Nelson Mandela and international music stars pressed the world’s richest nations to save lives with increased action against HIV/Aids and poverty at a benefit concert under the midnight sun in Norway’s Arctic.
”Let every child be a healthy child”, Mandela told the cheering crowd of almost 18 000. ”We know what to do and how much it will cost. We now need leadership, vision and political courage.”
The 46664 Arctic Concert, named for Mandela’s prisoner number during his 27 years in South African detention, is part of a series of Aids charity concerts and has drawn such stars as Peter Gabriel, Annie Lennox, Robert Plant, Brian May, Angelique Kidjo and the group Razorlight.
Since stepping down as South African president in 1999, Mandela — whose own son died of an Aids-related illness in January — has campaigned to raise awareness about HIV/Aids, especially in Africa where about 25-million of the world’s 40-million HIV-infected people live.
”Many years ago, I said that my long walk has not yet ended,” Mandela said. ”As we stand here tonight, I gain great comfort in the knowledge that we are not alone on this journey.”
Even before the concert began, Tromsoe, a city of 62 000 people roughly 350km north of the Arctic Circle, was in a festive mood, and by mid-afternoon, thousands of people stretched in a more that 1,5km-long line, waiting to enter the makeshift concert site on a nearby island.
Mandela’s message was meant for the leaders of the G8 group of industrialized nations, who will meet in a summit next month to discuss a British proposal for increased aid to Africa. The plea came just hours after the G8 finance ministers agreed on a historic deal to cancel US$40 billion (â,¬33 billion) of debt owed by the
world’s poorest nations.
In introducing Mandela at the concert, Peter Gabriel, who rose to fame with the group Genesis, said to cheers, ”If the world only had one father, it would be him.”
The 86-year-old Mandela, appearing frail, teamed up with more than 50 artists at the concert, where banners with his own image and his number flanked the stage. When he appeared on stage, waving his black baseball cap emblazoned 46664, all he could do was smile and wait for the wild cheering to subside.
At a brief news conference before the concern, Kidjo, a singer from Benin, said it was Mandela who made Aids a human rights issue and that ”we can learn from his strength.”
”Children are dying enormously in Africa and elsewhere from Aids and other diseases,” she said.
Lennox said she was honoured to be part of an effort to counter such a terrible worldwide problem.
”This concerns every part of our world,” said Lennox, the lead singer of the 1980s band the Eurythmics. ”Music is a huge, powerful, positive force that can bring people together,” she said.
Despite Tromsoe’s being on the far northern fringe of Europe, every hotel in town was full, and the streets were packed with people enjoying round-the-clock sunshine after weeks of rain, and stunning scenery that includes snowcapped mountains that seem to burst from the sea. Those attending included Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit.
Mandela thanked the people of Tromsoe, saying, ”We have brought Africa to you … In sharing this burden with us in Africa, you bring us hope.” ‒ Sapa-AP