Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Pico Iyer: Responsibility for its happening is tiny responsibility for its potential solution is vast. And that’s what globalism means, not just rights but responsibilities. Africa is our neighbour and we have to care for it, we have to care about it as we would for our neighbours in Berlin or Los Angeles. We have the research, we have the facilities, we have the money, and all we really need as Bono so eloquently says is the will to do what we can for other people, and I suppose that requires, again a change from within and a different way of conceiving ourselves as not, again, self contained units on one side of the world but parts of something much larger and more inclusive.

by Pico Iyer

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Rachid ElDaif: I have to admit that sometimes I completely ignore problems that are very important and very painful in other parts of the world. And it is a real problem and because there are so many problems in this world you can't care about everything. Just think about what is happening in Lebanon for already thirty years. So how can you care or do something to help in other parts of the world.

by Rachid ElDaif

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Raymond Federman: There are many crises in the world right now but AIDS maybe the most urgent crisis that we must attend to. It spreads! Why? Because of lack of education, because of irresponsibility. We are all in the world morally, medically, educationally responsible to stop the spreading of AIDS in partly in Africa. Why in Africa? Because as I said earlier in another answer, because we have in many ways abandoned Africa to its own plague. We must work to educate the people. We must work. We must force the medical world to do further research. We must work so that the corporation gets involved with this problem and subsidize research and subsidize medication and subsidize cures. If we don’t stop AIDS, it would spread in a world in spite, because its part of our human nature, because it is always connected with sexuality, with the sexual act. Even though some catch this sickness, this crisis, they are mear contagents. We must do everything possible to stop this immediately. I think the most important is of course, education. We must educate the people, we must not but fear in them and let them understand that some of the acts that they do may cause this sickness. We have managed on this planet to eradicate certain sickness. Tuberculosis, which at one time was a strong -- polio, we must do the same for AIDS. Education and cure, research.

by Raymond Federman

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Robbie Conal: Well, again, it’s about being human and what that means in your relationship to other humans, whoever they are, are you feeling them? Are they you? If you are, and if they are, then we are responsible for each other, aren’t we? And do what you can, what we can, you can, I can, that guy, that lady, sure. Whether we are feeling it immediately or next week or last week, we are all interconnected and I think it’s easier to have a sense of that than never before. So, once you are conscious, you are responsible, that’s not the worst thing that could possibly happen to the world. But, there is plenty we can do to help people with diseases anywhere. And I will be grateful for anybody’s help with my diseases, like sarcasm for instance. Help me. I mean, if you want to talk about pharmaceutical companies and making money or making products that actually cure people or prevent diseases, then I have a little bit of an issue of that enterprise as a profit making form of commerce. Then, we have to redefine profit. And that would take a little more than a pharmaceutical company. I don’t know if there is a drug for that. But, I could think of a few that might be mind altering in that way that open us a little bit to rethinking that issue.

by Robbie Conal

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Rodrigo Baggio: AIDS is a big challenge concerning diseases. It is a big challenge, a gigantic challenge, simply gigantic. To know that a big percentage of children in African countries die because of AIDS. It is fundamental to change this situation. I don’t know how. But it is fundamental to change this situation.

by Rodrigo Baggio

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Roland Berger: AIDS is, for sure, one of the plagues of mankind, one of the biggest and most difficult diseases, which, at the moment, are incurable. Therefore I think our responsibility, especially in the wealthy, industrial countries is extremely heavy, in order to defeat this disease. We have got three possibilities and I think these three possibilities should be seized. One possibility is to help those people who have unfortunately infected themselves with AIDS by providing them with medical treatment at a sensible and affordable price and also by providing them with medicaments. However, it is much more important to make especially young people, but all the people in the world, aware of the possibilities of avoiding infection. In my opinion this is the point where we don't do enough, neither through developed and rich countries, nor through communication and education, nor through the educational system in the highly affected developing countries and emerging nations. Anyway, our responsibility in the fight against AIDS is extremely heavy, but there are measures that can be taken: Raising awareness, education, medical treatment in case of infection, but also psychological and emotional help for those who are infected with AIDS. But I think the most important remedy for AIDS is of course the preventive raising of awareness, education to self-responsibility so that people won't get in touch with the disease in the first place. It is also, of course, the willingness to accept responsibility, self-responsibility, the possibility to care for oneself.

by Roland Berger

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Sanar Yurdatapan: AIDS, hunger, dictatorships, the forces who do not allow Africa to develop are responsible, totally responsible. Well, you cannot take a disease as only one fact; that’s AIDS. AIDS can harm people all around the world; but you see in developed countries, the people are ready and educated to understand how to protect themselves. But in undeveloped countries, ignorance, some traditions, etc. they do not allow to protect themselves. So, when you put them all together, they affect each other and ignorance and hunger and undevelopment grows and grows; and it shows itself indifferent for us. AIDS is just one of them.

