Anne-christine dAdesky's blog

Reflections on IAC- continued:

Still in airport- so a few more reflections to share on the week, and what is on my mind...

As I started to say: the issue of MSMs and the failure to date for the big agencies and the global community to really address the stigma of homophobia in Africa broke open at this conference. I haven't see Jorge Saavedra's presentation, but I understand the 'evidence' he provided of how little money has been given to programs for MSMs, compared to the brunt of infection and suffering suffered by MSMs in many countries has helped convince agencies and even govts that maybe they can approach this via a public health strategy, which seems to help them get over their deeply entrenched homophoia. I stopped by the Gay Africa booth in the global village to congraluate their group for leading this charge. I'm going to look at their work and their members and give profile to this in my own journalism in the coming months...  read more »

Mexico Airport, 5:30 --

I thought I'd slip in a quick departing hello and some reflections on the week, as I plan my return stateside.

I remarked to a few colleagues this week on what seemed to be a collective experience: for those of us who've been attending these conferences for many years, for some reason this conference was the most exhausting of all. I think it's because we have learned what we want to do at these conferences and so we're primed to be effective, whether it's reporting, presenting, demostrating.. and if we've been around, chances are that people link us to issues, and ask us to opine on them, or present our work, so we cram in more than humanely possible.

The result: on Wed night, I felt like i really could not leave the conference. I was simply unable to manage another long haul down the corridors. I described the Mexico conference -- well all the International AIDS Conferences -- as 'Disney World on crack -except about AIDS.' Not that it was so insane - in fact, the conference was run incredibly smoothly from my view as a participant and presenter, but the scale and the sheer number of people and the mix of cultures. When we went to leave at night, it really felt like a grown up version of waiting to get into the litttle boats to tour 'It's a Small World After All' -- complete with the many-cultures theme.

But of course the work and activity and passion was for a serious cause, and I duly took note of the big themes that jumped out for me:

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Hi everybody,

My new web magazine is UP and LIVE. TALK TO THE FUTURE - (www.talktothefuture.org).  Featuring video 'Public  Conversations with Today's Boldest Voices' on global AIDS and cross-cutting issues. I invite you to have a look and listen, and get involved in the conversation. And please share this with others. The magazine will be sent directly to you in your email in the future, if you want. All free, and action-oriented. I invite you to share and post resources, and help me bring forward new as well as established voices and visionaries and best practice programs and topics that deserve wider debate. I have a personal blog I've started there too, about the magazine and the journey , called PoxVox.  

Here's a snippet from my conversation wiht Stephen lewis, spotlight guest of the first issue.  Enjoy! And let me know what you think! And, please, tell others. Thanks. -- AC

"We were willing to go after Myanmar and the junta on human rights, we went after Sudan for the behavior in Darfur, we went after Iran for incipient nuclear technology... [but] not a word about the loss of life to AIDS in South Africa. That's what I call an astonishing failure of leadership..." -- Stephen Lewis on global AIDS, reluctant recalcitrants,
and why he believes in a radical fix for the UN -- feminism.

We, the undersigned women's and civil society groups worldwide, urgently condemn the violent arrests and sexual violations on Tuesday, July 8^th in Nairobi, of seven civil rights activists including prominent Kenyan lawyer Ann Njogu, by senior officers of the Kenyan police prior to a planned peaceful protest. These attacks represent the most recent attacks by police on democratic advocates in Kenya in a period of post-election violence in which sexual assault by police against women and children has been widely reported. They are gross violations of law: Kenya's Constitution protects free speech and assembly, while rape is a serious crime.

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Hi everyone,

I've arrived in Mexico City - a place I once escaped to become a legit journalist, many years ago -- thinking I needed to get away from sprawling NYC. Little did I realise how much bigger the D. F. was... It's been 5 years since I was here, reporting in 2003 for a chapter of my (2006) book, Moving Mountains, on the progress of HIV treatment in Mexico. Then I compared the capital, the Distrito Federal, or D.F., as locals call the capital, to Oaxaca, off the Pacific, where the indigenos -- indigenous Mexican Indian communites --live in poverty that might surprise people who never get out of the cities or tourist areas of Oaxaca even. Successive Mexican governments have been locked in an identity and political war with indigenous communities here for a long time.. battles of land and power, and the result has been too little govt money or health programs for the poor communities, esp the indigenous.  read more »

Joint Women’s Statement on Kenya  Denouncing Police Violence Against Civil Society Advocates

  

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Hi everyone,

 I'm introducing myself and this blog for AIDS 2008, which will be updated daily. I'm focusing my work and attention on the issues of HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence as the key topic for this blog and my activity at the Mexico IAC conference. My personal goal for the week is to listen, learn, share and hone in on concrete solutions and programs that are working for women and groups at the community level.

 I'll also be sharing Video Profiles and interviews here with you. These are from my new venture-- a multimedia magazine using mostly video called "Talk to the Future: A Public Conversation with Today's Boldest Voices." I've been planning it for about six months, and the pilot issue launches in just a week, so I'm excited. My interest is in finding, talking to and promoting the people and ideas that are the most exciting, innovative, smart or successful - the doers and visionary programs that deserve our greater attention and wider application. I want to dig deeper and ask some tough questions too. And I want to show the passion that people have for their work and lives and mission -- the personal side to this global AIDS fight. The magazine won't be just about global AIDS -- it will cover cross-cutting issues like the current food crisis, sexual violence, green economics -- a holistic approach and view to some of the critical global problems.  read more »