Star Struck
As we sat waiting for him to arrive, the excitement in the room was palpable. Well at least the excitement in my immediate vicinity… Okay, it was just me. I was like a teenager at a concert waiting for a musical heartthrob to appear, expect with less sweat, fewer hormones and far more men in suits and ties. Finally, he emerged. The man that had made my palms sweat with anticipation – a man shorter than me, some 40 years my senior, badly in need of a haircut, and wearing glasses that definitely snuck their way into this millennium without checking in with the fashion police. This man was Stephen Lewis, and while he’s not exactly a pop star, he’s the HIV/AIDS equivalent: the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy on AIDS in Africa.
Admittedly, I wasn’t quite as excited as a teenager at a rock concert waiting to hear him speak, but I was definitely excited. I read Lewis’ book, Race Against Time, just recently and was very taken with his straightforward, direct way of discussing the daunting issues facing Africa today. And to hear him speak about it, and specifically to speak about Zambia, my home for the last 9 months, was an event of rock concert status as far as my life here is concerned!
Unlike those live concerts that just don’t sound quite as good as the CD, I was not disappointed with Lewis Unplugged. His address was clear, captivating, emotional and spattered with one of the most amazing vocabularies I have ever come across. I can’t say I agree with everything he said (or didn’t say) but I was impressed and pleased with his direct manner of tackling what he sees as the important issues. The man doesn’t waffle: he ‘slandered the World Bank at will’, radiated with praise for rural women running a fish farm whose profits sustain over 100 orphans, relentlessly reiterated the need for the government to tackle the crippling human resource crisis, openly attacked those who expressed narrow concerns that ‘drove him to distraction’, and made a heartfelt plea for a ‘Herculean’ intervention to address the vulnerability of women. He is a diplomat that cares deeply about his work and isn’t afraid to speak his mind, which he attributes to the fact that he is near the end of his tenure and no longer afraid of losing his job!
Despite the long list of concerns, Lewis was positive about his visit to Zambia. A colleague and activist whom I greatly admire voiced some concern with this apparent ‘milk and honey’ view of Zambia’s fight against the pandemic, but Lewis was quick to reassure him that he has never has and never will have a ‘milk and honey’ view of the fight against AIDS in Africa; there is still a long way and a lot of work to go, but he refused to be so foolhardy as to deny the progress that Zambia has made in recent years. I have to say, some days I wonder whether what I am doing here makes even the slightest difference to this world, but to hear one of the world’s foremost voices HIV say that Zambia is definitely getting somewhere definitely put a bounce in my step out of bed this morning.
Admittedly, I wasn’t quite as excited as a teenager at a rock concert waiting to hear him speak, but I was definitely excited. I read Lewis’ book, Race Against Time, just recently and was very taken with his straightforward, direct way of discussing the daunting issues facing Africa today. And to hear him speak about it, and specifically to speak about Zambia, my home for the last 9 months, was an event of rock concert status as far as my life here is concerned!
Unlike those live concerts that just don’t sound quite as good as the CD, I was not disappointed with Lewis Unplugged. His address was clear, captivating, emotional and spattered with one of the most amazing vocabularies I have ever come across. I can’t say I agree with everything he said (or didn’t say) but I was impressed and pleased with his direct manner of tackling what he sees as the important issues. The man doesn’t waffle: he ‘slandered the World Bank at will’, radiated with praise for rural women running a fish farm whose profits sustain over 100 orphans, relentlessly reiterated the need for the government to tackle the crippling human resource crisis, openly attacked those who expressed narrow concerns that ‘drove him to distraction’, and made a heartfelt plea for a ‘Herculean’ intervention to address the vulnerability of women. He is a diplomat that cares deeply about his work and isn’t afraid to speak his mind, which he attributes to the fact that he is near the end of his tenure and no longer afraid of losing his job!
Despite the long list of concerns, Lewis was positive about his visit to Zambia. A colleague and activist whom I greatly admire voiced some concern with this apparent ‘milk and honey’ view of Zambia’s fight against the pandemic, but Lewis was quick to reassure him that he has never has and never will have a ‘milk and honey’ view of the fight against AIDS in Africa; there is still a long way and a lot of work to go, but he refused to be so foolhardy as to deny the progress that Zambia has made in recent years. I have to say, some days I wonder whether what I am doing here makes even the slightest difference to this world, but to hear one of the world’s foremost voices HIV say that Zambia is definitely getting somewhere definitely put a bounce in my step out of bed this morning.
posted by ash at 5:04 PM
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