eternally recurring existential angst
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talk about dilemmas and regrets... this is why i'm riddled with so much anxiety... it's a crazy world we live in... with so many causes to fight for and to worry about, how can one keep his sanity and not get jaded?
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Barely three weeks ago, Time Magazine named Stephen Lewis as one of the world's 100 most influential people. He was placed in the "Heroes and Icons" category by Time's editors. It was a tremendous honour for the Toronto resident, who was cited for his work over the last four years as U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. Since 2001, Lewis has travelled the world trying to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS in his beloved Africa, which he first visited 45 years ago, and to help in large and small ways in getting drugs, diagnostic equipment and medical supplies and staff to stricken areas.
And yet, despite being ranked among the top-100 influentials, Lewis is himself starting to question whether he is having any influence on easing what he calls "the human carnage" of AIDS. Is he having a real impact? Or does the long-time diplomat just feel frustration and despair these days? "I've been wrestling with that a lot. The implications worry me because they strike close to the heart."
It is early Monday morning as he starts what will be another week of meetings and conferences to talk about HIV/AIDS. And while it may be too early in the day for deep reflections on whether he has made a difference, Lewis struggles to answer. His is an almost impossible job, trying to bring hope to a continent where tens of millions have died of AIDS in the last two decades, where whole villages are noticeable for their shortage of people in their 30s, 40s and 50s, where leaders are overwhelmed.
To many outside observers, the United Nations is clearly failing to deal effectively with the crisis. There is seemingly within the U.N. bureaucracy an inertia, a treading of water. For example, there are 14 million orphans already in Africa, and little has been done to respond. And barely 10 per cent of women on the continent have access to programs to prevent transmission of the disease to their children. It's heartbreaking that big agencies, such as UNICEF, have failed to focus sufficiently on the problem.
Lewis, however, is loath to criticize the U.N. and tries to remain optimistic. On the positive side, he believes his role as Annan's envoy, which is only a part-time job, is useful in terms of focusing international attention on the issue. He points specifically to small achievements, such as the contribution of the Ontario Hospital Association, which is working in Lesotho to provide professional assistance to doctors, nurses, pharmacists and others. "I don't pretend it (his role) has made a major difference, but any difference is useful in this battle," he says.
"Overall," he says with a sigh, "a pretty limited contribution, I think. I feel more anxiety and anger and despair than I am suffused by optimism and anticipation. It's a pretty tough business. I've come to the point where it as though saving one human life is what it's all about. In the beginning, there were these huge numbers and you wanted to drive everything forward. Now I think, 'Can we somehow save those five lives in Zanzibar? Can we somehow keep those 10 people alive in Malawi?' In a sense, the human carnage is just beginning. That's why I feel so frantic."
And yet, despite being ranked among the top-100 influentials, Lewis is himself starting to question whether he is having any influence on easing what he calls "the human carnage" of AIDS. Is he having a real impact? Or does the long-time diplomat just feel frustration and despair these days? "I've been wrestling with that a lot. The implications worry me because they strike close to the heart."
It is early Monday morning as he starts what will be another week of meetings and conferences to talk about HIV/AIDS. And while it may be too early in the day for deep reflections on whether he has made a difference, Lewis struggles to answer. His is an almost impossible job, trying to bring hope to a continent where tens of millions have died of AIDS in the last two decades, where whole villages are noticeable for their shortage of people in their 30s, 40s and 50s, where leaders are overwhelmed.
To many outside observers, the United Nations is clearly failing to deal effectively with the crisis. There is seemingly within the U.N. bureaucracy an inertia, a treading of water. For example, there are 14 million orphans already in Africa, and little has been done to respond. And barely 10 per cent of women on the continent have access to programs to prevent transmission of the disease to their children. It's heartbreaking that big agencies, such as UNICEF, have failed to focus sufficiently on the problem.
Lewis, however, is loath to criticize the U.N. and tries to remain optimistic. On the positive side, he believes his role as Annan's envoy, which is only a part-time job, is useful in terms of focusing international attention on the issue. He points specifically to small achievements, such as the contribution of the Ontario Hospital Association, which is working in Lesotho to provide professional assistance to doctors, nurses, pharmacists and others. "I don't pretend it (his role) has made a major difference, but any difference is useful in this battle," he says.
"Overall," he says with a sigh, "a pretty limited contribution, I think. I feel more anxiety and anger and despair than I am suffused by optimism and anticipation. It's a pretty tough business. I've come to the point where it as though saving one human life is what it's all about. In the beginning, there were these huge numbers and you wanted to drive everything forward. Now I think, 'Can we somehow save those five lives in Zanzibar? Can we somehow keep those 10 people alive in Malawi?' In a sense, the human carnage is just beginning. That's why I feel so frantic."
-- BOB HEPBURN, Toronto Star (2005/05/14)
--------------------Canadians may be split on the issue of gay marriage. But in other respects, this is a tolerant country. The era when gay men and women felt ashamed about their sexual orientation is fading quickly. The same, sadly, is not true in the United States. As a trio of cases in that country shows, being gay is still seen as a mark of shame. And for those gays who happen to also be conservative, it is a source of hypocrisy as well.
Let's start in Spokane, Washington, where the city's 54-year-old Republican Mayor was recently caught in a gay online chat room trying to pick up a 17-year-old boy with promises of sports memorabilia and a city hall internship. Making matters more inconvenient for Mayor James E. West is his legislative record: During his tenure as Republican majority leader in the Washington senate, he attacked every gay-rights measure he could. In the 1980s, he even attempted to bar gays from working in schools. True to form, when the Spokane city council recently tried to extend some basic benefits to domestic partners, he threatened a mayoral veto.
