January 2008, Barack Obama’s speeches packed an emotional spell that left me spellbound and speechless. When it comes time to talk the politics of rhetoric and the rhetoric of politics, Aristotle is always in the house. For decades, the profound pull of pathos (emotion) has held the American electorate captive. Politics is a profession where logos (logic or intelligence) and ethos (morals or ethics-or sadly, their lack) could change the course of history. But emotions still trump the other appeals when it comes to winning, when it comes to that private moment behind the curtain of decision. For the power of pathos, television is more than just a tool; election season after election season, the entire creative force of campaign management understands the visceral power that the visual packs in persuading voters.

But in the past, the emotional powers had too often been aligned with fear and hatred. Television ads could terrify voters as Lyndon Johnson did with his infamous Daisy ad in the early days of TV’s psychic tyranny or as George Bush Sr. bludgeoned Dukakis with the Willlie Horton ad. The notion of “a negative campaign ad” so defines the norm that it constitutes a self-referential cliché. Sure, there have been positive campaign ads to pull patriotic heart-strings, but if Reagan’s “Morning in America” mom-and-apple-pie-mongering from 1984 is the only example we can conjure of a positive campaign, maybe the negative isn’t that negative after all.

As a political force, television ads were a medium born of the network television era, when three or four channels held most of our imaginations for the duration of a political season. Things morphed with the massive influence of cable news in the 1990s, and then, just in time for the 2008 campaign, horizontal networks of DIY propaganda proliferated like urban junk mail or rural weeds. With a website called YouTube, this viral multiplication on the virtual plane meant that the most potent piece of visual rhetoric evident in the 2008 presidential campaign came from the unofficial contributions of pop stars, from a video created by Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, produced by Bob’s son Jesse Dylan, and featuring the voices and faces of Common, John Legend, Scarlett Johansson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and many others.

“A Rock Obama” – Art by Patty Arriagada, Photo by Andrew William Smith

Of the dozens of brilliant speeches Barack Obama delivered in the last 20 months, one stands out as his “I Have a Dream” moment. One speech to be studied for generations shifted the emotional, popular, and rhetorical tides to make possible what the world celebrates on Tuesday, January 20, 2009. A little more than one year before he will take his oath as our first president of African descent, Obama’s speech after the New Hampshire primary pitched poetic riffs that could be sung from rooftops and remembered by schoolchildren. “Yes We Can,” the speech from New Hampshire and the video that followed just a few weeks later, ignited the grassroots campaign and inspired millions. Like Martin King, Obama is a brilliant borrower of epic themes: “Si Se Puede” was coined by Cesar Chavez and had been chanted by farmworkers; “Yes We Can” might be familiar to sports fans as well, since former Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Dave Cash made that the team’s slogan in the 1970s as well.

Obama-who is notably a quite literate music fan, well-schooled in the lyrical attributes of blues, rock, folk, and hip-hop-proves here why he garnered the nickname Barackstar. He is channeling John F. Kennedy, yes, but the voice of the MC and the minister are here, too. He is the poet-preacherman of the present moment, reaching out to those in the crosshairs of fear at the historical crossroads, the people that most need to hear his rhetoric of hope and act upon it.

From King’s unforgettable toolkit, Obama takes two techniques much like the bluesman takes two chords, and he uses them to incredible rhetorical effect.

To begin, Obama reminds us again and again of the unity in opposites that form a patriotic umbrella of understanding, unmistakably American in its themes and undeniably magical as a meme. With Martin King, this unity in diversity delivered the famous phrase and promised the possible moment when “sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.”

Early in his speech, Obama builds on these trademark poetic oppositions when he invites everyone to feel a part of this time “whether we are rich or poor, black or white, Latino or Asian, whether we hail from Iowa or New Hampshire, Nevada or South Carolina.” Later, as he nears his crescendo, he gets a little more specific, and the appeal reaches not to his moneyed handlers or backers but to everyman and everywoman when he says “the struggles of the textile workers in Spartanburg are not so different than the plight of the dishwasher in Las Vegas, that the hopes of the little girl who goes to the crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of L.A.”

The effective use of opposition gets a visual bump by the use of black and white film in the “Yes We Can” video montage. Many possible meanings spring from this symbolism of black and white: the historical debt owed to the age of black and white TV when Obama’s heroes were at the helm; the black and white of the moral or ideological differences between Bush’s third term and anything but that; the black and white of Obama’s parentage-black father, white mother; the black and white that suggests a leveling, a leaving behind, a less complicated moment where even the last shall be first and where will.i.am’s vote counts no more than mine.

