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Desmond Tutu and Bob Geldof clown around at One Young World summit
9 Feb 2010Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Bob Geldof clown around at the One Young World summit in Billingsgate.
Nicknamed the Young Davos, the event brought together more than 600 delegates aged 25 and under representing 100 countries. They were chosen for their potential as future
world leaders.
Mayor Boris Johnson introduced speakers including Mr Tutu, Geldof and Kofi Annan,
with a performance by Corinne Bailey-Rae.
Mr Tutu is hopeful that a successful World Cup this summer can help the whole continent, not just South Africa.
We hope it is going to make a difference economically but it will also make us proud that South Africa can host something like this, he said.
We hosted the Rugby World Cup but this will be at a different level. We would like to think that it would not be South Africa hosting the football World Cup but that it is Africa hosting it and that is good for our whole continent.
Mr Tutu, who won the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize for his anti-apartheid work, said the 1995 Rugby World Cup the subject of new film Invictus starring Morgan Freeman showed how important sport was for unity.
It became quite clear for us in 1995 just how crucial sport can be in national building - that one game when we beat the All Blacks and Nelson Mandela came out wearing a Springbok jersey was more eloquent than all the sermons I could have preached in a year about reconciliation, he said.
The archbishop also said the 2012 Olympics could have a similar effect on east London: I know that the East End has been a place like a deprived, deserted part of the country. I am seeing young children who in the past had a dead-end existence, and looking at this place now gives me such an idea of how it might be.
