Tolerance.ca, Canada
Jan 18 2007
Stephen Lewis: Billions spent on War not Against Aids
(Version anglaise seulement)
par Miriam Rabkin
Montreal – Stephen Lewis, past Canadian ambassador to the United
Nations and Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, addressed a room of
over 500 people, mostly students, on Monday, January 16th at
Concordia University. Invited by SHOUT (Students Helping Others
Understand Tolerance), Lewis spoke about a number of issues that
worry himin an articulate and engaging manner, keeping a cynical and
pointed sense of humour throughout his speech.
Lewis began by addressing today’s most prominently covered conflict
area in the world – Iraq. According to Lewis, because of the US focus
on the war there is an obsessive talk of Iraq in media and
governments to the exclusion of almost everything else in the world,
with the occasional exception of Afghanistan and the Middle East.
`Historically it is unsettling because the world focuses on US
interests and so the rest becomes unimportant.’
This causes considerable damage to humanitarian and developmental
agendas of the entire world. Lewis cited a recent study conducted by
U.S. Congress which showed that the United States alone is spending 8
billion dollars a month in Iraq and 1.5 billion dollars a month in
Afghanistan. Yet in a year that amount is not allocated to fight
AIDS, which is killing and infecting millions of people. Moreover,
resolutions made in 2006 are no longer kept, overcome by the ravages
of Iraq. Consequently, Africa is in an ever worse predicament.
And yet in 2000 when the Millennium Development Goals were put in
place in the UN, the world had unanimously agreed to achieve eight
objectives; reduction of poverty, pandemic diseases and infant
mortality rates, among others. Seven years later, it is obvious that
no country in Africa will reach all these goals, though some might
reach one or two.
Lewis brings several reasons for this. The first is that conflicts
remain a reality, such as Uganda’s Lord Resistance Army which abducts
children and turns them into child soldiers and/or sex slaves. In the
Eastern Congo, the level of sexual violence is the worst example in
the world. In Darfur, hundreds of thousands have been killed, women
are cruelly and brutally raped, and millions displaced. In both of
these cases, the world is aware and not intervening, despite the UN’s
new concept of Responsibility to Protect, formed to allow countries
to intervene in situations of genocide, mass killings or other
massive human rights violations. agreed upon by world leaders as a
form of intervention.
Racism Against Africa
There is racism with regard to Africa, continues Lewis, as he sees
that there is no reason not to be able to stop the conflict. The
reaction to the conflict in the Balkans was quicker than to Rwanda.
There is little response to Sudan and this is in a world where, as a
result of the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust and the Rwandan
genocide, leaders keep saying Never Again.
The Western world also refuses to respond to poverty. Hunger is an
intense reality in Africa, in no way helped by global warming which
devastates agriculture and natural habitats. In Niger, the World Food
Programme ran out of food to feed children. The WFO also recently cut
caloric value rations in Darfur for refugee camps because they do not
have enough food.
`How is it possible that we treat life in such a trifling way?’ asks
Lewis. `It’s bad enough not to intervene in the context of conflict,
as conflicts may be difficult to subdue, but poverty is not difficult
to address.’
Lewis went on to speak of AIDS, which is ravaging communities,
particularly in Southern Africa. The life expectancy in many of these
countries without this pandemic would be between 60 and 65 but
instead it ranges between 40 and 45. `If you’re born in Zambia today,
your life expectancy is 30 or 32.’
The Western world has made some progress in treatment and can afford
to treat those infected, yet only a minute percentage in Southern
Africa is receiving any aid. As a result, some 15 million orphans are
now left to the care of their grandmothers, who are stepping in when
the parents die. The definition of families is thus shifting and a
new human dynamic is being created, but it is difficult to see how
this will evolve because the next generation of grandmothers is
already gone. `How will the next generation of orphans take care of
themselves?’ asks Lewis, `And this is a phenomenon overwhelming one
country and then another.’
Women biggest victims
`The biggest victims in Africa are women’, asserts Lewis. `Gender
inequality is driving the virus.’ He explains that men’s feeling of
sexual domination means women cannot negotiate safe sexual practices.
The number of women infected is disproportionate but the
unwillingness of men to relinquish power and authority is what is
causing the spread of this pandemic. `That’s why women need to be
empowered and men need to be educated. But it will take generations
to change male sexual behaviour and the women are dying now.’ Yet the
women of Africa would be able to turn the pandemic around if the
tools promised to them were delivered.
Lewis concluded by saying that Africa is a continent of 53 nations,
and they cannot be tarred with one brush. If some are corrupt and
dictatorial, others are democratically elected and struggle to fight
corruption and poverty. Last summer at the G8 Summit, nothing
tangible was brought to the table. This, says Lewis, is impossible to
understand. `We are doing unimaginable damage to this world. And we
can do something. Why are we on this planet if not to pursue social
justice and equality?’
Lewis rallied university communities to pressure the government of
Canada to keep its promises for whatever cause and in whatever form.
He also encouraged students to get involved in different NGOs and
causes fighting these injustices. `There is nothing more important
that we can do to ensure that our lives are not futile.’