Likewise, consider the recent "Gannongate" affair in Washington, D.C. Until last winter, Jeff Gannon was a reporter for the far-right Talonnews.com, notorious for lobbing embarrassingly soft questions at hard-line Republicans, and denouncing Democrats in all the usual ways. He's also written about homosexual issues, leavening his pieces with sneering references to the "gay agenda" and "practising homosexuals." But not long ago, Gannon was outed as a gay escort and the owner of the Web site hotmilitarystuds.com. His online profile described him as a "hardcore top"; pictures accompanied. Overnight, his conservative benefactors disappeared and Talonnews, now defunct, took his stories off-line.
Until their closeted personal lives became public, these two men posed as loyal right-wing soldiers in America's culture war. But even when they had nothing to hide, a culturally learned tinge of self-loathing shone through. West, for one, told his chat-mate that he doesn't like "the massive political agenda" of most gays. Likewise, in this month's Vanity Fair, Jeff Gannon tries to explain why the gay rights movement has attacked him so energetically: "People like me are a threat to them because there are things that are more important to me than sexual issues ... That's their whole world. It isn't my whole world."
Fine. The dens of drugs and sex that pepper most urban gay villages are off-putting for many people, gay and straight alike. But it's a spurious cop-out to pretend that this is all there is to the "gay agenda." Indeed, the most important "sexual issues" for most gays right now are questions of basic family values: marriage, benefits, adoption rights, hate crimes, anti-discrimination laws. In most of the U.S., the battles in these areas are still pending. In some areas, what progress has been made is now being reversed in state legislatures, town councils and school boards -- thanks in no small part to the political agitation of the likes of these hypocrites.
Even worse is Arthur J. Finkelstein. He's one of America's best political tacticians and the brains behind many of the most outspoken opponents of gay rights. Finkelstein has worked for a parade of fire-breathing social conservatives, including former senator Jesse Helms. In these circles, Helms' assertions that gays are "disgusting people" who lead "immoral lives" are commonplace. For the Helms crowd, naturally, same-sex marriage is anathema. But not, apparently, for Finkelstein. A few weeks ago, he married his male partner of 40 years in a civil ceremony in Massachusetts, where the couple lives with their two adopted children. Safe in a blue state, Finkelstein has been able to buy his family some security from the hateful ripples of the politicians he helps elect.
Canadians tend to go on a bit much about their tolerant ways. But better to bore people with your piety than assault them with intolerance. How fortunate we are to live in a country where gay men do not make careers out of defaming their own kind.
Let's start in Spokane, Washington, where the city's 54-year-old Republican Mayor was recently caught in a gay online chat room trying to pick up a 17-year-old boy with promises of sports memorabilia and a city hall internship. Making matters more inconvenient for Mayor James E. West is his legislative record: During his tenure as Republican majority leader in the Washington senate, he attacked every gay-rights measure he could. In the 1980s, he even attempted to bar gays from working in schools. True to form, when the Spokane city council recently tried to extend some basic benefits to domestic partners, he threatened a mayoral veto.
Likewise, consider the recent "Gannongate" affair in Washington, D.C. Until last winter, Jeff Gannon was a reporter for the far-right Talonnews.com, notorious for lobbing embarrassingly soft questions at hard-line Republicans, and denouncing Democrats in all the usual ways. He's also written about homosexual issues, leavening his pieces with sneering references to the "gay agenda" and "practising homosexuals." But not long ago, Gannon was outed as a gay escort and the owner of the Web site hotmilitarystuds.com. His online profile described him as a "hardcore top"; pictures accompanied. Overnight, his conservative benefactors disappeared and Talonnews, now defunct, took his stories off-line.
Until their closeted personal lives became public, these two men posed as loyal right-wing soldiers in America's culture war. But even when they had nothing to hide, a culturally learned tinge of self-loathing shone through. West, for one, told his chat-mate that he doesn't like "the massive political agenda" of most gays. Likewise, in this month's Vanity Fair, Jeff Gannon tries to explain why the gay rights movement has attacked him so energetically: "People like me are a threat to them because there are things that are more important to me than sexual issues ... That's their whole world. It isn't my whole world."
Fine. The dens of drugs and sex that pepper most urban gay villages are off-putting for many people, gay and straight alike. But it's a spurious cop-out to pretend that this is all there is to the "gay agenda." Indeed, the most important "sexual issues" for most gays right now are questions of basic family values: marriage, benefits, adoption rights, hate crimes, anti-discrimination laws. In most of the U.S., the battles in these areas are still pending. In some areas, what progress has been made is now being reversed in state legislatures, town councils and school boards -- thanks in no small part to the political agitation of the likes of these hypocrites.
Even worse is Arthur J. Finkelstein. He's one of America's best political tacticians and the brains behind many of the most outspoken opponents of gay rights. Finkelstein has worked for a parade of fire-breathing social conservatives, including former senator Jesse Helms. In these circles, Helms' assertions that gays are "disgusting people" who lead "immoral lives" are commonplace. For the Helms crowd, naturally, same-sex marriage is anathema. But not, apparently, for Finkelstein. A few weeks ago, he married his male partner of 40 years in a civil ceremony in Massachusetts, where the couple lives with their two adopted children. Safe in a blue state, Finkelstein has been able to buy his family some security from the hateful ripples of the politicians he helps elect.
Canadians tend to go on a bit much about their tolerant ways. But better to bore people with your piety than assault them with intolerance. How fortunate we are to live in a country where gay men do not make careers out of defaming their own kind.
-- Bradley Miller, National Post (2005/05/14)
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posted by þΛųL jØŋαŦhΛŋ @ 09:30
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