By Tim Bonfield
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Rock star Bono came to Cincinnati Friday to urge Midwesterners to focus "America's moral compass" on the devastation that AIDS has brought to Africa.

Bono (left) talks with Norman Hampton Friday at Caracole House about AIDS in Africa. Mr. Hampton, who suffers from AIDS, is the center's activities director. (Gary Landers photo) | ZOOM |

He compared the Western world's indifference to the 2.5 million Africans who will die next year of AIDS with past generations who looked the other way when black people were lynched in America and when Jews were hauled away by the trainload during the Holocaust.

"We are watching this happen. We will be held accountable for what we see, by God and by history," Bono said. "This is not a `cause.' This is an emergency. That it's not described as an emergency should throw up deep questions about our culture."

PHOTO GALLERY

• Bono, Chris Tucker in Cincinnati

Bono's daylong visit to Cincinnati was part of a weeklong "Heart of America" tour that plans stops in seven states to promote increased AIDS relief, trade support and debt relief for Africa. The tour will travel to Louisville and Nashville before ending Monday.

The tour, which also included actor Chris Tucker, co-star of the Rush Hour movies with Jackie Chan, had already stopped in Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana before rolling to its first local stop Friday morning - a Cincinnati Enquirer editorial board meeting.

The entourage went on to have lunch with about 80 AIDS activists and people with HIV at Caracole Inc., an agency that houses people with HIV/AIDS. Then they met with about 100 medical students, law students and faculty at the University of Cincinnati, and finally with about 50 political, religious and community leaders and other students at a reception hosted by the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

A case for involvement

At the Enquirer, Bono said the United States and Europe and other nations should answer a call from the United Nations to triple spending on AIDS relief in Africa to about $10 billion a year. America spends about $1 billion now, but should be spending about $3 billion, Bono said.

About half the increased funds would be used to supply anti-retroviral medications to at least 3 million Africans, which experts predict could prevent another 10 million new infections.

The rest would be used to support AIDS orphans and promote AIDS prevention, through postponing sexual activity and increased distribution of condoms.

Providing more medications would reflect America's greatness, Bono said. Along the way, a large-scale humanitarian effort could help defuse some of the hate that rages against America in many parts of the world.

"The United States isn't just a great country. It's a great idea. And that idea has to be defended," Bono said. "There's an opportunity for the United States here to describe what it's for as well as what it's against."

The human toll of AIDS

At Caracole, Bono's visit was held in the only open area available in the small Roselawn apartment building - the basement. Lunch was served on a board covering a pool table. And people squeezed in next to the washer and dryer to hear the story of Agnes Nyamayarwo, a nurse from Uganda, who is traveling with Bono.

Agnes is a mother of eight who lost her husband in 1992 and her youngest son in 1995 to AIDS. She found out she was HIV-positive by learning to her horror that she had passed the disease to her son.

"I had to nurse him through all the things of AIDS for a year and a half. He was 6‡ when he died," Agnes said. "I felt so bad as a parent. Instead of giving him the best, I gave him HIV, which killed him."

AIDS by the numbers

The only time the rock star Bono played Cincinnati was at Bogarts in 1981 - the same year health officials coined the term Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome to describe an alarming new disease.

Over the next two decades, U2 went on to become one of the world's biggest bands and AIDS evolved into a full-scale plague.

In Greater Cincinnati, AIDS has claimed 1,254 lives, since 1982. But worldwide, the disease will kill 3.1 million this year alone, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.

How staggering is that death toll? In 1997, more than 1.7 million people filled arenas in nearly 80 cities to see U2 play in one of the most successful concert tours of the year. Now imagine twice as many people dead from AIDS every year.

That makes AIDS nothing less than what U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell described in 2001 as a "clear and present danger" to the world.

. "No war on the face of the earth is more destructive than the AIDS pandemic," Mr. Powell said in a speech to the United Nations.

Local reaction

Bono's visit raised hopes among local leaders that AIDS will become a bigger public issue for Africa and the home front.

"This is a much-needed shot in the arm," said Caracole president James Jackson. "It's clear that the tough times of 2002 are going to get tougher in 2003. We're seeing increased need in the community but state, local and federal funding is decreasing."

Bono's visit impressed Peter Frampton, a rock star from an earlier era who lives in Cincinnati and raises funds to support children with AIDS

"For him to see Cincinnati as important as Chicago, I applaud that. We can make a difference here," Mr. Frampton said.

While most were thrilled to meet Bono, Marsha Thomas, an HIV prevention instructor for the local Red Cross and a member of the Greater Cincinnati Faith Initiative, was just as excited to meet Mr. Tucker.

"He can definitely bring so much awareness about the plight of people with AIDS. I told him, `Just keep on doing what you're doing,' " Ms. Thomas said.

Mr. Tucker said traveling to Africa earlier this year with Bono "shook him."

"This is the most important thing I ever did," Mr. Tucker said. "A lot of African-Americans are concerned with their own thing in America. I want to tell more African-Americans what's going on in Africa so they can help."

Celebrity as currency

Some have questioned the legitimacy of celebrities who decide to promote a cause. But Bono has long weaved social issues into his music and has been crusading to help Africa since the first Band Aid concert in 1984.

He has taken his message to President Bush and Pope John-Paul II. He has met with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and traveled Africa with U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill. He has even had lunch with arch-conservative Sen. Jesse Helms.

Bono makes no apologies for using his celebrity status to push for change.

"One of the things we've heard time and again is how ridiculous celebrity is," Bono said. "But it is currency, and we can spend it wisely."

For information about the Heart of America tour, go online at www.datadata.org.

E-mail tbonfield@enquirer.com.