Globalization

Barack Obama’s World AIDS Day Speech

With the US Senate & Congress back in session, now with a Democratic majority, I am cautiously optimistic that we might again see some compassion, sound judgement, and fiscal responsibility in Washington. I am deeply concerned about the course our country has taken in the recent past, and the devastating results that are being borne by everyone on the planet. We are indeed running out of time to reverse the effects of our current policies, and I am committed to taking a more active interest in what our current leaders are doing to change America’s international political, ecomomic, labor, and trade policies.

In looking at some of the US Senator’s web sites to see what committees they are sitting on and for what issues they are sponsoring legislation, I was impressed by some of the views that Senator Obama expressed in his Race Against Time-World AIDS Day Speech. I have excerpted some of this speech below. Click Race Against Time – World AIDS Day Speech to view the entire speech.

Race Against Time – World AIDS Day Speech

Friday, December 1, 2006
Remarks of Senator Barack Obama
2006 Global Summit on AIDS and the Church
Saddleback Church Campus
Lake Forest, California

And even as we focus on the enormous crisis in Africa, we need to remember that the problem is not in Africa alone. In the last few years, we have seen an alarming rise in infection rates in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and the Caribbean. And on this World AIDS day, we cannot forget the crisis occurring in our own backyard. Right here in the United States, AIDS is now the leading cause of death for African American women aged 25-34, and we are also seeing many poorer and rural communities fail to get the resources they need to deal with their vulnerable populations – a problem that unfortunately some in Congress are trying to address by taking money away from larger cities that are still facing enormous problems of their own.

Now let me say this – I think that President Bush and this past Congress should be applauded for the resources they have contributed to the fight against HIV and AIDS. Through our country’s emergency plan for AIDS relief, the United States will have contributed more than $15 billion over five years to combat HIV-AIDS overseas. And the Global Fund, with money from the United States and other countries, has done some heroic work to fight this disease. As I traveled throughout Africa this summer, I was proud of the tangible impact that all this money was having, often through coordinated efforts with the Centers for Disease Control, the State Department, foreign governments, and non-governmental organizations.

So our first priority in Congress should be to reauthorize this program when it expires in 2008. Our second priority should be to reassess what’s worked and what hasn’t so that we’re not wasting one dollar that could be saving someone’s life.

But our third priority should be to actually boost our contribution to this effort. With all that is left to be done in this struggle – with all the other areas of the world that need our help – it’s time for us to add at least an additional $1 billion a year in new money over the next five years to strengthen and expand the program to places like Southeast Asia, India, and Eastern Europe, where the pandemic will soon reach crisis proportions.

Of course, given all the strains that have been placed on the U.S. budget, and given the extraordinary needs that we face here at home, it may be hard to find the money. But I believe we must try. I believe it will prove to be a wise investment. The list of reasons for us to care about AIDS is long. In an interconnected, globalized world, the ability of pandemics to spread to other countries and continents has never been easier or faster than it is today. There are also security implications, as countries whose populations and economies have been ravaged by AIDS become fertile breeding grounds for civil strife and even terror.

But the reason for us to step up our efforts can’t simply be instrumental. There are more fundamental reasons to care. Reasons related to our own humanity. Reasons of the soul….

For in the end, we must realize that the AIDS orphan in Africa presents us with the same challenge as the gang member in South Central, or the Katrina victim in New Orleans, or the uninsured mother in North Dakota.

We can turn away from these Americans, and blame their problems on themselves, and embrace a politics that’s punitive and petty, divisive and small. Or we can embrace another tradition of politics – a tradition that has stretched from the days of our founding to the glory of the civil rights movement, a tradition based on the simple idea that we have a stake in one another – and that what binds us together is greater than what drives us apart, and that if enough people believe in the truth of that proposition and act on it, then we might not solve every problem, but we can get something meaningful done for the people with whom we share this Earth.

I am so glad to see that he is speaking out about the interraltionships between, poverty, AIDS, and terrorism/national security. Understanding this seems to be key to gaining more urgent and wide-spread support for the fight against poverty.

© 2007 Life is an Ongoing Process.