By Gabriel Molina:

• CIA documents declassified since 1992 under the JFK Records Act, in conjunction with other investigations, demonstrate that President John F. Kennedy was the victim of a sinister conspiracy.

But the surviving assassins and masterminds, although identified by a House Special Select Committee, remain unpunished, at least until 50 years have passed since the assassination, in this case, in 2013.

Those accused of committing the most infamous crime of the 20th century: CIA officials, Italian-American and Cuban Mafiosi and their accomplices, Republican politicians in the main, and unscrupulous business magnates, have done the major part of the country’s dirty work for more than 50 years. They have been at the root of financial and electoral frauds, as well as the mass and individual crimes that characterize the extremely high degree of corruption in U.S. politics since then, especially those suffered worldwide under the Bush family administrations, which have placed that country and the world in crisis.

Despite the conclusions of the House Select committee on Assassinations (HSCA) pointing to the CIA and Mafia as suspects in the execution of the crime – a theory likewise reached by Robert. F. Kennedy, as was recently revealed – the group of killers were able to elude the torrent of evidence concerning the conspiracy that investigators are still unraveling.

Within Washington government circles the Kennedy brothers’ confrontations with Lyndon Johnson, which intensified in 1963, are well known. It had been decided to leave him out of the candidacy for the 1964 elections and there was talk of bringing corruption charges against him. The vice president and his Texas machinery had a notable influence on both Houses and was an obstacle to the president’s reforms, in particular of the oil industry and administrative corruption that peaked around Johnson. William Reymond’s book, Le Dernière Temoin (The Last Witness) compiles the confessions of Billie Sol Estes, a millionaire financier of Johnson, sentenced by the courts after being investigated by Robert Kennedy when he was attorney general. Estes said that Johnson forced him to keep silent about the dirty business that he was doing for both of them, as "Robert was going after Johnson above anyone else."

Estes and Reymond both state that the vice president attended the "Pre-assassination party, a meeting organized by a group of these politicians and business magnates just before the crime, on November 21, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, in the house of oil magnate Clint Murchinson, described as "the final coordination of the assassination," by investigator Carl Oglesby in his book The Yankee Cowboy War. I remember Oglesby in Washington when, during the 1978 Committee Hearing, he already suspected the major "benefactor" of the crime.

Oglesby also recounts the attendance of Johnson and Murchinson, a business partner of Meyer Lansky; J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI, a close neighbor of the vice president and friend of the gangster Frank Costello; Allen Dulles, ex-director of the CIA; the oil millionaire H.L. Hunt; John J. McCloy; John Connally, former governor of Texas; General Charles Cabell and his brother Earle Cabell, mayor of Dallas; and Richard Nixon, all of them individuals who hated the Kennedy’s.

IMMORAL CIA-MAFIA COLLUSION

The Select Committee reached the conclusion that Carlos Marcello, don of New Orleans and part of Texas; Santos Trafficante of Florida; and James Hoffa, president of the truck drivers union, "had the motive, means and the opportunity to assassinate president Kennedy."

Other Mafia Italian-American capos such as Sam Giancana, John Roselli and Jack Ruby were likewise implicated.

The Committee established that New Orleans, capital of Marcello’s empire, was an important scenario in the conspiracies. Characters like Orlando Bosch, Luis Posada Carriles, the brothers Guillermo and Ignacio Novo Sampoll, Eladio del Valle, Jorge Mas Canosa, Herminio Díaz, Tony Cuesta, Pedero Luis Díaz Lanz and others all used to go there. It was in the same building where they met that Oswald developed his deception of supporting Cuba. The HSCA confirmed that these terrorists of Cuban origin who plotted to kill Fidel Castro, also conspired as individuals to assassinate Kennedy.

THE KENNEDYS AND THE CUBA "EMBARGO"

While still in the strategic office of justice secretary under the Johnson administration, Robert Kennedy attempted to normalize relations with Cuba one month after the assassination of his brother, who was promoting it at the time of his death. Robert described the limitations on travel to the island as a violation of American liberties.