by Sanar Yurdatapan

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Santiago Roncagliolo: I do not know if someone can be blamed for AIDS in Africa; probably yes, if the theory that it escaped from some laboratory is true and consequently there is someone responsible; but in any case the social problem of AIDS in Africa has to been seen in conjunction with the lack of information. The main reason why its communication and propagation could be controlled is that the people had access to sufficient information and that the people are conscious of the fact that having sex without a condom is a risk. Maybe, if we focus on what is our responsibility, the question becomes: What can we do? And what can be done to fight it in Africa is above all to spread ideas, to spread information, to spread knowledge among the people. And this is not too expensive, this is something we could do. How big is our responsibility? Considering the way in which this knowledge could be transmitted via international cooperation projects, we can ask our governments to incorporate this. Today, we might even have to ask many other things of them, because today we are responsible for everything we ask our governments to do; in democratic societies, if we wanted them to do this, we would ask for it during the elections and with our votes.

by Santiago Roncagliolo

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Shaobin Yang: Just kidding, if AIDS occurs in the America or Europe, will it be the present situation? I find, this problem is very painful. No matter in Africa or in any other places in the world there would be these AIDS patients, for example, there is a village of AIDS in Henan Province of China. Actually our government feels somewhat inadequate when helping these AIDS patients, because there is no medicine with good effect to cure these patients. Once man gets this disease, he won't be able to work, will lose the ability to work, so the costs of the treatment are very high. Only with the aid of an international organization could these problems be solved, such as offering a kind of medicine with especially good effect to maintain their lives and then they could do something very simple. In this way there would be a relatively healthy trend both mentally and physically. It's not enough just to rely on these civil efforts. I think AIDS is really a big international problem, so developed and developing countries should join up together to control the spread speed of AIDS across the globe.

by Shaobin Yang

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Sihem Bensedrine: This problem is not about guilt. Concerning this disease its not the right way to ask about guilt. I think this disease is a plague, something that arrives and which you didn't want to arrive. We would better ask about the people who do not want to fight back this plague, who do not provide the necessairy instruments which exist and which are on our command. Thats the bad that we have to fight. It's not the birth of the disease or its outbreak. It does not matter how the desease was born or how it broke out. What matters is if we are willing or not to fight it back. And it is this this missing will, these big industrial trusts, the pharmaceutical industrie, who are the origin of this lack of will. Because they are not searching for a solution of this problem but they are searching for profits and if profit comes to the fore it is evident to search there for the guilty ones.

by Sihem Bensedrine

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Simon Retallack: I think every nation that has any consciousness at the global level at all has a duty to help countries in Africa that are suffering from the AIDS epidemic. We have a duty both to provide financial support and informational support but also to revise the system currently in force by the World Trade Organization that protects the patents, intellectual property rights, of the manufacturers of the drugs that can help prolong the lives of people that have AIDS. We know at the moment that very few, the handful of companies that make these antiviral drugs, sell them, sell these drugs for huge profits and actually at a very high price even in developed countries. And, there’s no way the developing countries can afford those prices. Yet, developing countries seek to, in some instances, are seeking to produce their own generic versions of those drugs and are being told that they can’t because it would contravene intellectual property rights which exist internationally. I think that has to change. I think we need to think differently about -- we need to devise a new system that rewards companies for innovation in the pharmaceutical sector and others but doesn’t give them the right to perpetually to seek a rent forever on their creation, particularly when we’re talking about the lives of hundreds of millions of people, which is exactly what we’re talking about with AIDS. And unless we change that system, unless we allow developing countries to buy anti-viral drugs more cheaply than they can do today, we will be condemning and we are, I think, already condemning millions and millions of people to death, and a pretty miserable death at that. So our responsibility is huge. I think countries that suffer from AIDS in Africa also have their own responsibility; their own governments need to do far more to, and particularly I’m thinking in South Africa and other countries in Africa, do far more to acknowledge the scale of the problem and to do far more about it internally than they

by Simon Retallack

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Sohrab Mahdavi: The world is interconnected. So, I mean the question is, I suppose, the degree of responsibility. I’m not sure if I can put any gradation or degree of responsibility on AIDS. I think AIDS is a manifestation of many things including malnutrition, including excess, and by excess I mean that this system is excessive in some parts, and therefore, we have malnutrition and poverty in other parts and AIDS is directly linked to poverty and malnutrition because when the defense mechanism of the body gives in, it snaps. That’s due to some such malnutrition. So, I’m not sure how big our responsibility is, but I know that it’s as big as equality and distributions of wealth.

by Sohrab Mahdavi

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Song Kosal: Our responsibility is to help the patients and educate the people to prevent it.