Image by http://handcrankedletterpress.com/

How Obama stretches his Kumbaya moments without them ever feeling contrived or cheesy bears further dissection and discussion, but in this speech he works them and well. Yes, he works it. He works the crowd, hitting each high and low, each pause and plea, each emphatic wave of the arm or moment of eye contact with the cameras.

Some have suggested it’s the comforting, smoky baritone of his voice that makes it matter, prompting British writer Andrew Gimson to suggest,  “Just as those who love opera will do almost anything to hear a favoured singer, so those of us who value the art of rhetoric want to go and hear Mr. Obama.”

The other, more fabled move Obama takes from King’s playbook comes with what I like to call the anchor phrase-also known as the chorus, the refrain, as the intentional and perfect repetition. Obama’s simple cry of “Yes we can” comes late in the speech-hypnotic and mesmerizing and mantra-like. It follows just a few key phrases that invoke American history much in the manner that Kind did with “I Have a Dream.” It provides the lyrical potency needed for translation into the visionary Will.i.am video.

The speech finds its center of gravity and gives. Back in January 2008, Obama spoke these words:

“We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check. We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.

For when we have faced down impossible odds, when we’ve been told we’re not ready or that we shouldn’t try or that we can’t, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can. Yes, we can. Yes, we can.

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation: Yes, we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail towards freedom through the darkest of nights: Yes, we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness: Yes, we can.

It was the call of workers who organized, women who reached for the ballot, a president who chose the moon as our new frontier, and a king who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the promised land: Yes, we can, to justice and equality.

Yes, we can, to opportunity and prosperity. Yes, we can heal this nation. Yes, we can repair this world. Yes, we can.”

The “unlikely story” line sets up the crescendo. The “unlikely story” seduces listeners with its irrational, emotional, and undeniable intoxicating cry for hope in times that the evidence tells us are terribly hopeless. Then, it uses an indefinite pronoun and a passive verb as kicker just four times (the resonating return to “it was . . . “), and each of those four times follows that easy construction with a cavalcade of vivid emotion and the voice of history.

Yes we did. The pathos of the positive purified my own cynicism about people and place, about these people and this place. Yes we did. Yes we did scream and dance and shout and get kicked out of a hotel in Cookeville, Tennessee as I felt like the salt in Jesse Jackson’s tears.  Yes we did watch YouTube videos of spontaneous street parties all over the country and world that resembled nothing we had ever seen before, a global gasp of relief, a global gust of generosity being bestowed on the citizens of an empire that had not recently earned it. Yes we did.

U2 lead singer Bono has described her as “one of the heroes” for her response to the African AIDS pandemic.

Agnes Nyamayarwo is the leader of the Mulago Positive Women’s Network, an organization started in January 2004 to address the special needs of HIV-positive women in Uganda.

Thanks to the MPWN’s new web site — launched on Valentine’s Day to encourage people around the world to “have a heart for Africa” — the heroics of Nyamayarwo and her constituents are as close to the rest of us as our computer screens.

The web site (www.mpwn-uganda.org) provides a “unique opportunity for the public to interact with some of those in Africa directly affected by the AIDS pandemic,” organizers say.

“The HIV and AIDS crisis in Africa has been recognized as the worst health epidemic in modern human history. Already, more than 37 million people around the world have died of AIDS, with at least 25 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa,” organizers continue.

The new web site includes personal stories of some of the MPWN women, including Nyamayarwo, who are “living positively” with HIV. Before starting the MPWN, she was one of the main speakers on the “Heart of America” tour in December 2002, which launched Bono’s DATA organization advocating for debt, AIDS, trade and Africa.
The U2 front man met Nyamayarwo earlier in 2002 during a trip to Africa and was inspired by her courage and her personal struggle with HIV.

Through her continued work with the MPWN — based in Kampala, Uganda — she advocates on behalf of the world’s poorest people.

In addition to telling the personal stories of Nyamayarwo and other MPWN women, the organization’s new web site will also allow visitors to purchase traditional African craft items produced by the program’s members.

All proceeds from the sale of these pieces will go directly to the women who produce them, organizers say, and among the items available for purchase are beaded necklaces, batik wall hangings, hand-carved wooden statues, baskets of all sizes, shapes and colors, and an African mother and child doll handmade by Nyamayarwo herself.

