"Pushing the surge of moral energy" - towards an AIDS-free society
Suddenly, we are in the second month of 2003, having barely assimilated the many fronts on which the struggle against HIV AIDS was fought during 2002. As "AIDS-watch" agents, media specialists and researchers in general will no doubt agree that over the past year, there has been a marked shift in social consciousness, evident across all sectors and communities, both local and global, towards confronting the pandemic as never before. The tone of the discourse is no longer polite, guarded or supplicating - a tangible sense of desperate urgency now characterises the words and deeds of those committed to the vision of an AIDS-free society.
From the UN, the voice of the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, Stephen Lewis, set this tone in January for the world to hear in his seminal address(i) , labelling the inadequacy of international governments' response to the crisis as "&mass-murder by complacency&".
Closer to home, in his foreword to the South African component of a UNICEF-funded global study on HIV/AIDS and children, published in book form(ii), Professor Alan Whiteside exonerates few in our collective failure to "&grapple with the magnitude of this problem, the resources required to respond to it, and the mechanisms with which to do this."
That being said, in a powerful critique of 2002's innovations, obstacles, distractions and pervasive silence around HIV/AIDS in South Africa, local journalist Liz Clarke tracked the strategies and realities both helping and hindering the struggle (Sunday Independent, 1 December 2002). She concludes with the message that in 2003, a "do or die" approach from every quarter is necessary. She also quotes paediatric HIV/AIDS specialist Professor Jerry Coovadia, who in August this year will chair a South African AIDS Conference, ("Dira Sengwe" - "Take Action") as saying: "We mean business&"
The National Association of People With AIDS (NAPWA) staged a "Black Christmas" hunger-strike to highlight discrimination and foot-dragging by business and government. The Treatment Action Campaign perseveres in deploying both the legal instruments of our Constitution and, through the media, marches and petitions, the groundswell of civil society support to compel these sectors into action.
The call for increased activism now pervades statements made at multi-partner and individual levels. In December 2002, the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Vice-Chancellor, Professor Malegapuru Makgoba, issued a compelling appeal to all sectors to mobilise in eradicating stigma and discrimination around HIV/AIDS(iii). During a recent SAfm broadcast of "Talk Back" (29/1/03) devoted to moral regeneration in our country, Professor Martin Prozesky of the Unilever Centre for Comparative and Applied Ethics called upon all to "&take every opportunity to push the surge of moral energy&" be it through corporate reporting, in the classroom or in the daily doings of every citizen.
Thankfully, this call is not going unheard. Melissa Govender of Kloof, KwaZulu-Natal urged The Mercury (17/1/03) to publish details of "HIV/AIDS hot-spots, so that: "&readers who feel as useless as I do can visit specific areas and help in whatever way we can." And who would have ever thought that events such as the annual Duzi Canoe Marathon would provide a platform for raising funds for and public awareness of HIV/AIDS and orphan-care?
There are literally millions of examples of society's unsung heroes - ordinary people, with no TV cameras trained upon them or "fiscal injections" at their disposal, committing themselves to this struggle. Kevin Dunne of the Nedcor Foundation speaks of his own staff "&always being ready to step forward and help&"(iv). Voices from everywhere in our country are expressing their belief in basic human goodness, claiming a balance between rights and responsibilities, rallying for unfailing transparency and offering creative solutions to complex problems.
Medical doctor, philosopher and author Deepak Chopra offers the human body itself as a forceful analogy for what he terms "infinite organising power", because every cell in the body is connected to and needs every other cell in order to "play music, kill germs, make a baby, recite poetry and monitor the movements of the stars&"(v).
At a meeting in Durban over the first two days of February, South Africa's National AIDS Council (SANAC), has restructured itself as a separate legal entity, still headed up by Deputy-President Jacob Zuma, but no longer falling under the Ministry of Health. On Friday 31st January, the country's Moral Charter was launched - calling for submissions from all citizens which will be collated into a "Bill of Responsibilities" to match our existing "Bill of Rights" so to fuel the national drive for moral regeneration.
Surely this collective will to heal ourselves and each other is the essential impulse through which the HIV/AIDS pandemic is, in fact, helping us to shape a new world order - not one of greed, division and domination, but of universal compassion, respect, connectedness and openness. Our very survival as a species depends upon it, and the pace at which this renewal is moving leaves no-one time for procrastination.
i. Report to the UN on African HIV/AIDS Epidemic, January 2003 by Stephen Lewis, UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa
ii. Impacts and Interventions, edited by Desmond C. and Gow J., University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2002
iii.(see HIVAN web-editorial, December 2002/January 2003)
iv.Financial Mail, 6/12/02
v. The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. Pgs 70 - 75, Bantam Press, 1994
Judith King - HIVAN's Media and Communications Officer
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