Documents declassified by the National Security Archives on June 29, 2005, include a memo from Robert dated December 12, 1963, in which he pressed Justice Secretary Dean Rusk to make a rapid decision "to leave without effect current prohibitions such as those on travel," noting in the same memo that it was impracticable to arrest, charge and get involved in the persecution, in bad taste, of citizens seeking to travel to Cuba.

As Attorney General, Robert was investigating the CIA and the Cuban and Italian-American mafia in the context of the assassination because, since that very afternoon of November 22, he was even more convinced that the attempts to cast the blame on Cuba were part of that conspiracy.

As justice secretary he also knew prior to FBI reports that those groups hated the Kennedy’s and described them as traitors, given the outcome of Playa Girón in the Bay of Pigs in 1961 and the October Missile Crisis in 1962. If Robert Kennedy had harbored any doubts as to Mafia participation in the assassination, these were dissipated two days later, when Jack Ruby shot Oswald in the basement of the police precinct where he was being held as the alleged killer of John F. Kennedy.

At the end of 2006 it was exposed that members of the group of CIA officials suspected of having taken part in the assassination of the president were, outside of their functions, in the hotel where Robert was assassinated. Investigator David Talbot relived old wounds when he recounted in the Chicago Tribune that, after the assassination, his aides Draznin and Sheridan supplied Robert with rapid evidence of Ruby’s links with the Mafia.

GEORGE JOANNIDES, THE DOUBLE-GAME GREEK

The main CIA official presumably identified in the graphic evidence that came to light in 2006 on the assassination of Robert Kennedy was George Joannides, born in Athens in 1922, who joined the CIA in 1951 and, after 1959, was assigned to the JM/WAVE Station in Miami and worked closely with the Revolutionary Student Directorate (DRE), a terrorist group based in New Orleans.

Joannides, appointed by Richard Helms to represent the CIA in the Congress Committee investigation underway since 1976, took part in the DRE’s contacts with Lee Harvey Oswald in August 1963, prior to the Dallas crime. The CIA did not reveal that this official had played an important role in the events of 1963, particularly in covering up the Agency’s relations with Oswald, which made him a suspect in the conspiracy to link the "lone gunman" to the Cuban government.

Robert Blakey, chief of the Committee investigators, was furious when he discovered in 1998, via declassified documents, that this official had acted as a link between the DRE and Oswald. Blakey had trusted the collaboration that Joannides was giving the Committee on Richard Helms’ instructions. Joannides died in 1990.

He qualified it as outrageous that the CIA had not informed him of his financial relations and other connections with the DRE, which he considered "an obstruction of justice" and demanded the declassification of the rest of the Joannides and other assassination documents.

Blakey stated that, far from facilitating cooperation, Joannides was obstructing it. "I now believe that the proceedings lacked integrity, precisely because of Joannides… Now I do not believe anything that the Agency said to the Committee…"

The final report of the House Select Committee, published at the beginning of 1979, recommended that the investigation should continue. But the victory of the Ronald Reagan-George Bush duo in the 1980 elections meant that they avoided the truth emerging.

It should not be forgotten that George Bush Sr. was promoted to heading the CIA after his post as senior official responsible for conspiracies against Cuba. His pawns created the infamous alliance with Italian-American and Cuban Mafiosi, defended even now in the agonizing administration of his son. From the Bay of Pigs, as they like to call the "fiasco" of Playa Girón, to the current economic and financial crisis at global level, they have converted the Cosa Nostra into the CIA Nostra. •


Havana. November 21, 2008

granma.cu

friend"L" is 12th letter of alphabets
"O" is15th
"V" is 22nd
"E" is 5th

Total of "LOVE" is 54

But similarly
"F" is 6th
"R" is 18th
"I" is 9th
"E" is 5th
"N" is 14th
"D" is 4th
"S" is 19th
"H" is 8th
"I" is 9th
"P" is 16th

Total of "FRIENDSHIP" is 108

Exactly twice of 54

So, the FRIENDSHIP is twice the value of LOVE.
. Send this to all of your friends, and me if I am one.
If you get 7 back you are LOVED!!! Here are the numbers of what
kind of friend you are based on how many you get back..

