Do we hear them crying?

In the Congo last week, at least 150 women and some babies experienced a most horrific atrocity. They were gang raped by criminals, who without obstruction, or intervention reeked mayhem on their small village just a few miles from  a UN peacekeeping base. The attacks which lasted over a span of five days, were the part of  what seems to be a recurring theme in parts of Africa: man’s inhumanity to man.

UN officials say they entered the village with emergency kits as soon as it was safe — for them. Today the UN security council condemned the attacks and US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, who visited rape victims in that region last summer, said in a statement, “This horrific attack is yet another example of how sexual violence undermines efforts to achieve and maintain stability in areas torn by conflict but striving for peace.”

While it is acceptable to express concern and outrage through statements, and in meetings, I wonder why the monsters who continue to perpetrate such violence against peaceful communities feel no recourse. They already have no shame. Minutes away from a UN peacekeeping station, these Congolese people’s peace was forever shattered and no one has made the men pay for their crime. Why?

Our troops and allied forces maintain a presence in pretty much every part of the Middle east. They assist in Pakistan, protect in Afghanistan and mentor police units in Iraq. Yet in Africa we have been witness to everything from the homicides administered under Apartheid  rule, to genocide in Rwanda. Now in the Democratic Republic of Congo the world watches, and may have even heard a faint whisper for help, yet nothing is done… again.

The women and children who were violated by two to six men at a time, are pitied as victims in the headlines of our newspapers, this week. But as it stands they will most assuredly become victims again. Anarchy manifests in parts of what could be and should the most productive continent in the world. Some of the riches culture, most fertile soil and symbolic history has been replaced by, weak preservation efforts, contamination and the ignorance of monsters who have no shame, and know no limits.

It is sad to me that the cries for help are met with empathetic statements but no action. This world is too small for so many not to care. But we continue to be polarized by need and greed. What do we fight for people or things? The things that bring money, maintain power or political relations, trump compassion toward humanity and preservation of civility. This isn’t an assumption it’s truth. Over and over again we see it: Rwandans slaughter Rwandans because of a complicated history between the Hutus and Tutsis. The Kenyan political crisis that lead to unrest in 2007-2008. The ongoing civil war in Chad despite a peace agreement between the government and rebel forces signed three years ago. And of course the Democratic Republic of Congo which has captured the latest in an onslaught of ugly headlines.

During the crisis that came after Katrina five years ago this week, Americans were either reminded or introduced to a New Orleans legend Irma Thomas. She sang a most appropriate song about the people who suffered through the storm:

Cry, cry

Sitting home alone, thinkin about my past
Wonderin how I made it, and how long it’s gonna last
Success has come to lots of them, and failure’s always there
Time, time waits for no one and I wish, how I wish someone would care

The rhythm of that tune is New Orleanian through and through, but lyrics can most assuredly be put to the beat of a Congolese drum. If those women and children in their pain and suffering started to cry out “how I wish someone would care.” I wonder, who would hear them? Or more to the point who would care?

Celebrity status of a public servant

Today, President Barack Obama came to the city of Angels, to make an appearance at a Democratic Fundraiser. Yes, Mr. Obama will, once again, hob nob with the likes of Steven Spielberg and Barabara Streisand to raise money for candidates who care about the little people. It sounds a bit disingenuous, but it is political capitalism at its best.

Two years ago this didn’t bother me. The schmoozing and celebrity appearances were a fleeting part of the political process for America’s first black President. But, my rose colored glasses are officially broken, and I see clearly now, not that I want to. During the past few months, there has been a disturbing crisis in the Gulf Coast, a record breaking number of our soldiers died in Afghanistan, and unemployment has continued make 15% of the population cry ‘uncle’. Most of the people affected are not rich, not well connected and have little to no desire for the spotlight. Yet our President seems to be spending precious time with folks that are seemingly unscathed by such tortuous realities.