It also features links to associated web sites, where visitors can learn more about stopping extreme poverty in African and the spread of HIV and AIDS.
The MPWN is affiliated with The AIDS Support Organization of Uganda. TASO is one of the longest established and most prestigious African-initiated AIDS organizations on the continent. For more information about TASO, visit its web site at www.tasouganda.org.

Bono’s activities for Africa are carried out through DATA (www.data.org), the One campaign to make poverty history (www.one.org), Red (www.joinred.com), and Edun (www.edunonline.com).

The MPWN organizers would like to thank Jason Liebe and Iterative Media of Austin, Texas, for assistance with the creation and maintenance of the new web site.

They say they also want to thank Juliet Tembe and TASO, all the people at DATA and One, along with Debbie Kreuser, Sue Sadkowski, and Bono.

For more information about the MPWN and its new web site, call 512/992-7782.

The lights went dark. A song began to fill the room. Even though the music was prerecorded and being piped through the PA system, it conjured the emotions of the opening song at a rock and roll show. Of course, I knew the song poignantly and painfully well. “City of Blinding Lights” by U2 crammed the airspace and coddled the crowd. Yes, the people went wild as though at a rock show while an idealistic young politician from Illinois took the stage.

The comparisons between Senator Barack Obama and energetic rock stars like Bruce Springsteen and Bono have abounded from the lips of the mainstream pundits during the tumultuous primary contests that have conjured a kind of “February Madness” on the eve of the Super Tuesday contest. No matter what candidate voters ultimately choose, the energy for the primary election this year evokes comparisons to great historical moments of previous epochs. And we have the songs and speeches that seem to keep that spirit alive.

Obama’s not the first politician to pluck a U2 riff for pre-speech posturing. Anthems in general are the kinds of songs that candidates love for prepping another stump speech. The history of rock anthems is highly commercial and appropriately contaminated by images of fans waving fists to a Queen song like “We Are the Champions” being blared at a sporting event. But for me, I love an anthem that holds a spiritual side and socially conscious kernel. Many think Springsteen and Mellencamp. And in the 1980s, these tunes took a page from U2’s playbook and played into the success of bands like The Alarm, Big Country, The Waterboys, and Simple Minds.

Let me be clear: in my journalist’s hat, I’m in no place to endorse any politician, left or right. Moreover, as Little Steven sang in a tune that’s been covered by many including Pearl Jam, “I believe in one party, and it’s name is freedom.” Taking it even further, I believe what the comedian Bill Hicks said, and I am paraphrasing here to keep it clean: “All governments lie.” As much as I love the art of rhetoric fused with the possibility of community self-rule, my personal relationship with democracy has always been tenuous, desiring revolution even as I am more than willing to work for and accept reform. These are problematic terms for even more problematic times.

But all that said, I want to keep it real. After eight frightening years of terror and war, I wonder what in the world I can do. We all face the waxing realization that economic meltdown and icecaps melting might end life as we know it. Something entirely different is required to get us inspired and out of the mire. Tomorrow, we vote. Tomorrow, everyone of us gets to choose.

Many people would rather be post-partisan than bi-partisan, and it’s in this paradigm shift that Senator Obama’s appeal resides. The sincere celebrity comparisons to Kennedy and King percolate online and in print, but these are based in a superficial yet sacred brew, in the sweet rhetorical stance of his speeches and style.

As cynical as some can get about politics, we still have the right to vote, and this is a freedom we can seize. If you have the honor of participating in Super Tuesday, your voice suddenly matters. This election season is unlike any we have experienced, and both the Republican and Democratic primaries have seen unprecedented enthusiasm among the voters. Whether it’s ‘Barack and roll’ or Hillary, whether it’s claiming McCain or sticking with Huckabee, Romney, or Paul, this election is like none other, and even though that tired assertion sounds like hype, it’s true, and it’s ripe.

On Aug. 25, 2005, the St. Petersburg Times in Florida warned its readers about the possible dangers of Tropical Storm Katrina. "While not a hurricane, it is a reminder of how quickly storms can develop and threaten the state," the paper wrote.

Just a few days later, residents in Louisiana and Mississippi learned how quickly storms could develop into a threat when Hurricane Katrina struck. The devastation that followed—caused directly and indirectly by Katrina—would, according to the Discovery Channel, kill 1,836 people, mainly in Louisiana and Mississippi. Hundreds more still remain unaccounted for.

The millions of survivors were left without homes, schools or businesses and were evacuated to locations all across the country. As the pictures and stories flashed across televisions, newspapers and magazines grew more and more grim, many were left to wonder if the region, particularly culture-rich New Orleans, would come back.

