Live Aid duo Bono and Bob Geldof dropped their guitars and picked up their pens last week when they took over a Japanese newspaper for the day. The pair were guest editors of Japan’s second-largest newspaper, the Asahi, on Friday to help organize a special edition on Africa.
Bono defended the pair’s temporary career change “Lots of people are closet rock stars - they stand up in the mirror and play air guitar, well, myself and Bob, we're closet journalists."
The main aims of the pair were to change Africa’s negative coverage in the Japanese media and to encourage Japan to increase its African aid and investment.
The eight-page Africa section focused of Africa’s culture, economy and politics rather than poverty and war, "Really we're trying to reframe the stories about Africa, most of which historically are tragic," Bono said. "We would like to turn this around a bit and make the stories about opportunity and the adventure of the African continent, not the burden and the obligation."