One Young World Summit: Geldof’s blunt message
with Federico Gatti, Ines Ward, Anna Pitton and Yass Ajang
Another great product from Cincopa From February 8 to 10, London hosted the first One Young World Summit, an event where hundreds of young leaders from all over the world discussed issues including global business, political leadership and interfaith dialogue.
Bob Geldof brought reality crashing down on the One Young World summit, which united tomorrow’s leaders to attempt to steer the world in the right direction. The First Pint spoke to him in an exclusive interview.
Bob Geldof speaking at the One Young World conference. Photo Credit: Ines Ward
“One Young World. I mean, you know, it sounds like Disney!” he said, “I mean, what age are you—11? You are grown up, you know, and you could be politicians. Look at some of the captains and colonels of World War II—19, 21 you know. This is a proper grown-up age.”
Under the guidance of celebrity councillors such as Kofi Annan, Bob Geldof, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the young delegates passed resolutions for the future. However, Geldof warned them not to treat resolutions the way the politicians tend to do: “They write, they sign these bloody things and their signatures are meaningless. They don’t seem to understand that they are signing the honour and the dignity and the pride of a country that they represent.”
When asked, Geldof had a bluntly honest opinion about what the next step will be for the resolutions. “Nothing,” he said, “that’s why you have got to pursue and pursue it. Resolutions are useless unless they are implemented and they will only be implemented if there is a constant force. You must stay on it, and you must have the stamina, the intellectual stamina to stay on it.”
The conference brought together delegates under the age of 25 from 192 countries who were chosen for their social work and their potential as future leaders.
4 Comments
What a disappointment that Kofi Annan, Bob Geldof and Dessie Tutu were NOT at the conference. Still according to the report above there were people “like” them. Like means similar too but not actually the thing or person to whom the writer is referring. “Such as” is the correct way of putting it IF the three aforementioned were present.
The pictures are amazing…
“Like means similar too[?] but not actually the thing or person to whom the writer is referring.” Shouldn’t it be ‘similar to’?
FYI – I was at OYW and the above mentioned WERE at the conference. Along with other people like them.