"It is a live culture," is how the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corp. describes the city. Taking its character from the various groups that have settled in the city (including French, Spanish and African), the city has become renown for its music, food and lifestyle.

After Katrina, though, it seemed that those things could be lost forever. In addition to funds being raised to rebuild the physical structure of the city, money was also needed to bring the cultural life back to New Orleans.

"New Orleans is a crucible for great music," The Edge told Rolling Stone last November. "The idea that it would be just a place of history for music is awful to me. Coming from Dublin in the ’70s, when music was something you had to search out, I’d never dreamt that somewhere like New Orleans could exist. Music was coming out of the walls. It seemed not just a form of escapism, but like it was weaved into everybody’s life."

That idea led The Edge to join forces with MusiCares, the charitable arm of The Recording Academy, music producer Bob Ezrin, Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz and Guitar Center CEO Marty Albertson to create Music Rising, an organization designed to aid musicians impacted by the hurricane.

"My recent visit to New Orleans gave me a first-hand look at the devastation which tragically destroyed the lives of thousands," The Edge said at a press conference unveiling the organization. "The area’s rich and spirited culture must be restored and can be by assisting those musicians affected by the disaster, which in turn will bring back the essence of the regions. Providing replacement instruments through Music Rising will not only help the professional musicians to regain a foothold on their future, but will also ensure that one of the Gulf Coast’s greatest assets, its music, will rise again."

Since its inception, Music Rising has given $1,000 grants to musicians to buy new instruments and equipment at cost. The Edge has been able to hand over the new instruments himself at a variety of Music Rising events, including the reopening of Preservation Hall in April during JazzFest, where he also played with Dave Matthews Band and The New Birth Brass Band.

"While I was walking around at the jazz festival, four or five musicians came up to me and said, ‘Thanks for the new amp, man, it’s got me back on the road,’ or ‘Thanks for the guitar,’" The Edge told The Independent. "It was really inspiring, an amazing feeling, and it showed that this really is making a difference."

The organization is also getting noticed. Music Rising received the Gold Cause Marketing Halo Award for Best Transactional Campaign at the fourth annual Cause Marketing Forum conference in June and will be honored at the Billboard Touring Awards this November with its Humanitarian Award.

Music Rising has raised more that $1 million for musicians in New Orleans the Gulf Coast region through a number initiatives, including the sale of a limited-edition Gibson guitar, painted in Mardi Gras colors and made with woods from the affected areas, that is exclusively sold at the Guitar Center. The Edge signed a handful of the guitars that were later sold for $10,000 each.

The organization also sells a logo T-shirt worn by The Edge at this year’s Grammy Awards. Ticketmaster has established a series of auctions where winning bidders receive four concert tickets and an Epiphone guitar, with net proceeds benefiting Music Rising.

The Edge also hit the pavement to seek out donations, appearing in a public service announcement that ran on channels including VH1, as well as doing numerous interviews. In an interview with CNN, The Edge discussed a documentary he was making about Katrina and Music Rising.

A year after Katrina hit, Music Rising is still working to bring music back to New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast. Through its website, which includes a blog and bulletin board, the organization takes donations, accepts grant applications from area musicians and shares some of The Edge’s experiences with Music Rising. The organization is also branching out to help schools, churches and community organizations, the places where, Edge once explained, the music really lives.

"Other parts of America have music scenes, but it really is a completely self-sufficient music culture in New Orleans," The Edge told The Independent. "It’s like the city is one giant music academy: everyone is into music, everyone’s learning how to play from other musicians. And with Katrina, that whole system has been completely shattered."

Music Rising is helping to bring that system back together.

For more information on Music Rising, visit its website.

Keep a Child Alive was founded in Mombasa, Kenya, in 2002 by Leigh Blake after a mother and child walked into the AIDS Research and Family Care Clinic, a center funded by one of Blake’s previous campaigns, seeking anti-retroviral medicine. The mother knew that without such treatment her son would die but, unfortunately, due to the high cost of the medicines, the clinic couldn’t supply the drugs he needed. The mother had no intentions of leaving the facility without treatment for her ailing son.

Blake had compassion for the strong-willed mother and offered to personally pay for her son’s medicines. Word soon spread about Blake’s good deed and her friends and others, including Alicia Keys, wanted to help sponsor children as well. Not long after that, Blake and Maz Kessler co-founded the Keep a Child Alive campaign, allowing anyone to donate a dollar a day to provide the anti-retroviral drugs to the children at the organization’s treatment sites.

