Friday, November 02, 2007

And tonight...

Lauralea and I will be attending a keynote address by Stephen Lewis who will be talking about "The Virus of Inequality."

I'm looking forward to it. Mr. Lewis has gone on to work for the UN and has served the world well with his first hand accounts of the needs of Africa.
On Dec 31st, Stephen Lewis’s tenure as UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa comes to an end. For five and a half years, he’s criss-crossed Africa and the world at breakneck speed. His crammed schedule has included endless speeches and high level meetings with Presidents, UN officials and anyone who will listen to his impassioned plea for Africa. Possessing an intricate knowledge of the continent, he's made countless visits to grassroots projects: they give him great hope but also disturb him most deeply because the spectre of death is still everywhere. Each death haunts him. He rarely sleeps on these epic journeys – in fact it's not clear when he gets any rest at all.   via.

8:00 pm tonight, at TCU Place, Saskatoon.

7 comments:

  1. I'd be interested to hear what he's got to say.

    It's certainly a virus with inequality in treatment opportunity, and will rip through those already weakened by poverty and disease more quickly. I have fairly strong views about the ignorance, prejudice and extreme selfishness that has made this a disease of heterosexuals that is in the process of killing millions of people. 100 years ago people would have shrugged and said 'it's their own fault', even if it wasn't. Now we tend to wring our hands victims and overlook the guilt in the opposite extreme. I cannot believe either approach is right.

    Could the west have done anything (it's too late to DO something to prevent the disaster happening)? I don't know. How can you change a cultural ideology? What could the west do now? Hopefully your speaker will have some meaningful suggestions.

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  2. NUTS!

    That should read "wring our hands OVER THE victims".

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  3. Speaking of "NUTS!"... I wished I'd known he was going to be in Saskatoon, I'd love to see him. Take notes, okay?

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  4. He. Was. Awesome.

    He's well connected in international ranks with stories and insights that go on and on. The things he shared were amazing, and the stories of pain and hurt were sickening.

    To sum up his words, the nations of the world know that atrocities are ongoing, and promise to do something about it, then turn and look away.

    He spoke of how HIV/Aids is moving throughout the world now, and how different countries are dealing with it or not.

    He spoke of the war against women in parts of the Congo and other places in Africa, and the absolute evil being forced on them, especially as recently as the past couple of months.

    He talked of children being children soldiers, of poverty and pain and nations who look the other way.

    Yeah. It was like listening to someone who has access to the other side of the political curtain and who knows things that I never hear about.

    He was eloquent, interesting speaker who kept us in his story for an hour and a half.

    Very good.
    Possibly even life challenging. We'll see.

    Bought his book, met him after.

    Yeah, a good evening.

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  5. Very cool. The president of Visionledd (Jim Cantelon), which is a great group focused on AIDS in Africa, is going to speak in Saskatoon this month. He's a good friend of my dad's and wants to come up for a visit with my folks. (Marc did a post when we had lunch with him last time he was in town: http://vandersluys.ca/?p=5923). I wonder if he could squeeze in a talk in PA that weekend?

    I've had "Race Against Time" in my nightstand to read for months. I guess I should start reading it again.

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  6. I've heard that he is a harsh critic of the ABC (Abstain until ready for commitment - Be faithful once committed - use Condoms if you can't abstain or be faithful) approach to fighting HIV/AIDS., i.e. he wants all the emphasis on the "C" part of ABC. Did he touch on that topic during his talk?

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  7. nope,

    mostly talked about so many of the injustices throughout the world.

    Kinda eyeopening.

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