The pop star sings a song to children who don't understand and the world's most powerful finance minister looks on. Declan Walsh in Kampala reports on the odd couple's tour
It has been a tour of the poor like no other. Since Monday, Paul O'Neill and Bono have been whizzing around Africa, stopping in on presidents, classrooms and slums in search for a cure to the continent's woes. The contrasts between the two men could hardly be greater.
One is the secretary of the US Treasury who signs the dollar bill, the other is the wealthy rock star who pockets them. Now known as the "odd couple", they agree that Africa's myriad problems must urgently be solved. Their difficulty is in agreeing how to go about it.
Predictably, Bono has cadged the best lines. "He is the man in charge of America's wallet and I am looking to open it," he said, referring to his silver-haired travelling partner. "I am not looking for small change, I am looking for big change."
This week they visited Ghana and South Africa, next week it is Uganda and Ethiopia. They know the beauty of their pairing is in the differences and the trip has already produced some memorable moments. One day in Ghana the two grinning men looked faintly ridiculous when photographed in traditional pyjama-like gowns.
Another time, Bono gave an impromptu rendition of I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. In front of him were neatly turned-out school children who didn't know the words. And behind him standing cross-armed, wearing sunglasses and an open-necked shirt, stood the world's most powerful finance minister.
However, the extraordinary trip amounts to much more than a clash of styles. O'Neill, a multi-millionaire former c.e.o. of an aluminium corporation, sees African countries like problem businesses.
The west poured in millions in aid but with little to show, he says. What African countries need now is a little tough love and a helping hand into the global economy.
He wants "results, results, results", he said during the week. "Believe me, I'm not rushing back to where we've been because that has not worked." Bono, on the other hand, is a passionate believer in the power of aid.
HE ARGUES that western countries have an obligation to forgive Africa's massive foreign debt, help build vital infrastructure and tackle the HIV/AIDS plague. Increased trade is just one element in the equation, he says. Along with Bob Geldof, and with money from Bill Gates and George Soros, he recently established the DATA foundation - Debt, Aid and Trade for Africa.
The purpose of this trip is to bring the famously sceptical but fabulously powerful Republican to this way of thinking, he says. "He likes an argument, he likes a row. He's a tough guy," he says of his new sparring partner. "I think it's very daring, very bold to have me on his plane. I'm very messy."
Sometimes the strain between the competing world-views has showed. On a visit to a market in Ghana, Bono pointed out American rice on sale. O'Neill "winced a bit" he said in an interview with CNN afterwards. "I took him to a neighbourhood where nobody has access to water and you have to pay to take a crap. Think about that," he said.
The trip has also exposed the contradictions in western policy towards Africa. On the eve of the trip, President Bush sharply hiked subsidies to US farmers, but at the same time, many African countries are struggling to implement painful liberalisation policies imposed by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank - both western controlled financial institutions.
Bono brought the issue up with the South African President, Mr Thabo Mbeki, on Thursday. When reporters asked for clarification of the US position afterwards, a spokesman tartly replied that the secretary's "preference is for a world without trade preferences".
According to British aid agency Oxfam, such trade barriers cost developing countries $100 billion a year - twice as much as they receive in aid. The European Union is the worst offender followed closely by the US and Japan, it says in a recent report.
Tomorrow, the two men arrive in Uganda, one of Africa's rare aid success stories. The government of President Yoweri Museveni is a darling of western donors, including Ireland, who pay for over 50 per cent of the national budget. Bono wants to show O'Neill how the forgiveness of $90 million in debt has helped to double school-enrolment numbers.
On Monday they will visit Lukia Semanobe, an AIDS widow who has successfully built up a small market café with the help of loans from Finca, a large micro-credit institution part funded by the US government. Yesterday Ms Semanobe was preparing to welcome the high-powered delegation.
"O'Neill? Bono? I have no idea who they are," she said with a broad smile, echoing the puzzlement of many Africans about the fuss, "but still I will welcome them."
The two men are choosing together which projects to visit. O'Neill has chosen self-help projects like Ms Semanobe's café, Bono is choosing the water projects, AIDS clinics and slums.
Despite its successes, however, some say that foreign aid to Uganda can be harmful.
EARLIER this week, Harvard economist and Bono ally Jeffrey Sachs stirred up debate by suggesting that the IMF wanted to impose a cap on government health spending. It would do so to prevent a sudden influx of life-saving funds - such as from the new Global Fund for Aids - sparking inflation and damaging economic competitiveness. Such an argument was "preposterous", he argued in a widely circulated letter. "This is life and death, not a game," he said.
The row neatly encapsulate the deep differences between Bono and O'Neill - whether African countries should concentrate first on entering the global economy or on saving the lives of people dying from AIDS and other preventable diseases.
Their "odd couple" double act has already notched up one major achievement - attracting widespread coverage for "dry" issues such as fair trade and debt relief on powerful media outlets as diverse as CNN and MTV.
Whether the Irish rock star will manage to persuade his new friend that US policy must be urgently changed - as well as those of the powerful IMF and World Bank - remains to be seen.