He was welcomed by the women of The View a few weeks ago, where among the topics of discussion were joblessness and some woman named “Snooki”. He also spent time on the basketball court with infamous NBA stars Dwyane Wade, and Lebron James in a celebrity basketball game to entertain the troops. Forgive me, but if my life were on the line and my Commander in Chief wanted to boost my morale by playing a pick up game in front of me, with multi-millionaires known as much for their selfish tendencies as their jump shot, I might be a little confused. I might even ask, does he get it?

In Spike Lee’s new documentary “if God is willing and Da Creek don’t Rise”, he talks to actors Brad Pitt and Sean Penn about their dedication to New Orleans and Haiti respectively. Pitt runs the Make it Right Foundation, which is rebuilding homes in the ninth ward for those devastated by Katrina’s wrath. The homes he’s building are green. Lee wondered out loud at a press conference recently, why doesn’t the government do this? Penn’s commitment to Haiti has him literally living in a tent to help maintain order and a sense of community during that nation’s rebuilding process. They are celebrities acting like public servants.

President Obama seems to enjoy the perks that come with being the unflappably cool black man who is also the leader of the free world. It takes ego to fill those shoes and calculation to navigate the path they take him. As everyone’s President, he must canoodle with the overpaid and the under-served, although it seems the latter feel less of the love.

As someone who is not a celebrity and who doesn’t harbor a desire to become one, it’s hard for me to understand a public servant who relishes the celebrity status that detaches him from the masses. If the President plays a celebrity basketball game, I don’t want to know about it. If he celebrates his birthday with Oprah good for him, again shush. If he spends his evening at swanky fundraisers for “honest” politicians it should not be on the front page of my newspaper.

I don’t begrudge the President his play-dates. His job is stressful and sometimes boys just wanna have fun. But coveting celebrity status in a recessed and divided country is not the best come together strategy. Rallying the troops instead of performing for them, constructing a home instead of partying in a mansion, these are things that would convince people of his dedication to all Americans. These are the things that would make us celebrate the public servant.

HIV/AIDS: Global leaders continue the fight against the disease and its stigma

At the International AIDS conference in Vienna Austria last month, one thing was made clear, we are at a cross roads in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The disease, which nearly 30 years ago meant certain death for its victims, is now on the ropes thanks to medical advances, educational programs and organized testing. But the it’s far from being knocked out. In it’s corner, stigma and discrimination have acted as invaluable weapons helping the HIV/AIDS to flourish in many parts of the world.

Phil Wilson, CEO of the Black AIDS Institute, acknowledges that HIV/AIDS is not just about health consequences, but social ills as well. He has personal knowledge of this. Wilson has lived with the disease for nearly 30 years and wears the mental and physical battle scars. He said, “There are a few people who remember the day doctors would not treat patients living with AIDS,  nurses would not care for people living with AIDS, and dietitians would not take food into the room of someone living with AIDS. Those days are long gone in almost everywhere in the world. So that level of stigma has dissipated. But still AIDS continues to be a difficult subject for many people to talk about.” Wilson says that lack of conversation is due impart to the stigmas associated with the HIV/AIDS.

At the conference in Vienna, Wilson joined others for a broader conversation about the disease and the stigma it carries. There were three groups in particular whose experience with discrimination due to HIV/AIDS infection was especially detrimental: sex workers, men who have sex with men, and drug users and their sexual partners.  In regions like South Asia and Eastern Europe, HIV/AIDS is not only a taboo topic, but people are demonized for being infected. The World Bank conducted a study on the most impacted regions specifically in South Asia. Dr. David Wilson, Global HIV/AIDS Program Director with The World Bank, points out that although many people associate the disease with countries in Africa, discriminatory practices are nurtured within other nations. He said, “It’s a much greater challenge in the rest of the world. For example, the former Soviet Union, but also in South Asia where the fact that the disease is so closely associated with marginalized and excluded groups, doubles the potential stigma. And there is certainly a challenge.”

