anger is not NEGOTIABLE
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"This is not negotiable," repeated Peter Piot,
the UNAids director, over and over in his speech at the inauguration of
the XIV International Aids Conference. Behind him decorating the stage
were banners with the conference's theme words: "Knowledge and Commitment
for Action". From the seats of an immense sports stadium adapted
for the occasion, people of all backgrounds and countries chanted slogans
in support of access to antiretroviral treatment throughout the world.
The feeling was electric, there was an enormous amount of energy and it
seemed as if all was in place for words to be followed by action - especially
on the part of those most powerful.
So after the opening ceremony everything was in place for the world to
get into action. But as the conference progressed, the feeling that things
were poised to change started to drain away.
Some of this was due to encountering real people from developing countries
and learning about their real lives, rather than getting excited by stirring
words. A person like me living with Aids in the right place in the world,
who has survived due to antiretroviral treatment, could easily feel bad.
Bad for belonging to the part of the planet where compassion seems to
no longer exist .
"I feel jealous of you because you have treatment and I do not",
Anne told me. She is a Kenyan woman who is living with HIV, and has seven
children depending on her. She manages an organisation dedicated to taking
care of boys and girls with HIV. In Nairobi, her city, children continue
to be born with HIV. I found it difficult to sleep that night.
I was not alone in feeling that way. As the week went by, there was a
general feeling of people getting increasingly fed up, leading to protest
actions. Pharmaceutical companies were, as ever, a main target. Occupying
the impressive company stands was one way of claiming the right to receive
treatment, of claiming the right to life.
But in Barcelona, more than ever before, government representatives were
also the target of protests. It became patently clear that initiatives
such as those of the Global Fund were not at the
top of the lists of the powerful.
The Spanish Minister of Health's speech to the opening
ceremony was drowned out by