On November 3, 2005, Keep a Child Alive held its annual Black Ball fundraiser. Bono joined Keys via satellite to duet on a special rendition of Peter Gabriel’s "Don’t Give Up" called "Don’t Give Up (Africa)." The song was released exclusively on iTunes on World AIDS Day with all proceeds going to benefit Keep a Child Alive and was co-produced by Keys, the charity’s global ambassador, and longtime U2 producer Steve Lillywhite.

Of the song, Blake, who serves as the organization’s president, told U2.com, "It felt like a song meant to be recorded for Africa and I had been thinking about it for years. I knew this duet was going to be something special but true magic happened in that studio when Alicia and Bono came together. It came from their hearts directly to the African people and you can really hear that compassion in the song."

Keys shared her feelings on the song and charity with U2.com, saying, "I love this song. And I love Bono. I really respect what he has done for Africa and how he has used his fame to do good in the world. I hope I can do half as much in my life. Keep a Child Alive is my passion and my heartfelt mission. I believe AIDS is the most important issue we face, because how we treat the poor is a reflection of who we are as a people. I urge everyone to recognize the extreme disaster Africa is facing and step up for the Motherland."

Other musicians such as Dave Matthews, Coldplay, 50 Cent, Simple Plan and Rod Stewart also support the Keep a Child Alive campaign and can be seen on the foundation’s website, as well as voicing their support in the organization’s commercials that can be seen on MTV and various other cable networks.

For more information on Keep a Child Alive, visit the organization’s website.

"Educate a man, you educate the individual; educate a woman and you educate a family, a nation"
—African Proverb

Cameroon, on the western side of the African continent, is a beautiful country with lush greenery and warm, loving people. It’s also a poor country where most girls spend their days doing the household chores and looking after younger siblings, often missing out on an education most America children take for granted. This is changing, however, for the 300 students of St. Joseph’s Girls Vocational High School in Bafut, Cameroon.

St. Joseph’s offers girls and women between the ages of 13 and 24 a comprehensive education in math, reading, writing, science, history and religion. Students also learn life skills like hygiene, sewing and cooking. It’s St. Joseph’s goal to have these girls use their education and skills to support their families and communities. The success of St. Joseph’s depends on the devotion and compassion of some very committed people. One of these people is Mary Rose from Milwaukee.

Rose learned about St. Joseph’s from a nun friend who’d been to Cameroon. The friend told her about the school, what it was doing to help the girls and the challenges it faced. Rose’s interest was instantly awakened. She was ready for a change in her life, the chance to make a difference. She’d also always been interested in African culture so when the friend asked if she’d like to come along on her next trip to the school, Rose responded, "I’m packed. Just tell me when."

Rose didn’t know what to expect when she visited Cameroon and St. Joseph’s. "I had no idea what I was getting into, other than I was open to their world and open to God’s plan," Rose said. Initially, she was shocked at the lack of amenities at the school—the students have to share an outhouse and have only a spigot to wash up. She recalled the stench of the thin foam mattresses the students had to sleep on and the lack of proper school supplies. One of her first missions was going into the village to buy new mattresses. However, she was also greatly touched by the students who were overjoyed about getting an education. She remembers the enthusiasm the girls showed as they went about their daily lessons and tasks. "The beautiful part is they are so eager to learn," she said.

All images courtesy of Mary Rose

At first, the students were shy around Rose but soon responded positively to her warmth and generosity, bestowing her with the nickname Mama Rose. She brought art supplies with her and taught the students origami. Most of the students had never seen a glue stick or stickers, items that any American grade-school student would have no problem identifying.

Rose, who stayed in Cameroon for a month, initially thought of starting a pen-pal project between St. Joseph’s students and students back home in Milwaukee. When she asked the students who would like to be pen pals with American girls, all 300 hands shot into the air. However, Rose was so inspired by everyone at the school that she knew her involvement had to go beyond getting the girls pen pals. "You really leave your heart there," Rose said about the school, and she vowed to the school’s principal, Sister Theodosia, "I will do your work back home."

Since her return to the United States, Rose has done just that. She joined forces Milwaukee’s St. Ann’s Center to develop a foundation for St. Joseph’s called the Cameroon Fund/Educational Development Center to raise funds for the school. She has spoken to the members of her church about her mission to an enthusiastic response. She hosted "Arts in Action" at her condominium, featuring the artwork of local artists for a small fee. She even spoke to several classes at her granddaughter’s school and the students were so moved that they helped raise $500 for St. Joseph’s. Last Christmas the foundation sold a Christmas CD to raise funds and will sell the CD again this Christmas.

