Reflections from a Caribbean woman on Day 2

by

Dr Nesha Haniff

On the second day of the World Aids Conference held in Vienna this year, I am struck by many things.. The first is the large South African contingent at every level, both community, ngo and government. What I have enjoyed is seeing South Africans speaking about their problems themselves, not being spoken about, an important ideological change. The Caribbean also has a strong presence both at the level of recognition of the issues affecting msm and sex workers and  their voice on panels and presentations. The presence of Africa and Asia’s vulnerable populations are also voicing their struggles. They are here not as objects of oppression but empowered actors in their world making great inroads on the injustice of homophobia and sexism. Their presence at the conference is not to observe and be present as proof that the conference is inclusive but  that they have appropriated their place in the conference shaping their struggle  as they see it.

I loved the presentations on Hiati  by Dr. Patrice Joseph who spoke about Haiti’s  work on HIV for over thirty years  and did not say Paul Farmer’s name once. Everything  we have ever heard about Haiti and HIV is that Paul Farmer went in and saved the day. Now  I am not at all trying to belittle his work but  there was a Haitian doctor Dr. Jean William Pape  and a consortium of Haitian doctors and health professionals who have been in this struggle for years  starting GHESKIO the world’s first institution dedicated to the fight against HIV/AIDS. How  they continue their work under the present circumstances of Haiti was extremely moving. India  continues to impress me. The work on Avahan the India Aids  Initiative  funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation was impressive. You walked into the room and you were given a voting device and as the presenters spoke you were then asked to answer questions and the results like an instant poll came up immediately. You were then asked to discuss why you voted a particular way. Avahan works in 6 states in India with more than 220,000 female sex workers, 80,000 men who have sex with men and transgenders, 18,000 injecting drug users and about 5 million men at risk. How they used technology to advance their cause and got their governments to respond was truly an exercise in the meaning of democracy.

President Clinton was the plenary speaker. He was as usual full of ideas and accomplishments in his long HIV work. For the first time at this level of the conference which has spent all of its focus on Africa and rightly so, the problem of HIV in the United States was discussed. The US now has the highest HIV infection it has ever had , it is now the third highest cause of death for African American women and African American MSM have the highest incidence of HIV. P:resident Clinton who has been an unflagging supporter of  Africa and the HIV cause now speaks about HIV in the US. This was significant. His talk was very moving. He spoke about a “bucket list” a list you make of what you want to do before you die. It made me sad that he thought of such a list for himself. I hope that his health is not tenuous. He also spoke of the latest scientific discovery about neurons and the idea in physics that  neurons must be both negative and positive. They found that there seems to be more positive ones than negative. It was how he closed, that in the end the positives will outweigh the negatives and it is how I feel this day.