Not only a great musician

By Facundo


Sir Paul Daniel Hewson, better known as Bono, is a member of the rock band U2 who was born in Dublin on May 10, 1960. But he is not only a famous singer, he is also committed to the humanitarian cause in Africa, and he´s in favor of the cancellation of the third world countries’ external debts. That´s why he was nominated to the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005, 2006 and 2010.
Since 1999, he got involved, increasingly, in campaigning for the cancellation of the Third World debt. In May 2002, he led the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States on a tour through four African countries. That same year, Bono founded, along with Bobby Shriver and activists of the movement Juvilee 2000 “Drop the Debt”, the DATA organization whose aim is to warn of the bad debts that the continent has, as well as uncontrolled AIDS transmission and unjust commercial rules which harm its impoverished citizens.
He has supported or collaborated with organizations like International Amnesty, Free Burma, The Chernobyl Children´s Project, The One Campaign and Greenpeace.
He has been declared “European of the year” by the European Voice magazine in 2001 and Knight of the Legion d´Honneur in 2003; he was given the “Musicares” award for ”Person of the year” by the Grammy Academy in 2003; he was elected by the Time Magazine as “Man of the year” in 2005; he obtained the “Centenario Pablo Neruda” medal of Chile in 2004 and a prize from the German press for his social work in 2005, and he was appointed as a Knight of the Order of the British Empire on December 23, 2006 by the British Embassy in Dublin.