Among the challenges is convincing those infected to seek help. In South Asia, sex workers expressed a lack of self worth. In not finding value in themselves, they weren’t motivated to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS and in turn helped it spread. Phil Hay, Communications Adviser, of the Human Development Network, with The World Bank added, “for every 100 people who go on life saving AIDS treatment another 250 people become newly infected. And that’s an impossible situation for many poor countries and their communities to find themselves in”. Another challenge is societal acceptance. Internationally, men who have sex with men fight homophobia as fiercely as they do HIV/AIDS. They make up 5%-10% of HIV infections and according to UNAIDS, 85 countries have laws that punish homosexual behavior for reasons including the link between lifestyle and the disease.

But some governments are heeding the cry for help and doing something about it. China, a historically conservative nation, has done the worlds largest survey among men who have sex with men, and in India the government’s National AIDS Control Organization sued another governmental body in order to legalize homosexuality. Dr. Wilson said, ” It would have been remarkable if ten years ago you would’ve have seen one Indian department take another to the high court over a public health issue that also had wide human and social dimensions.”

In addition to, government policy reform, world leaders are committed to funding research and education to thwart the spread of the disease. President Barack Obama released a plan that includes increasing the budget for HIV/AIDS funding to $27.2 billion for next year. In 2009, the US government was the largest funder in the world for AIDS assistance accounting for 58% of the financial resources. Dr. Wilson added that funding is only part of the answer. He said, “Good prevention may not be expensive it’s often more a question of government will of national commitment, of societal determination than simply dollars and cents.”

With additional resources  organizers like Phil Wilson are more determined than ever to address the issues that still lurk in their communities. He wants people to understand that this disease is every body’s challenge, especially within the African American community. Wilson compared Black America to countries where the AIDS epidemic has been most devastating and in fact the numbers back him up. The latest statistics from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reveal that 1.1 million people in this country are HIV positive, 46% are African American.

For years now the face of AIDS in this country has slowly gained a grip on black people. Cultural issues like the “down low” phenomenon, where men in relationships with women, maintain closeted sexual relationships with men as well, have been a distraction according to Phil Wilson. He said, “that conversation hampers our ability to develop effective strategies to address HIV among men who have sex with men and at the same time that conversation puts women, and black women in general at further risk for HIV, because it becomes a distraction from real conversations and real strategies and real tactics that we should be talking about, that might protect both men and women from the virus.”

Despite noted challenges, global commitment to eradicating HIV/AIDS offers hope. Wilson, wants his Black AIDS Institute to help drive the push.

“We can win this thing! We can defeat the AIDS epidemic, we can live to see the day when AIDS is no longer an epidemic in our community and we can stand proud that we played our part in making that day happen or we can hang our heads appropriately in shame because

Yes, race does matter

I watched President Barack Obama on The View on Thursday, admittedly skeptical about this presidential appearance. There was much ado made about this being the first time a sitting President went on a daytime talk show. It was a coo for the ladies of “The View”. I saw it as fluff. But while I was bewildered by his appearance on the program, I was intriguided by something he said during the Q&A.

Let me just say off the bat I think the President should have better things to do with his time then sit with Barabra, Joy, and Whoopi and ‘nem. I am of the mindset that a world leader earns brownie points but appealing to the needs of the masses not hob nobbing with the elite. If anything we need community forums where the President would be willing to Skype in between meetings. But that’s just me.

Getting to the point, veteran journalist Barbara Walters, who made her first appearance on her show since having heart surgery, asked the President about his race. She asked “You do not describe yourself as a black president, but that’s the way you’re described. Your mother was white. Would it be helpful, or why don’t you say, ‘I’m not a black president, I’m biracial’?”

First the question, then the answer.

Would it be helpful to say I’m biracial not black? No, because his race can’t be helped. This is a country that, as the President put it, labels its folk. You must fit in a box. That is the American way. President Obama’s choices are Black or biracial. Early on in this nation’s history, he would have been saddled with the label Mulatto. That was the term used for people who had one black parent and one white or half black. Then of course there were the Octoroons and Quadroons identifiers for those who were 1/8 or 1/4 Black respectively. It seemed there were measurements and markers to keep track of those who could be linked to blackness.

