Bono's Wonk-and-Roll

Bono recalled how he first became interested in poverty in Africa and debt relief, when he and wife Ali spent a month working at an orphanage in Ethiopia after the Live Aid concert in 1985. And told a story of how his life was irrevocably changed when a man approached him on one of his last days in Africa and asked him to take his son home with him because in Ireland he would live.

"That's a feeling I can't quite forget, walking away from that man and that boy," Bono said.

He exhibited an easy familiarity with the inner workings of Washington, spawned by his months of shuttle diplomacy here.

"Antiviral drugs are a great advertisement for America," he said regarding another one of his passions, help for AIDS patients. "I said to President Bush, 'Paint them red, white and blue if you have to.' " There was something touching about the fact that Bono devoted his Friday night to a bunch of mid-level executives -- a few days before the Grammys and before U2 embarks on a lengthy tour of South America and Australia -- and he made it clear he did so because he thought it would be an efficient way to get out his message. Everybody at the lecture represents a bunch of other people, he said -- about 10,000 trade groups -- and exhorted them to sign up their members for his One Campaign. That involves a consortium, including Bread for the World, CARE and Bono's own DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa), working to combat poverty.

But if the association execs were hoping for a 10-step plan to change the world that they could take home and zip into their Franklin Planners, they would come away empty-handed.

"Give us action items!" they begged him at the end, like the good little managers they are.

There wasn't much of that, but there was this:

"I didn't expect change to come so slowly," Bono said. He spoke with breaks, as if he were creating lyrics.

"It's a combination of our own indifference/and a Kafkaesque labyrinth of 'No's'/as people vanish down the corridors of democracy," he said.

"Those of you in this town/know what I'm talking about."

Even when he's wonking shop, Bono can still sing.