Great Speaker, Great Cause
Last night, hubby and I made the trek down to the U. of T.'s Convocation Hall to hear Stephen Lewis give a lecture, part of the "Race Against Time" lecture series. Lewis is currently the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS. His accomplishments and titles took half of the space in the brochure distributed at the door. They include politician, diplomat, and humanitarian. He has been the Canadian Ambassador to the UN, Special Advisor on Africa to the UN Secretary General, and Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF. He was named
Canadian of the Year" in 2003 by Maclean's magazine, and listed by TIME magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He is a commissioner of the World Health Organization's Commission on Social Determinants of Health, and Director of the Stephen Lewis Foundation, whose mission is "Easing the pain of HIV/AIDS in Africa".
Last night's lecture was the last of the series that saw Lewis speaking in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Montreal, Halifax, and finally, Toronto. The lectures will be rebroadcast on CBC Radio One's "Ideas" from November 7th to the 11th.
In one hour up on that stage, Lewis covered enough material to send the audience home feeling as though they had been to the entire series. He is a riveting speaker, whose fame obviously precedes him. When he first walked on to the stage, the applause was thunderous, and took a long time to quiet so he could begin speaking. The man's unbelievable passion for the cause he espouses was present in every syllable he uttered. The stats he quoted are staggering. In Africa, there are presently 25 million people between the ages of 15 and 49 living with HIV/AIds. 58% of them are women. Of the 6.2 million infected people between the ages of 15 and 24, a horrendous 75% are women and girls. By the year 2010, it is expected that 20 million children will be without one or both of their parents, because of HIV/AIDS. This results in one of two scenarios. Either grandparents do their best to raise the orphans, or the children form "child-headed households" which means that the eldest child, often no more than 12 or 14 years old, is left to raise their younger siblings.
His main thrust was the woeful inadequacy of the response of the western world to this pandemic, and his scorn for the U.S. in particular was patently clear. He highlighted the ridiculous conditions the U.S. attaches to its aid program for the audience to see and laugh at, and laugh they did. The only problem is, those conditions are so totally devoid of humour. They help only a very small number of countries but not those with the highest incidence of cases, for some reason. They tell the governments there that receiving the aid is contingent upon them halting the distribution of condoms and not advising the people to use them. How stupid, stupid, stupid is that? How arrogant and backward the almighty U.S. is in their approach to this desperate situation facing Africa.
He spoke too about the G8 summit and their goal-setting being co-opted by Tony Blair for his own agenda. He belittled the concerts attendant upon the summit as a chance for the privileged western world to make a big noise about how wonderful they are to care, and have another party while they're at it, before they send off their pittance in donations and then pat themselves on the back in "obsequious celebration of incremental fractions". He ended his lecture with a plaintive plea to the audience. "Can someone, anyone," he asked, "explain to me our modern values?"
He suggested a list of potential steps that could be taken in solution of the problem bedeviling Africa, and returned again and again to Lester Pearson's challenge to the western nations to spend 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product on developmental assistance; a challenge that was accepted by all to whom it was extended, but has still to be met. One point he made over and over again was that the private sector needs to step in and take up the slack left by the world governments. One way he suggested they could do that was for big business to give 0.7 per cent of annual profits to the grass roots agencies working to ameliorate the situation for all those affected. He also said he was aware that his suggestion would be laughed to scorn by most of those same businesses.
I could venture a response to his call for an explanation of the malaise affecting western morals. It's to be found in the wallets of those who worship the three-headed god of "me, myself and I". Whatever disposable income they have is spent even before it is earned on purchase of all the latest - clothes, electronics, gourmet pizzas - the list of "must-haves" goes on and on, leaving little to nothing to drop in the collection plate when it's passed around. Those devotees care naught about some homeless waif halfway around the globe from their pursuit of the trendy. So many of them have no compassion for anyone other than themselves. Lewis himself says, "It is not a just world." I don't want to face that truth. I want to continue to light my little candles against the darkness, as I do when I pack boxes for the Operation Christmas Child, or volunteer at the CNIB. I want to allow myself the luxury of denial and pretend that it is a caring world. I want to listen to Lewis and know about everything that he does. I want to remember that there are others like him who care about those in need. I don't want to acknowledge the harsh reality that they are in the tiny minority. As Shakespeare's King Lear cries, "Oh, that way madness lies, let me shun that."