This spring, Sister Theodosia will visit Milwaukee where she will give a presentation about the school to the Greater Milwaukee Foundation in hopes of raising more funds. Rose says Sister Theodosia can best tell the story of St. Joseph’s because she lives it every single day.

Getting involved with St. Joseph’s has been life changing for Rose. It is like a full-time job, or better yet, a calling. "When I came home [from Cameroon] I said, ‘Here we have 300 young women that can make a difference; we can help them,’" she said.

The school faces many challenges that Rose is working to address. It lacks up-to-date books and adequate supplies. The conditions are unsanitary. Often the girls don’t have enough money to attend the school and some of the families in Bafut consider education unnecessary for young girls because the culture is patriarchal. The school is also challenged by the problems plaguing the African continent, including poverty and AIDS.

Rose has also dealt with challenges back home. She said the biggest obstacle she faces is getting people to take this situation seriously, explaining that some people only want to keep their donated dollars in their communities and that others don’t understand the magnitude of problems Cameroon faces.

Rose takes a clear look at these challenges and works on finding solutions. She feels it’s her mission to get people to care and it’s her passion that often makes people want to help the school. She’s currently working with someone to develop a Power Point presentation that she can use at her talks in the community and a website is forthcoming. Rose knows in her heart that we can all work together to make a positive difference in the lives of these students and, therefore, change their world.

Both St. Joseph’s and Rose have many goals. The school’s goal is to have adequately equipped classrooms with updated books, abundant supplies and technological equipment. The school also needs sanitary living conditions in its dormitories. In September, Rose will return to the school to survey the progress it’s making, see if living conditions have improved and learn of what else the school needs. Financially, she’d like to raise at least $1 million. As St. Joseph’s develops and educates its students, she wants to discuss the idea of having its graduates come to the United States for additional education and then go back to Cameroon to teach at the school. She’d also like to send recent American college graduates to Cameroon to teach at St. Joseph’s.

Though the school’s conditions are challenging, Rose ultimately finds St. Joseph’s joyful. Like students everywhere, St. Joseph’s students are filled with dreams and promise. They have shown abilities in many subjects, including mathematics, nursing, tailoring and graphic arts. Rose knows that by educating these amazing girls, many of Africa’s problems can be alleviated. "I so believe in what I’m doing," she said. "It’s not about me; it’s about co-creating with people who really want to get involved in helping the women of Cameroon." These dynamic and smart young women can help solve problems plaguing Africa including AIDS, poverty and hunger. They can help handicapped and sick children and can assist the elderly. They can also foster economic growth within their communities. Rose is convinced that if we all work together, we can help heal what is broken.

Ultimately Rose believes, "By helping these girls, we can make a lot of change in the world."

You can help make a difference for the students of St. Joseph’s Girls Vocational High School. To make a donation or to learn more, please contact:

Cameroon Fund/Educational Development Center
2801 E. Morgan Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53207
(414) 977-5000

Inspired by the good U2 has done in the world, Interference.com is looking to profile people within the U2 fan community who are doing their part to make the world a better place. If you know someone whose work and cause deserve a little attention, please e-mail carrie@interference.com or devlin@interference.com.

In June of 1992, the four members of U2 climbed aboard a Greenpeace ship to protest the Sellafield nuclear reactor—a British reactor whose contaminants are believed to be responsible for numerous health and environmental problems in communities along the Irish Sea. Dressed in radiation suits and wading knee deep through freezing, possibly contaminated water, it was clear what lengths the band and Greenpeace members would go to in order to protest the reactor’s poor safety record and the building of another plant.

Whether it is an end to nuclear threat, the protection of ancient forests and oceans or safe, sustainable trade, Greenpeace uses non-violent, creative confrontation to bring media attention to expose problems and demand solutions.

Greenpeace had its beginnings in 1971 when a small group of activists (including an Olympic athlete, a law student and a U.S. Navy deep sea diver, among others) set sail in a tiny fishing boat in an effort to protest the United States government conducting underground nuclear testing in Amchitka, Alaska. The boat was intercepted before it reached its destination but the flurry of media attention helped put an end to nuclear testing in an area that was later declared a bird sanctuary.

This group of activists became know as Greenpeace when an onlooker gave them the peace sign. Greenpeace became a foundation in 1972 and has since grown internationally with activists in 125 countries and territories. The organization relies on private donations and fundraising events and does not accept money from corporations or governments.