1-3 ~ you're a bad friend
4-6 ~ you're an okay friend
7-9 ~ you're a good
10+ ~ you're great friend

By Herve Kempf, Chelsea Green Publishing

There is an emergency. In less than a decade we will have to change course, but there are a few major obstacles blocking the way.


The following is reprinted from the new book How the Rich Are Destroying the Earth by Herve Kempf and published by Chelsea Green.


There is an emergency. In less than a decade we will have to change course -- assuming the collapse of the U.S. economy or the explosion of the Middle East does not impose a change through chaos. To confront the emergency, we must understand the objective: to achieve a sober society; to plot out the way there; to accomplish this transformation equitably, by first making those with the most carry the burden within and between societies; to take inspiration from collective values ascribed to here in France by our nation's motto: "Liberty, ecology, fraternity."

What are the main obstacles that block the way?

First of all, received wisdom -- prejudices really -- so loaded that they orient collective action without anyone really thinking about them. The most powerful of these preconceived ideas is the belief in growth as the sole means of resolving social problems. That position is powerfully defended even as it is contradicted by the facts. And it is always defended by putting ecology aside because the zealots know that growth is incapable of responding to the environmental issue.

The second of these ideas, less cocky although very broadly disseminated, proclaims that technological progress will resolve environmental problems. This idea is propagated because it allows people to hope we will be able to avoid any serious changes in our collective behaviors thanks to technological progress. The development of technology, or rather of certain technical channels to the detriment of others, reinforces the system and fosters solid profits.

The third piece of received wisdom is the inevitability of unemployment. This idea is closely linked to the two previous ideas. Unemployment has become a given, largely manufactured by capitalism to assure the docility of the populace and especially of the lowest level of workers. From a contrary position, the transfer of the oligarchy's wealth for the purpose of public services, a system of taxation that weighed more heavily on pollution and on capital than on employment, sustainable agricultural policies in the countries of the South, and research into energy efficiency are immense sources of employment.

A fourth commonly associates Europe and North America in a community of fortune. But their paths have diverged. Europe is still a standard-bearer for an ideal of universalism, the validity of which it demonstrates by its ability to unite -- despite problems -- very different states and cultures. Energy consumption, cultural values -- for example, the critical significance of food -- the rejection of the death penalty and torture, less pronounced inequality and the maintenance of an ideal of social justice, respect for international law, and support for the Kyoto Protocol on climate are some of the many traits that distinguish Europe from the United States.

Europe must be separated from the obese power and draw closer to the South, unless the United States shows it can really change.

The Oligarchy Could Be Divided

Then there are the forces at work.

The first, of course, is the power of the system itself. The failures that will occur will not in themselves be sufficient to undo the system, since, as we have seen, they could offer the pretext to promote an authoritarian system divested of any show of democracy.

The social movement has woken up, however, and may continue to gain power. But it alone will not be able to carry the day in the face of the rise of repression: it will be necessary for the middle classes and part of the oligarchy -- which is not monolithic -- to clearly take sides for public freedoms and the common good. The mass media constitute a central challenge. Today they support capitalism because of their own economic situation. They depend, for the most part, on advertising. That makes it difficult for them to plead for a reduction in consumption.

On top of that, the development of free papers that depend solely on advertising further increases the pressure on widely distributed paid newspapers, many of which have entered the stables of big industrial groups. It's not certain that the information possibilities generated by the Internet, although immense -- and for as long as these remain open -- will be adequate to counterbalance the weight of the mass media should it wholly become the voice of the oligarchy.

Nevertheless, not all journalists are totally enthralled yet, and they could be galvanized around the ideal of freedom.

The third, wobbly force is the left. Since its social-democratic component became its center of gravity, it has abandoned any ambition of transforming the world. The compromise with free-market liberalism has led the left to so totally adopt the values of free-market liberalism that it no longer dares -- except in the most cautious terms -- to deplore social inequality. On top of that, the left displays an almost cartoonish refusal to truly engross itself in environmental issues.

