Silvio Berlusconi considered increasing Italy's foreign aid budget during the country's 2009 G8 presidency to avoid a "tongue-lashing" from Irish rock hero Bono, according to a confidential US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks.
In the leaked memo, William Meara, the economic adviser at the American embassy in Rome, reports that despite budget cuts and "with its 2009 G8 presidency looming", the newly installed, centre-right government "may decide to maintain funding levels [to Africa] simply to avoid an embarrassing tongue-lashing from Bono et al".
The relationship between the two men had been publicly strained since 2006, when Bono accused Berlusconi of "exploiting" his image in the runup to the country's elections.
The U2 frontman had appeared in a brochure sent to Italian homes in which it was claimed that Bono, who has long worked to eradicate world poverty, was "grateful" for Italy's actions to help the world's poor.
In an open letter, Bono said he felt a "bit exploited" by the claim. He pointed out that Italy would have to more than double its aid by 2010 to meet a personal commitment Berlusconi had made to the singer to cancel the debts of poor countries to Italy.
The confidential 2008 cable reveals how badly Berlusconi wanted to avoid losing face. It details a meeting between Meara and Fabrizio Nava, director of the office of sub-Saharan Africa assistance for the Italian government.
It reveals that after Meara "brought up criticism voiced by NGOs such as Bono's Debt AIDS Trade Africa and Action Aid Italy that Italy's aid apparatus is out-of-date and overly focused on infrastructure projects", Nava said he expected African assistance would be a focus during Italy's G8 presidency.
He promised Meara that Berlusconi had decided to maintain African assistance levels – even increasing the budget allocation for foreign assistance slightly, to €4.1bn, or 0.27% of GDP. Between €140-200m went to Africa for bilateral and multilateral humanitarian assistance.
As it turned out, Berlusconi's later attempts to avoid a further high-profile and embarrassing confrontation with the singer, as revealed in the leaked memo, were doomed.
In 2009, the year in which it hosted a G8 summit in the earthquake-hit city of L'Aquila, Italy's overseas development aid to sub-Saharan Africa fell by €238m.
The shortfall caused Bono and Bob Geldof to launch an irreverent online game last June in which a cartoon character of Berlusconi is hurled into the air by a hammer thrower. "We all love a bit of fun," the site explains. "But there's a serious point to the game – since promising to increase aid to Africa in 2005 PM Berlusconi has actually cut it.
"One man alone has done nothing. In fact Berlusconi is doing even less now than he was five years ago. Mr Berlusconi should be thrown out by the G8," it added.
source : http://www.guardian.co.uk/ by Amelia Hill
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