World AIDS Day

Should there be a World AIDS Day?

In 2020 we will hold our last World AIDS Day. We will remember when AIDS was an epidemic, and explain to our children how Canadians usd their skills, resources and money to rid the world of AIDS.

We will rename the day "World Health Day" or "Remembering Canadians who conquored AIDS Day" or even "Thank God that you finally decided to rid the world of AIDS Day"

That's right - we are waiting for you to decide to act - to see - to plan - to give - to imagine a world without AIDS by 2020.

That is what I call perfect vision. 2020

"It's a numbers game"

Every day, nearly 7,500 people become infected with HIV and 5,500 die
from AIDS, mostly due to a lack of HIV prevention and treatment services.

Despite these staggering numbers, some encouraging developments have
sparked small victories in the battle against AIDS.

Thanks to improvements in prevention programmes, the number of people
newly infected with HIV declined from 3 million in 2001 to 2.7 million in
2007.

With the expansion of antiretroviral treatment services, the
number of people who die from AIDS has started to decline, from 2.2
million in 2005 to 2.0 million in 2007.

However, largely because newly infected people survive longer, the number of people living with HIV rose
from an estimated 29.5 million in 2001 to 33 million in 2007. The vast
majority of those living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa.

noblesse oblige

Rough translation: "Nobility Obligates." Or as my mother wisely taught us - "To whom much is given, much is expected"

If you believe this maxim is valid then let me suggest that no country is as obligated as Canada.

I can say this, because I was born in Canada, live here. As a thinking observer of the world around me I can see that it's not the "fiscal imbalance" that politicians here talk about that is important, but rather the abundance imbalance that obligates us to our fellowman.

Canada is not only Number One in my heart, but also features prominently in a number of ratings from around the world.

Consider these stats:

> Canada is tops in having the highest percentage of university degrees and college diplomas among all industrialized countries...

> United Nations ranks Canada Number One for direct foreign investement attraction...

> KPMG ranks Canada Number One in lowest business costs in the G7...

> Also ranks Number One in the G7 for a fairly administered justice system...

(There are lots more areas to comment on - but this is enough for this post. )

The point of it all - if we have been given the wealth, the freedom, the education, the financial resources, the medical infrastructure, and unlimited opportunities to improve on what we have been given - will we accept our unique and sacred obligation to rid the world of HIV/AIDS?

Today's quote

"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy." George Bernard Shaw

See One

Who can grasp the implications of these numbers from the UN report on AIDS dated December 2005?

570,000 Children died in 2005 from AIDS

4,900,000 estimated number of people newly infected in 2005 - that's 13,400 per day, 558 per hour, every hour 365 days of the year.

17.5 milion women living with HIV in 2005, up a million since 2003.

25 million have died from AIDS since 1981, making this the most destructive epidemic in all of mankind's recorded history.

It's not the millions we hear of, but one person that is the tragedy - my one teacher, my one nurse, my one father, my one sister, my one best friend - or me. Then we can put a human face on a faceless enemy, a hidden tyrant.

Once we see one tyrant, we can destroy that enemy.

Now is the time.

Scarce resources

One of the popular reasons given for poor progress toward global issues like defeating AIDS in our generation is that resources are limited.

I respectfully suggest that resources are not limited.

Here are a couple of examples that tell me there is lots of money in the world.

#1 - Europeans spend $11B a year on ice cream. That's right, ice cream.

#2 - There is now a website where you find a phone number that enables you to leave a message for aliens - extraterrestrials. The call is routed through a transmitter and sent into space via a ten and a half foot dish in Connecticut - and people pay $3.99 per minute to talk to - well to E.T.

#3 - In Ontario, Canada, there is a farm for "orphans" that you can sponsor for $40 a month - but the orphans are donkeys. Yes - donkeys, and the entire budget for the farm is covered by sponsors who receive an info package on their chosen beast of burden - complete with photo. No word on whether sponsors receive a letter from their donkey from time to time. Guess there could be some trouble with the translation.

There really is no shortage of resources - and the vision for an AIDS-free world can be realized as we allocate our abundance to people and ideas worthy of our investment.

Research. education, hospice care, (human) orphan care - these are things that will satisfy so much more than an ice cream cone, an interplanetary phone call... or a donkey.

Time to reconsider.

The big picture

We all resist being reduced to a number, but numbers do tell a story. Consider the following numbers...

40.3 million - people living with HIV in 2005.

2.3 million - Children under 15 living with AIDS today.

4.9 million - People contracted the AIDS virus in 2005.

3.1 million - People died in 2005 from AIDS.

So what is the story? Maybe it's time to rewrite the ending...

Consider Namibia

Namibia

AIDS Status: 20-25% of adults and young adults infected; over 70,000 AIDS orphans

Geographic: 823,144 sq. miles
Arid and semi desert, driest African country south of the equator

Population: 1.8 million
73% of the people are Bantu
4.5% European descent (Afrikaner, German)

Economy: Mining diamonds, uranium, cattle ranching and fishing all important.

Average income: $2110 per year.

Unemployment: 30%

Politics: Won independance from South Africa in 1990.
Belongs to the British Commonwealth the same as Canada.

2020:Vision for an AIDS-free world

There is a time in each generation when a grievous tyrant must be confronted and defeated. For tyranny knows no end - gives no quarter. It must be actively opposed, strategically confronted and ultimately defeated.

And all tyrants will be defeated. It is only a matter of time and resources - who will choose to stand against this tyrant?

The tyrant is AIDS and the question remains - will this generation choose to take a stand?