Race Against Time: Searching for Hope in AIDS-Ravaged Africa is a
non-fiction book written by Stephen Lewis (pictured) for the Massey
Lectures. Each of the book's chapters was delivered as one lecture in a
different Canadian city. The author and orator, Stephen Lewis, was the
then-United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa and former
Canadian ambassador to the United Nations. Although he wrote the book
and lectures in his role as a concerned Canadian citizen, his criticism
of the United Nations, international organizations, and other
diplomats, including naming specific people, was called undiplomatic
and led several reviewers to speculate whether he would be removed from
his UN position. In the book and the lectures Lewis argues that
significant changes are required to meet the Millennium Development
Goals in Africa by their 2015 deadline. Lewis explains the historical
context of Africa since the 1980s, citing a succession of disastrous
economic policies by international financial institutions that
contributed to, rather than reduced, poverty. He connects the
structural adjustment loans, with conditions of limited public spending
on health and education infrastructure, to the uncontrolled spread of
AIDS and subsequent food shortages as the disease infected much of the
working-age population. To help alleviate problems, he ends with
potential solutions which mainly require increased funding by G8
countries to levels beyond what they promise. Book reviewers found the
criticisms constructive and the writing sincere. His style focuses less
on numbers and statistics, and more on connecting decisions by UN
officials and western diplomats to consequences on the ground in
Africa.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_Against_Time%3A_Searching_for_Hope_in_AIDS-Ravaged_Africa>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1279:
The Song Dynasty in Imperial China ended with a victory by the Yuan
Dynasty at the Battle of Yamen off the coast of Xinhui, Guangdong
Province.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Yamen>
1687:
The search for the mouth of the Mississippi River led by French
explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle ended with a mutiny
and his murder in present-day Texas.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9-Robert_Cavelier%2C_Sieur_de_La_Salle>
1915:
Pluto was photographed for the first time, 15 years before it was
officially discovered by Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto>
1945:
World War II: A single Japanese aircraft bombed the American aircraft
carrier USS Franklin , killing over 700 of her crew and crippling the
ship.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Franklin_%28CV-13%29>
1978:
In response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the United Nations
called on Israel to immediately withdraw its forces from Lebanon, and
established the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_425>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
ruthlessly (adv):
In a ruthless manner; with cruelty; without pity or compassion
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ruthlessly>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
"Fools rush where Angels fear to tread!" Angels and Fools have equal
claim
To do what Nature bids them do, sans hope of praise, sans fear of
blame!
--Richard Francis Burton
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Francis_Burton>