The value of the plenary on building support for development was the way in which all of the speakers — Bill Gates, Bono, former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo — ganged up on US Treasury secretary Paul O’Neill.
O’Neill gave his speech from yesterday, virtually unaltered. But Zedillo in particular laid into his seeming complacency. “Even if we have everything else [good governance, open markets, etc], we still need money,” Zedillo said. I can’t say that O’Neill flinched, but I’m beginning to hope that if enough people keep banging the drum about the need for vastly increased developmental aid, the US will eventually get the message.
Again, I liked Bono. When asked how the public could be mobilised behind the message, he talked about his experienced in the debt relief campaign. “You’d think that a rock star talking about debt or the Pope talking about debt could get on the front pages. But they don’t. But put the rock star and the Pope together, and people scratch their heads and say, ‘What are they doing together?'”