The left remains pickled in the idea of progress as it was conceived in the nineteenth century, still believes that science is produced the same way it was in the time of Albert Einstein, and intones the chant of economic growth without the slightest trace of critical thinking. Moreover, "social capitalism" rather than "social democracy" is undoubtedly the more apposite term.

Nonetheless, can the challenges of the twenty-first century be addressed by the currents of tradition other than the one that identified inequality as its primary motive for revolt?

This hiatus is at the heart of political life. The left will be reborn by uniting the causes of inequality and the environment -- or, unfit, it will disappear in the general disorder that will sweep it and everything else away. And yet, let us be optimistic. Optimistic, because there are ever more of us who understand -- unlike all the conservatives -- the historical novelty of the situation: we are living out a new, never-seen-before phase of the human species' history, the moment when, having conquered the Earth and reached its limits, humanity must rethink its relationship to nature, to space, to its destiny.

We are optimistic to the extent that awareness of the importance of the current stakes becomes pervasive, to the extent that the spirit of freedom and of solidarity is aroused. Since Seattle and the protests against the World Trade Organization in 1999, the pendulum has begun to swing in the other direction, toward a collective concern about the choices for the future, seeking cooperation rather than competition.

The somewhat successful, although still incomplete, battle in Europe against GMOs, the international community's continuance of the Kyoto Protocol in 2001 despite the United States' withdrawal, the refusal by the peoples of Europe to participate in the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the general recognition of the urgency of climate-change challenge are signs that the wind of the future has begun to blow. Despite the scale of the challenges that await us, solutions are emerging and -- faced with the sinister prospects the oligarchs promote -- the desire to remake the world is being reborn.

alternet.org

November 22, 2008

Reflections by comrade Fidel:



I did not want to talk a lot, but he obliged me to expand on things; I asked some questions and, basically, listened to him.

His words recounted the feats of the Chinese people in the last 10 months. Heavy and unseasonal snowfall, an earthquake that devastated surface areas equivalent to three times the size of Cuba, and the gravest economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s have hit that immense nation of 1.3 billion inhabitants.

I saw before my eyes the immense effort of the Chinese people, of its workers, peasants, manual and professional workers; the traditional spirit of sacrifice and the millenary culture of that country thousands of years before the colonial stage imposed by the West, when the current powers of the G-7 group now hegemonizing the world economy emerged with their power and wealth.

What a colossal task in these times of globalization has befallen that leader who made the gesture of visiting our blockaded, assaulted and threatened homeland! Are we not perhaps one terrorist country among another 60 or more than could suffer a preventive and surprise attack? That was stated now more than six years ago by the demented chief of the empire, who met just five days ago with the G-20!

China is the only country in that group that is able to regulate via the state a high growth figure, at the proposed rate of no less than 8% in the year 2009. The idea launched by the last Party Congress was to quadruple the per capita Gross Domestic Product between 2000 and 2020, measured in constant values from 2007, the year in which the Congress took place. He talked to me about that in detail. In that way it would reach the equivalent of no less than $4,000 per capita by the end of that period, in conditions of peace. I think that it should not be overlooked that China is an emerging country, whose per capita income, with a much lower population at the triumph of the Revolution, not did reach $400 per year per inhabitant and was totally isolated by imperialism. Compare that with the $20,000 per capita or much higher figures currently enjoyed by the developed capitalist countries, like Japan, Western Europe, the United States and Canada. A number of these countries are in excess of $40,000 per capita per year, although its distribution in society is extremely unequal.

By using $586 billion of its hard currency reserves, which stand at close to $2 trillion, accumulated on the basis of sweat and sacrifice, it can stand up to the current crisis and continue advancing. Is there any other country with that solidity?

Hu Jintao, president of China, secretary general of the Party and president of the Central Military Commissions of the Party and government, is a leader who is aware of his authority and knows how to exercise it in plenitude.

The delegation he headed signed 12 draft agreements for modest economic development in an area of the planet where the totality of the island’s small territory could be struck by hurricanes of increasing intensity, evidence of the fact that the climate really is changing. The area in China affected by the earthquake does not extend to more than 4% of the surface of that great multinational state.