Though a non-violent organization itself, its activists are often met with hostility by local police and governments. Activists are often arrested, prosecuted or even killed.

The organization does offer many less hands-on opportunities to become involved, including e-zines, action forums and blogs. To learn more about Sellafield or other campaigns led by Greenpeace, visit www.greenpeace.org.

EDUN—the name evokes a feeling of innocence and simplicity, conjuring up images of beauty and passion. But behind the enigmatic name, the word EDUN has come to represent a brighter future for thousands of some of the world’s poorest people.

On March 11, 2005, Ali Hewson, accompanied by fashion clothing designer Rogan Gregory and husband Bono, introduced the world to EDUN, a fair trade clothing line. Made largely of organic fibers and natural dyes, and produced in an environmentally friendly manner, EDUN is a labor of love that took nearly four years to plan and implement. As Hewson told the Sunday Independent, "We want to prove that you can make a profit while running a business in a responsible way.”

The issue of fair trade has been gaining momentum over the last several years as the economic disparities between, as Bono says, the "have nots" and the "have yachts" have widened.

According to Hewson, Africa had 6 percent of world trade in 1980. By 2002, Africa’s share of world trade had dropped to only 2 percent, due largely to restrictive trade policies imposed on African countries by trade agreements made with developed nations and international agencies like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization. If they could recoup just 1 percent of world trade (equaling $70 billion a year), African countries could surpass the current $22 billion in international aid that they get a year and do much more for their populace with increased spending on health care, education, clean water resources and nutritional programs. As Hewson told The Observer, "The idea is to show that the world can do business with Africa. They don’t want charity, they want to prove that they can make a profit."

EDUN currently contracts with locally owned and family-run manufacturing facilities in Lima, Peru, and Monastir, Tunisia, with adjunct facilities in India and Portugal. Several more manufacturing facilities in Lesotho, South Africa and Tanzania are slated to start production for EDUN later this year. EDUN employs people in these countries, many of whom had lost their jobs due to the further globalization of world trade that has most adversely affected Africa, while maintaining decent labor practices. Bono described it this way to MTVAsia.com, "At the very heart of it, we have the idea of the four respects: respect for what your clothes are made of, respect for who is making them, respect for where they are made and respect for the people who are going to put them on."

Ninety percent of EDUN’s cotton and denim clothing is currently made in Tunisia and Peru, and more than half of the cotton comes from unsubsidized sources in Africa and South America giving local farmers locked out of the world trade market by restrictive trade agreements made with the WTO and developed nations over the last 20 years a chance to make a decent living.

Workers are paid a livable minimum wage with basic health care provided and no child labor’s allowed in EDUN facilities.

The clothes range from perfectly tailored jeans and sexy, lacy camisoles to rugged men’s cotton shirts and T-shirts. The clothing retails from $55 to $325, with most in the $175 area. In addition to creating the EDUN line, some of the T-shirts sold during the current U2 tour are also made by EDUN.

While there’s no particular target group designated to market EDUN to, so far it’s being sold at some of the world’s more upscale stores, including Saks Fifth Avenue, Selfridges, Brown Thomas, Holt Renfrew and Barney’s New York. If the idea was to market EDUN in these stores to catch the eye of the fashion world in order to ultimately change the ways in which the fashion industry does business with developing nations, it must be working. The reaction from the fashion industry has been extremely positive with major articles in some of the world’s biggest and most influential fashion magazines, most notably in the March issue of Vogue.

EDUN has its own website where visitors can learn more about the genesis of the line, the four respects it represents and the vision of EDUN. Also included on the website is a short video about the EDUN launch in NYC featuring Hewson, Bono, Gregory and, most importantly, the people who make EDUN’s clothing.

EDUN is a superb idea whose time has come. I’ve already made several EDUN purchases to support this very important endeavor. The feeling of wearing something that you know was not made "with despair,” as Bono and wife Ali have said, will be more than worth the money you’ll spend for EDUN’s clothes.

For more information on EDUN, visit www.edun.ie.

In its album liner notes, U2 routinely lists the names of individuals whose unjust, politically motivated imprisonments have caught the attention of Amnesty International. In a series of articles, Interference.com will tell the stories of these Prisoners of Conscience and provide updates. In part three we take a look at the person listed in 2000’s "All That You Can’t Leave Behind," Mabinti.

Remember 16-year-old Mabinti (name changed to protect identity), abducted, mutilated and raped by rebel forces, Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone is a country with a long history of internal strife. It is not uncommon for rebel forces to enter a village and plumage it. Civilians are often tortured, mutilated, raped, abducted and even murdered. Even government-allied forces have committed these atrocities and not much has been done by the government to curtail such behavior.

