boos and whistling. This was due to her health policies, but
page 2 of 2
contents
of issue 82
back
issues
the
gazette
recipes
small
ads
contacting
us
weblinks
also for the discriminatory and inefficient way that
her government handled requests for visas from people in the developing
world. (She was sacked the following day, though Prime Minister José-Maria
Aznar claimed this was part of a long-planned reshuffle).
Later, the US Secretary of State received the same treatment; the European
Union stand was occupied and sealed; and 5,000 needles were dumped in
the Catalan regional government stand to protest the slow implementation
of needle exchange programmes in Catalan prisons, despite the national
government being in favour.
A plane trailing a safer-sex message buzzed the gay beaches at Barcelona
and Sitges all week, at goodness knows what cost - but outside the closing
ceremony, young people from the
Barcelona Youth Affairs Council were protesting at the
total lack of free condoms in city venues. They pointed out that if you
multiplied the number of local youth by the number of condoms needed at
€1 a go, they were currently contributing €325,000 to the local
economy every weekend.
Science continues to advance. The development of new classes of drugs
and vaccines gives rise to the hope of a longer life. But it is not the
time for complacency, and this became clearer during the conference.
At one of the plenary sessions, Judge Edwin Cameron from South Africa
asked whether it would be necessary to go back to the times of anger to
bring about real change. And Nelson Mandela said at the closing ceremony:
"You should not be afraid of criticising with all due strength those
who are not
doing what they should to fight Aids, and put out your
hand and ask them for the money necessary to do so".
More action is needed, and in Barcelona anger was back.