Canadian of the Year" in 2003 by Maclean's magazine, and listed by TIME magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He is a commissioner of the World Health Organization's Commission on Social Determinants of Health, and Director of the Stephen Lewis Foundation, whose mission is "Easing the pain of HIV/AIDS in Africa".
Last night's lecture was the last of the series that saw Lewis speaking in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Montreal, Halifax, and finally, Toronto. The lectures will be rebroadcast on CBC Radio One's "Ideas" from November 7th to the 11th.
In one hour up on that stage, Lewis covered enough material to send the audience home feeling as though they had been to the entire series. He is a riveting speaker, whose fame obviously precedes him. When he first walked on to the stage, the applause was thunderous, and took a long time to quiet so he could begin speaking. The man's unbelievable passion for the cause he espouses was present in every syllable he uttered. The stats he quoted are staggering. In Africa, there are presently 25 million people between the ages of 15 and 49 living with HIV/AIds. 58% of them are women. Of the 6.2 million infected people between the ages of 15 and 24, a horrendous 75% are women and girls. By the year 2010, it is expected that 20 million children will be without one or both of their parents, because of HIV/AIDS. This results in one of two scenarios. Either grandparents do their best to raise the orphans, or the children form "child-headed households" which means that the eldest child, often no more than 12 or 14 years old, is left to raise their younger siblings.
His main thrust was the woeful inadequacy of the response of the western world to this pandemic, and his scorn for the U.S. in particular was patently clear. He highlighted the ridiculous conditions the U.S. attaches to its aid program for the audience to see and laugh at, and laugh they did. The only problem is, those conditions are so totally devoid of humour. They help only a very small number of countries but not those with the highest incidence of cases, for some reason. They tell the governments there that receiving the aid is contingent upon them halting the distribution of condoms and not advising the people to use them. How stupid, stupid, stupid is that? How arrogant and backward the almighty U.S. is in their approach to this desperate situation facing Africa.
He spoke too about the G8 summit and their goal-setting being co-opted by Tony Blair for his own agenda. He belittled the concerts attendant upon the summit as a chance for the privileged western world to make a big noise about how wonderful they are to care, and have another party while they're at it, before they send off their pittance in donations and then pat themselves on the back in "obsequious celebration of incremental fractions". He ended his lecture with a plaintive plea to the audience. "Can someone, anyone," he asked, "explain to me our modern values?"
He suggested a list of potential steps that could be taken in solution of the problem bedeviling Africa, and returned again and again to Lester Pearson's challenge to the western nations to spend 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product on developmental assistance; a challenge that was accepted by all to whom it was extended, but has still to be met. One point he made over and over again was that the private sector needs to step in and take up the slack left by the world governments. One way he suggested they could do that was for big business to give 0.7 per cent of annual profits to the grass roots agencies working to ameliorate the situation for all those affected. He also said he was aware that his suggestion would be laughed to scorn by most of those same businesses.
I could venture a response to his call for an explanation of the malaise affecting western morals. It's to be found in the wallets of those who worship the three-headed god of "me, myself and I". Whatever disposable income they have is spent even before it is earned on purchase of all the latest - clothes, electronics, gourmet pizzas - the list of "must-haves" goes on and on, leaving little to nothing to drop in the collection plate when it's passed around. Those devotees care naught about some homeless waif halfway around the globe from their pursuit of the trendy. So many of them have no compassion for anyone other than themselves. Lewis himself says, "It is not a just world." I don't want to face that truth. I want to continue to light my little candles against the darkness, as I do when I pack boxes for the Operation Christmas Child, or volunteer at the CNIB. I want to allow myself the luxury of denial and pretend that it is a caring world. I want to listen to Lewis and know about everything that he does. I want to remember that there are others like him who care about those in need. I don't want to acknowledge the harsh reality that they are in the tiny minority. As Shakespeare's King Lear cries, "Oh, that way madness lies, let me shun that."
1 Comments:
Your post, like Lewis' plea, is passionate. I find it hard however, to not surrender under the sheer enormity of the problem. We have little voices I know -- and a chorus of little voices can be thunderous ... but with problems like this, we usually turn to those that can move mountains. It is depressing, their general disregard for life.
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