Mabinti was in her early teens when rebel forces entered her village. They murdered both of her parents before abducting her. She was repeatedly gang raped and denied food and water if she resisted. Soon she became pregnant and was abandoned by the rebels.

Thankfully, she was able to make it back to her village where she lived with her grandmother for some time.

In May of 2000, her village was once again terrorized by rebels. Mabinti and her grandmother were able to escape and walked 40 kilometers to reach a displaced people’s camp. Since that time, there have been no updates on Mabinti’s story.

Fighting and human rights abuses continue in Sierra Leone to this day and have escalated to the point of being labeled a holocaust.

For more information on Prisoners of Conscience like Mabinti, and what you can do to help their causes, visit Amnesty International.

In its album liner notes, U2 routinely lists the names of individuals whose unjust, politically motivated imprisonments have caught the attention of Amnesty International. In a series of articles, Interference.com will tell the stories of these Prisoners of Conscience and provide updates. In part two we take a look at the two people listed in 1997’s "Pop," Wei Jingsheng and Fehmi Tosun.

Remember Wei Jingsheng, imprisoned in China for 14 years in December 1995

Wei Jingsheng is known as the "stubborn idiot who defied Beijing" (a term he has used to describe himself). Born in 1950, Jingsheng grew up to be radical in his approach to democracy by supporting the communist leader Mao Tse-tung and joining the Red Army, a group of young militants who encouraged the working class and students to rise up against authority.

Jingsheng was working as an electrician at the Beijing zoo when he began to write about democracy. He published a magazine, Explorations, and wrote regularly on the democracy wall—a wall in Beijing where activists wrote freely about the failings of the Chinese government. As criticism grew stronger and harsher the Chinese government became more intolerant and the wall was taken down.

In October 1979, Jingsheng was arrested, tried and convicted of counterrevolution. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. During this time he suffered torture, solitary confinement and forced labor camps. As a result his health diminished and he now suffers from a heart condition.

He was paroled in 1993 in a move designed by the Chinese government to gain support for its bid to host the 2000 Olympics. Upon his release Jingsheng was quick to reestablish himself as a threat to the government by talking to foreign journalists and speaking openly about human rights violations in China.

Jingsheng enjoyed only six months of freedom before he was arrested and sentenced to 14 more years of prison. He was soon released after Chinese President Jiang Zemin met with U.S. President Bill Clinton. Jingsheng was then exiled to the United States where he continues to receive treatment for his heart condition.

Jingsheng was nominated seven times for the Nobel Peace Prize and is the author of several essays and other writings including the book, "The Courage to Stand Alone: Letters from Prison and Other Writings."

Jingsheng continues to be outspoken, saying that U.S. policy towards China needs to be about more than trade, because the only Chinese people benefiting are the bureaucrats and their families. He says that his time in prison was "justified" because it had an effect on and (hopefully) improved the lives of billions of Chinese.

Remember Fehmi Tosun, "disappeared" in Turkey October 1995

Fehmi Tosun was a 36-year-old construction worker who was captured early one morning in October 1995. He was walking to his job in the Avcilar district of Istanbul, when three men with walking talkies grabbed him and put him in a white van. All of this was witnessed by his wife, Hanim, who was watching from the balcony of their house.

It is believed Tosun was arrested because he was an ethic Kurd and a labor unionist. In 1974, Turkey conducted a full scale military invasion of the Republic of Cyprus, a nation it continues to occupy 37 percent of, and is accused of conducting a genocidal campaign against ethnic Kurds.

Tosun is just one of many "disappeared" who are taken into custody and never seen again. It is believed that these people die under interrogation and their bodies are disposed of in unmarked mass graves. This method creates an atmosphere of fear which allows the regime greater control over the populace.

Tosun is presumed dead and is survived by his wife and five children who continue to fight for justice. Hanim was arrested and given a four-day sentence for petitioning the government to allow her children to be educated in the Kurdish language. Her children regularly participate in protest against the Turkey government and its human rights violations.

On Feb. 7, 2002, the Turkish government, in its effort to gain entry into the European Union, announced the demise of the PKK, the governmental branch that carried out arrests and interrogations of Kurds. Hanim Tosun was awarded a settlement in the amount of 40,000 EUR for the disappearance of her husband.

For more information on Prisoners of Conscience like Wei Jingsheng and Fehmi Tosun, and what you can do to help their causes, visit Amnesty International.