Western nations have abdicated their responsibility to the Third World, one of the foremost figures in the global fight against AIDS in Africa told a packed ICC auditorium Wednesday.
United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa Stephen Lewis focused on the failure of Western governments to sufficiently aid the developing world.
Lewis, who has traveled extensively to the most ravaged locations on the continent, used the Pacem in Terris and Lecture Fund-sponsored speech to make an impassioned plea for greater awareness and aid in the vast crises that affect the Third World.
“You would think the world, understanding Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur, could respond,” he said. ”’Never again turns out to be again and again and again.”
Lewis, widely considered one of Canada’s most gifted orators, used a number of stories from his African travels to chronicle what he calls the “triple disasters” of food insecurity, continuing conflicts and HIV that prevent Africa from rising out of poverty.
“These crises not only make the Millennium Development Goals impossible, but human history has never recorded such a tragedy,” he said. “You feel like you’re walking through a cemetery, not a country. These countries are fighting for their very survival.”
Lewis’ speech touched on the vast number of crises that AIDS has inflicted on Africa. These include the disproportionate occurrence of the tragedy among women and the loss of an entire generation that has left only the very young and very old alive in many towns. More than once his voice cracked when he recounted seeing villages where the adult population was nearly all dead or dying, households of children led by children and dying women spending their little money on more and more coffins.
“The sexually active population between 15 and 49 is ravaged,” he said. “Grandparents have to bury their children, and then raise their grandchildren.”
Although he refrained from extensively criticizing the U.S. government, Lewis, who led Canada’s socialist New Democratic Party in the 1970s, focused much of his criticism on the policies of international financial institutions. He claims these policies have severely hampered African nations’ abilities to cope with their internal crises.
“Western countries have engaged in criminal negligence,” he said.
Lewis stressed the important role that college students have filled by starting student global AIDS groups and volunteering in Africa with non-governmental organizations.
Lewis was named one of TIME’s 100 most influential people and routinely speaks to college campuses and with Western leaders, drawing attention to what he calls the West’s responsibility to aid in the African crisis.