There are circumstances in which the size of the territory of one independent country, its geographical location and the number of its inhabitants play an important role.

Would the United States, which steals already trained intelligences from everywhere, be in a condition to apply an Adjustment Act for Chinese citizens similar to the one that it applies to Cuba? It is totally obvious that it could not. Could it apply it to the whole of Latin America? Evidently, it couldn’t, either.

Meanwhile, our marvelous, contaminated and sole spacecraft continues spinning on its imaginary axis, as one of the most viewed Venezuelan television programs repeats.

It is not every day that a little state has the privilege of receiving a visitor of the stature and prestige of Hu Jintao. Now he is traveling on to Lima. There he has another grand meeting. Once again Bush will be present, this time with seven less days in office.

It has been affirmed that the presence in Washington of just 20 leaders from the countries present, their own security measures and the host’s legal suits against any attempt to physically liquidate them changed the customs and habitual life of the city. What will the great city of Lima be like? Without any doubt, the city will be taken over by the Armed Forces; moving around will be a complicated task, as it will also contain well trained agents from U.S. supra-nationals, whose interests and plans will be known many years after the presidential terms of the eventual leaders of the empire.

I expressed to him very synthetically some of our country’s appreciations on the habits of the neighbor to the North, which is trying to impose on us its ideas, its way of thinking, and its interest via its fleets, replete with nuclear weapons and attack bombardments; our appreciation of Venezuela’s solidarity with Cuba since the most critical years of the Special Period; and the heavy blows of natural disasters. That President Chávez, a great admirer of China, has been the firmest defender of socialism as the only system capable of bringing justice to the peoples of Latin America.

They have pleasant memories of the Bolivarian leader in Beijing.

President Hu Jintao reiterated his desire to continue developing relations with Cuba, a country for which he has great respect.

The meeting lasted for one hour and 38 minutes. He was warm, friendly, modest and made patent his sentiments of affection. I saw him as young, healthy and strong. We wish our eminent and fraternal friend the greatest success in his task. Thank you for your stimulating visit and the honor of having an interest in a personal meeting with me!

granma.cu

Fidel Castro Ruz
November 19, 2008
1:12 p.m.

No matter how the economy is doing, it’s always nice to see investors calling for lots of green investments.

Global institutional investors holding more than $6 trillion in assets pushed policymakers Tuesday to quickly hash out a binding agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions and promote clean technology.

More than 130 big investors, including London Pensions Fund Authority, want countries to agree to reduce the climate- warming emissions by 50 percent to 80 percent by 2050.

Methods and Materials for Conversation and Writing Tutors

Eric H. Roth writes...

How do you effectively teach English to a struggling private student? What will you actually do for 60-120 minutes together? How will you make the lessons meaningful enough that your client feels satisfied and wants to retain you for future lessons?

First, you must be very clear about what the client wants and expects. Some tutors even present a written contract outlining their rates, the location and times of meetings, and payment policies. I've never been that formal, but I have also never been burned the way some tutors have been. In fact, I've had only very positive experiences with clients. Why? Perhaps luck; perhaps because I screen potential clients. I only work with professionals, graduate students, and/or friends and spouses of friends with a solid foundation in English. Be explicit about what you want and don't want to teach a client. Be prepared to provide options for potential clients that you reject.

For students who want to improve their conversation, I strongly suggest that you select the topic and materials in advance. You can use newspapers and/or magazines to find appropriate articles to begin the conversation. (I usually assign the articles a week ahead and give them my conversation worksheets.) My favorite book - because I wrote it and it provides 45 self-contained thematic chapters - is Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics. The combination of poignant questions, vocabulary lists, proverbs, and witty quotations makes your job much easier.

If you have a weaker student looking to improve their speaking skills, then I would advise using a picture dictionary. There are several fine ones. You might use the Oxford Picture Dictionary to open conversations, and I would be tempted to ask the client to bring in photographs and ads each week. You will need patience and be prepared to repeat words. Many students will want to work on their pronunciation. You can also ask/assign them listening activities on the web. I like Voice of America's Special English programs for intermediate and advanced students. You will have to direct lower levels to websites to practice their listening and speaking skills with drills. They will love the work; you might go mad repeating vowel sounds.