Being black outlined symbolic legislation in this country some of it cryptic: Jim Crow, Segregation, Integration and Affirmative Action were plans implemented to give the nation some idea of what to do with Black Americans. Criminalize them, alienate them, acknowledge them, and let a few in the door. The latter proved to be important to the President and his first lady. No other President can say that. So to identify oneself as bi-racial is merely a perspective the label is already attached. The President acknowledged that fact when he checked the census box marked African American. In doing so he neither denied his mother, nor embrace his father, he simply stated who he is. And that should be good enough.

But being black in America, it is not good enough. The controversy of race has surrounded this “Black” President from his campaign, to his beer summit to calming the shrills of the media inspired Shirley Sherrod saga. To that end President Obama told Barbara Walters, “Part of what I realized is that if the world saw me as African-American, then that wasn’t something that I needed to run away from, that’s something that I could go ahead and embrace” . He understands that things are not as they should be for Americans who share his box. The President should also understand that, that is the reason why he will never be done with the “why do you call yourself black?” question. That’s the reason why race does matter.

The “Me” delimma

Somewhere along the way this country lost its moral compass. Somewhere along the way being selfish became an acceptable trend. On Dateline NBC Sunday, Ann Curry talked to Ohio Governor Ted Strickland and Jack Frech, Director of Job and Family Services for Ohio’s Athens County, about the poverty that has consumed the southeast region of the state. Both men believe a selfish America has perpetuated the poverty problem.

As one of the richest country’s in the world is hard to digest the hunger crisis as families fight for survival. Not many people accept the needy as their responsibility. Sentiments regarding the poor can seem biased as well as ignorant. Some people who have money and wealth as it seems tend to buy into the principals taught in the school of thinking “this is the land of opportunity”. That’s because for so many it is. As of 2008 a little less than 14% of the population was in poverty. Of course that means roughly 86% are doing more than just getting by.

While a few communities choose between food and the electricity bill, most have options that include steak and pay per view. We forget those who go without because we have plenty… an want more. It’s not enough to be able to have dress shoes, athletic shoes and casual shoes, some have shoe closets. And while some food pantries are overcrowded, select restaurants would gladly have you spend an hour consuming overpriced drinks at their bar while waiting on a table.

It is true America is in a crisis. People are loosing their jobs, their homes, their way of life. But only a select few. Many more are too busy maintaining their regular regiment of consumption fulfilling want, to see someone else’s burden of need.

To the contrary in 2009, total giving to charitable organizations was $303.74 billion. That’s slightly down from the year before, but it’s clear companies and individuals still believe in cutting a check for the greater good. Still, the trickle down effect has done little for the down trodden other than help them maintain their helpless state.

It seems charitable organizations, and there are many, absorb the bulk of giving and ration it out to those in need of a hand out. I wonder what would happen if instead of giving to a homeless shelter companies chose to keep employees that were in line to be laid off. Free housing wouldn’t be as crowded if workers were allowed to keep working and pay for a home of their own.

It makes me wonder. Do the rich need the poor? It wouldn’t be all about “me” unless there was someone there to envy me in all my glory. I laughed when I laughed when Rev. Jesse Jackson compared superstar and mega millionaire Lebron James‘ treatment by his former employer to slavery, when poor people in this country are literally begging for scraps from the Master’s table. Yet Jackson, wealthy himself, is not their  bull horn. And so many others who’ve found favor on Wall Street silently give checks to both their local food bank and the nearby Mercedes dealership.

Reality is a consistent reminder that there hasn’t been, nor will there ever be an even playing field. There must be some financial margin to separate ‘me’ from ‘you’. The line between need and want is blurred for a people who can find sunshine on gray days. But for those who dwell in the  black and white reality of an underclass minority it’s a hard line to find yourself on the wrong side of.

Their constant state of worry and fatigue can appeal to most Americans since of pity, but nothing more. The ideals of capitalism have created been embedded into our psyche and we buy into the life advertised on television that says I need the things that others can merely hope for. I can’t condemn this tradition as it is taught along with our ABC’s starting in pre-school, if not before. What’s mine is mine and what’s leftover, is what it is.