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> _______________________________ 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> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: ruthlessly (adv): In a ruthless manner; with cruelty; without pity or compassion <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ruthlessly> ___________________________ 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>