You can also make a good income helping ESL students write college admission essays, practice TOEFL and GRE essays, and proofreading papers. There are many fine books you can use. I recommend Keith Folse's Great Essays and picking any of the standard test preparation guides published by Barrons or Kaplans. For worse or for better, the focus is on structure and not content. Spelling, somehow, often doesn't even officially matter. You might also use the excellent Cambridge Vocabulary in Use series and Grammar in Use series. You can also recommend Grammar Troublespots for international students.

Finally, I have had great success sharing insights on adapting to American culture. My favorite book for this challenging task remains Checklists for Life: 104 Lists to Help You. Each chapter focuses on a practical life skill from buying a computer and finding a good mechanic to organizing your workplace and writing letters of condolence. Inevitably the readings lend themselves to engaging conversations and a satisfying exchange of information and insights. I have also assigned readings from Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, but the advice offered often seems very idealistic and naive to immigrant professionals. Still, clients love the idioms and find that the perspective illuminates unknown aspects of American culture - or at least a segment of American culture.

Finally, the key to tutoring ESL students - or anyone else - remains respecting the student, meeting their needs, and providing a solid structure for your lessons. I have found that using a set text, developing a known routine, and combining conversation, vocabulary and writing skills makes for a successful and satisfying experience.

As William Shakespeare noted four centuries ago, "All's well that ends well". Therefore, you should also have the grace to know when to end your lessons. Some clients will want to keep working with you. Set a clear goal for your lessons, and conclude when the students have reached that goal. You can then become genuine friends and leave money out of the equation.

Or not. You choose. What are your goals for tutoring students?

TEFL.NET ESL Reviews & Articles© Eric H. Roth 2007
Eric Roth currently teaches writing and verbal skills to international graduate students at the University of Southern California. Eric has helped university students discover the pleasures and perils of the English language from dozens of countries over the last 15 years. He recently co-authored an EFL book titled "Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics" from materials he developed as a tutor and teacher. Eric can be reached through http://www.compellingconversations.com.

By Sara Speicher



For Eric Sawyer, the late 1980s was a "war time situation". "People with
AIDS were fighting for their lives and for their friends", says Sawyer, an
AIDS activist and co-founder of ACT UP New York. By 1988, seven years after
the first case of AIDS was reported, AIDS was causing more deaths in the US
then there were in the Vietnam War, and between 5 and 10 million people were
estimated to be infected with HIV around the world. Yet governments, media
and society in general were not giving AIDS adequate attention. So, "people
with AIDS had to literally take to the streets and block traffic and take
over government buildings", Sawyer recalls.



Sawyer had been on the front lines of the AIDS epidemic since developing his
first HIV-related symptoms in 1981, before AIDS was officially identified.
For him and for thousands of other activists around the world, the formation
of World AIDS Day in 1988 was one of the few moments in the year where the
growing tragedy of AIDS would finally get attention around the globe.



Now at its 20th anniversary, World AIDS Day continues to be the focus of
global solidarity for a pandemic that has led to over 25 million deaths with
an estimated 33 million people currently living with HIV worldwide.



World AIDS Day was reportedly the brainchild of the late Jonathan Mann, at
the time the director of the Global Programme on AIDS (GPA) at the World
Health Organization. After positive reactions to the idea of World AIDS Day
by over 100 health ministers at the January 1988 London gathering focused on
AIDS and at the 1988 International AIDS Conference in Stockholm, the World
Health Organization declared 1 December 1988 as the first World AIDS Day,
which was recognised and supported by the UN General Assembly in October
1988.



"We wanted to provide a platform so that people who were working on the
issue at any level could get involved", says Tom Netter, who worked with
Mann as the head of the GPA's public information office. Fostering a sense
of solidarity was paramount, says Netter, "so that people could do things at
the grassroots level and feel part of the global response at that time."



