"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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