August 13, 2006

Abe Janzen, MCC Alberta Executive Director

Day one is done. I attended a session this afternoon in which presenters from the UK, USA, France, Canada, and the UN all talked about AIDS in their countries and internationally, and then about how governments need, urgently, to work together with all the rest of us, to create polices, sustainable resources, and commitment to fighting what, in most of the countries is now deemed to be a hidden epidemic, growing rapidly. Canada, from what I could tell, has the most comprehensive commitment of them all, adopted in 2006, called “leading together”. This policy is available on the web. It is Canada’s response to HIV/AIDS from 2005 to 2010.

The Conference has 24,000 registered people, another 2,000 unregistered, 3,000 media, 1,200 volunteers (they needed 1,800), and 3,500 staff, not including exhibitors and many guests. It is huge.

The opening ceremonies were long, but very good. Stephen Harper got a lot of very bad press for not showing up (he could have impressed Ontario by speaking here, but he sent Tony Clements, who, I think, did a very good job of representing the federal government). Michaelle Jean spoke… very passionate speaker… excellent, charismatic… Dalton McGuinty, followed by Frika Chia Iskandar, a 25-yr old woman with AIDS, from Indonesia, then Peter Piot, from the UN, and a scientist who talks about the need for a tonne of research, but also about prevention, David Miller (mayor of Toronto), and then Bill and Melinda Gates… both excellent speakers… very, very passionate and committed. Bill Gates spoke about the fact that no matter how much medication is made available, unless we can slow down the rate of infection, it is totally a losing battle. For every person now getting ARVs, 10 new ones are being infected. And we would need to spend $13 billion USD a year just to treat the currently known infected people. That does not include the millions that have the virus, but don’t know it, and are spreading it. That $13 billion would have to be available for the entire remainder of all those lives… otherwise those on the drugs would die very quickly. So the Gates Foundation really pushes research to suppress the spread. They seem to have a very, very high commitment to saving lives… to working to change the sense of sexual entitlement that so many men have, which contributes so terribly to the spread of the disease… and they talk about stigma. Stigma makes it possible, said Melinda Gates, for some leaders to stand in the way of saving lives.

This was all followed by a lengthy concert which we left just before midnight. Richard Gere spoke briefly. Alicia Keyes spoke but did not sing… she is quite a speaker. The Blue Man Group performed, Amanda Marshall sang, as did Barry White… Olivia Dukakis presented the Red Ribbon Awards to about 50 people from around the world, all representing small community projects.

I had heard Elton John might show up, but he didn’t. Amanda Marshall… I had not heard her, but she has a voice.

My sense from today’s speeches - and an afternoon session we attended about AIDS in France, Canada, the UK, the USA, and the work of the UN – is that we all must move rapidly into a much more collective commitment to working together… to beat this… impossible as it seems, to finding ways to empower women and children to take leadership in the struggle, in their own lives, and to do research. The Gates put a tonne of money into research, all over the world. Working in Canada seems terribly important also as a way to become more engaged in the many complex issues that are part of fighting AIDS, at home and overseas.

Peter Piot of the UN, summarizes it in 5 commitments: Funding, making sure those funds are working, increasing research, continuing to address the social aspects of fighting AIDS, which includes poverty, stigmatization, the often complete absence of choice that women and children have, and working in concert with each other.