Netter recalls that in 1988, despite the short planning time, an event was
held in every member state. "That was eye opening", he said, "It showed that
people wanted to have something that they could grab on to, to feel part of
the overall response." In the World Health Organization itself, panels from
the AIDS quilt were displayed. "People found that very moving . . . it
showed the individuals affected."



Within three years, the activities around the day "became something that was
going to happen spontaneously.People on the ground took off with it", says
Netter.



Unique momentum



The energy behind World AIDS Day, and the activism that has characterised
the response to AIDS among civil society, is unique.



Prior to AIDS, Netter states, "there wasn't really so much of an advocacy
movement regarding diseases or people who were ill. AIDS really was the
first that mobilised people."



It was the people most affected who brought the urgency, passion and
accountability to the movement. Sawyer recalls, "Early on the most
significant leadership was actually done by people with AIDS themselves".



Whilst early activists targeted authorities' slow response to AIDS, that
didn't mean that scientists and activists were on opposite sides, says
Professor Lars Kallings, the first president of the International AIDS
Society, also founded in 1988. "If you think from the beginning, before
there was any treatment, the doctors felt very helpless. They suffered by
not being able to help their patients. Therefore, even scientists have been
on the front lines, on the barricades, very often against the authorities,
the government."



World AIDS Day has been a symbolic focus for this activism. It "gave people
a sense that they were part of a larger movement than what they were
involved in individually and locally", Netter states.



But this doesn't mean that one day is enough. "For me", says Frika Chia
Iskandar, a young woman from Indonesia working with the Asia Pacific Network
of People Living with HIV/AIDS (APN+), "it doesn't seem like 'World' enough,
it is not public enough". For activists now, she reflects, the day itself
doesn't make a difference when "our days are filled with AIDS". Yet, she
emphasises, "For the public, though, it is at least one day where we think
about AIDS, and it is still needed."



Greg Gray, an APN+ advisor who also carries a supporting role for the NGO
delegation to the UNAIDS governing board agrees, "World AIDS Day has real
value for raising awareness with the broader public. But when you are
working with the grassroots community affected by HIV it doesn't connect as
much. When you do it day in and day out, it becomes the norm. World AIDS Day
is trying to get a bit of that message home to a much broader community."



Placing a spotlight on leadership



For Kallings, that broader community from the beginning included leaders. At
times, the absence of leadership has been most apparent. "We had to push
Ronald Reagan to get his tongue around AIDS", Kallings recalls. "That didn't
happen until 1987 when tens of thousands of his countrymen had already
died."



But Kallings also recalls early World AIDS Day events where presidents and
royalty participated, such as in Tanzania and Thailand. "That puts the
limelight on AIDS", he says, "and showed solidarity in the country."



The danger, as Matilda Moyo, a steering group member of the Pan Africa
Treatment Action Movement, points out, is that World AIDS Day becomes a
"cheap opportunity for governments to make promises that they fail to
deliver on". Sometimes media only focus on covering government's statements
on the day, she says, and fail to lift up what challenges there are
according to civil society working with HIV and AIDS on a daily basis.



Kallings, who is currently the United Nations' Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in
Eastern Europe and Central Asia, acknowledges that it "is a constant fight
to get the leaders to leave the denial and indifference. One of my roles is
to persuade leaders to use their power to influence the public concept
because discrimination is very deep in the population and it will not change
unless there is leadership."



The leadership required to address AIDS must come from all aspects of the
community. "Leadership in HIV is nothing without political leadership", says
Eunice Kapandura, a 25-year old positive youth activist from Zimbabwe, yet
adding, "when we talk of leadership we mean meaningful representation of the
community." Archbishop Njongo Ndungane, founder and president of African
Monitor, emphasises the role of religious leaders, who "should shout at the
rooftops that AIDS is not a punishment from God but a medical condition
which is preventable, manageable and treatable although not curable."



Within the AIDS advocacy movement, leadership has changed over these past 20
years, especially after the breakthrough in combination therapy, Sawyer
says. Of the early activists who had been leading the fight, "a lot of them
died, a lot of them went on to work full-time for AIDS organizations and
after working 8-10 hours a day to provide care and support they no longer
had time or energy for activism. And others who received treatment, they
returned to their careers. That shifted leadership in both AIDS
organisations on the frontline and government officials and researchers."