by Song Kosal

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Stephanie Robinson: I think that what affects us all indirectly affects us all very directly and that is defiantly the case with AIDS and HIV in Africa. To have a disease, a plague that is ravaging an entire continent, an entire people and to believe that somehow we as members of the human race are not impacted by it on a very emotional, very moralistic kind of level would, I think, be a mistake. But I think that even more so than what is morally right and whether or not we are all somehow connected by a spirit, by an idea of love and humanity speaks even the question of whether or not, from practical perspectives, whether or not this has an impact on us. We all talk about globalization and we talk about the shrinking of our world. We travel; we travel day to day, week to week and the fact that something that is happening on a continent such as Africa doesn’t somehow impact the worlds of the Americas I think is fool hearted at best. Those that think that when you start thinking about issues of HIV and AIDS you look at it even from a practical perspective of losing a generation and what does that mean to a country and to a continent and to a world. It means that if you lose a generation you lose economic power, you lose the potential for economic growth you lose security. It’s issues of pure security; who’s going to defend and who’s going to protect the country and the land to come. From a whole host of reasons; from economics, to security interests, to just doing the right thing for our fellow citizens, for our fellow humans. I think that AIDS is something that impacts all of us. I also would ad that it’s not just an issue of Africa. It’s not just an issue of developing countries of India. But isn’t an issue of the Western world. In the United States today 75% of all new cases of HIV and AIDS is found in the African American community. It is ravishing very rampantly through communities of color, particularly through the African American communities particularly hitting hard African American women. As we look at what this horrible and very powerful disease, this plague has done to so many lives and has ravaged so many live I think that we don’t necessarily just have to look abroad and over our oceans but we can look from a perspective here in America. We can look right at home to understand that what is happening to our human capital and our human spirit by this disease is also something that we all need to be mindful of.

by Stephanie Robinson

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Steve Earle: Teach. AIDS is something—-not paying attention to AIDS as long as it was only in Africa and once it came to the so-called West when it was only a problem for homosexual men or IV drug addicts. I am a recovering IV drug addict. I’m in the highest risk group. I dodged the bullet; I’m HIV-negative. But a lot of my friends aren’t. And I’ve watched them go through it. But now that we seem to have a handle on it in the States, I think a lot of people have forgotten about the fact that this disease is an epidemic in a lot of parts of the world and especially in Africa. And it’s very irresponsible and immoral, and it’s dangerous for us to ignore AIDS in Africa.

by Steve Earle

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Sulak Sivaraksa: It’s not only Africa, everywhere. It is a big disease, and this disease is not concerning our friends in Africa or elsewhere, it concerns all of us. Till we have this dreadful disease it is threatening humanity. I think we should concentrate on how to overcome this disease, how to overcome suffering. Our responsibility is not to make more money and to become more powerful, but to serve people, particular people who suffer; and AIDS is only one of the causes of suffering. We should confront them mindfully with compassion, with understanding for people who have AIDS. Life is at the end. We should work with them, be with them, to confront illness. Indeed, we should confront death mindfully, and look for something more alternative. I think if we concentrate on these sort of issues, particularly suffering, I think we will be able to overcome sufferings. Otherwise, we avoid it and look for something else which will create more suffering, not for people in Africa and elsewhere, but for ourself and our friend, too. Suffering is to be confronted. We will find other cause of suffering and to overcome it mindfully, nonviolently, with wisdom and compassion.

by Sulak Sivaraksa

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Susan George: Well, I don’t know who “our” is in this question; I don’t know who is the “we”. There is many, many questions with “we” in it, and I would hope we could define who is “we” in each one of these questions. But, if the sense of that is how much are “we” in the North responsible, I would say that our responsibility is huge. This is just one more example, but an especially spectacular one, of how a disease which is killing millions – there are other diseases, tuberculosis, malaria, and so on – which could be relatively easy brought under control – I don’t say cured but relatively easily prevented and people could be allowed to live longer lives. A few years ago Kofi Annan asked in a major speech for ten billion dollars a year for these three diseases. Well, ten billion dollars a year frankly in today’s world is peanuts. This is nothing; every single day there’s l500 billion, every day traded on currency markets alone, so ten billion should be for any normal society a completely easy sum to find. We don’t, we don’t do it. And, let’s face it. AIDS may have begun as a disease of rich people in the United States or Brazil. It starts up in the upper scales, particularly among homosexuals, artists, people who take cocaine, and so on. But then it drops very rapidly down into the poorer classes, and now it has become a completely lower class disease and so the people who have it are not that interesting for the powers that be because they’re poor, they don’t consume, and they are just simply not taken into account because they don’t contribute to capitalist production and capitalist consumption so we could find the medicine, but the pharmaceutical companies even went to court trying to prevent the competition of generic drugs. We could allow generic drugs to be exported, but we’re still stymieing that although they can now be produced in some places. The countries in the South can produce them are still not allowed to export them because of patenting laws. So our rules and our stinginess are preventing tens of millions of people from living slightly more normal lives.

by Susan George

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Swami Pragyapad: Answertext will be available soon.

by Swami Pragyapad