Even though the pandemic still affects every country in the world and rages
in Sub-Saharan Africa, AIDS fatigue seems to have hit particularly Western
media and society. "The passion that people brought to the epidemic has
pretty much been lost",

Sawyer reflects.



Chia Iskandar wants to see young leaders in the response, but it's not just
about their age. "It's not about youth, but about new ideas. We need to be
able to keep the idealism alive - the mutual energy, mutual knowledge
transfers, knowing that we are fighting the challenges, fighting the virus,
not fighting each other." She adds that one of the critical aspects of
leadership is "'passing on the knowledge' from the leaders who have
'developed' themselves in the response to the new 'young' leaders and
working together."



With young people now the population most affected, Moyo affirms, "We need
leadership that is creative, young and vibrant and brings fresh ideas on how
to tackle the global challenge."



What remains key is that those most affected lead the way. "For myself being
a person living with AIDS", Sawyer states, "it would be important to
strengthen leadership of people living with HIV and AIDS and the affected
community."



>From one day to a campaign



In 1996 when the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) became
operational, it took over the planning and promotion of World AIDS Day.
However, according to Anne Winter, head of advocacy and communication at the
time, organisers soon felt that rather than only emphasise one day they
wanted to encourage an extended effort over a long period.



Thus in 1997, the World AIDS Campaign was born, charged with focusing on
longer-term messages and strategy. World AIDS Day became the highlight of a
year-long emphasis.



With the campaign, Winter says, "we always tried to use issues that were
innovative and would really move the agenda forward".



The themes chosen for the first two years - on children and young people -
were in fact roundly criticised at the time. "People said this was just a
way to get attention about the epidemic, that the epidemic is not about
children", Winter recalls. But the theme highlighted that the extent and
severity of the epidemic in the developing world was not widely known. "It
was important to change the face of the epidemic and that people recognise
it was a family disease and that children were very much affected by it in
different ways."



In late 2004, the World AIDS Campaign became independent to broaden civil
society ownership and participation. Based in South Africa and The
Netherlands, the World AIDS Day theme is now chosen by its Global Steering
Committee after a broad consultation with people involved in the response
from all over the world. The themes often are repeated for two years to help
get key messages home to the public and to leaders, and all of the themes
are under the 2005-2010 campaign slogan, "Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise."
targeting political leaders' commitment to reach universal access to
prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010.



Leadership needed now



Kallings acknowledges that the response to AIDS today is much better than it
was 20 years ago, but far more action needs to be taken. "Last year it was
three million on treatment. That is a remarkable success. But it is still
only one-third of people needing urgent treatment. The current financial
crisis is a threat to that successful trend. It very much calls for
continued lobbying and pressure to continue to get enough financial support
not only to maintain the current level but to increase it to three times
more and include more preventative measures."



Sawyer notes that World AIDS Day "remains one of the few days where the
world pays a lot of attention to AIDS". Yet, with people living longer
because of anti-retroviral medicines and the many other global issues
needing attention, it seems the news value has faded. Despite the Western
media fatigue, Sawyer notes, "we still have over 8000 deaths a day, 2-3
million dying and millions of new infections each year". As part of a think
tank called aids2031, Sawyer is thinking of another anniversary - the 50th
anniversary of the identification of AIDS - and hoping that leadership at
this 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day will mean those numbers are
tragedies of the past.



The World AIDS Campaign supports, strengthens and connects campaigns that
hold leaders accountable for their promises on HIV and AIDS. "Stop AIDS.
Keep the Promise" is the slogan for the World AIDS Campaign from 2005-2010.
www.worldaidscampaign.org



For more information or for interviews with experts, national campaigners
and people directly affected by HIV and AIDS, contact the World AIDS
Campaign at
media@worldaidscampaign.org, +31 20 616 9045 (Netherlands) or +44 1524 727
651 (UK).





The article is availble on:
http://www.worldaidscampaign.org/en/Media/WAC-News/World-AIDS-Day-marks-20th
-anniversary-of-solidarity