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What will we Americans do while millions die of AIDS?
Tim Swarens
December 06, 2002
Agnes Nyamayarwo is sitting quietly beside an Irish rocker and an American actor in an Indiana newspaper office.
The conference room is jammed with journalists, celebrities, handlers and onlookers. Cameras click. Tape recorders capture every word. And otherwise cynical reporters lean forward in anticipation of what a rock legend called Bono and a movie star named Chris Tucker will have to say about one of the world's great political and moral issues.
It's Agnes, however, in a room overflowing with fame and its trappings, who holds the moral center.
She's far from her home in Uganda. Far from Africa. Far from a land where millions are dying from hunger and disease.
But she's not far from the epidemic of AIDS. A husband and a son are already dead. Her own body has been infected with HIV for 12 years. She worries about the future of her eight surviving children. "I felt I should come to America to talk about what I know about AIDS," she says.
Agnes knows that another 6,500 people will die from the disease today. She knows 2.5 million Africans will be lost next year. She knows 25 million orphans will haunt the continent by the end of the decade. She knows 30 million people in Africa will succumb to AIDS by 2010.
Unless. Unless Bono, Tucker, Agnes and others are heard. Unless governments, corporations, churches and ordinary people fight what threatens to become the worst epidemic in world history.
"This is an absolute moment in time when your children will ask you, 'What did you do while millions were dying?' " Bono, lead singer of the band U2, says. "This is not the cause du jour. It's an emergency."
Bono is not the typical rock star. He quotes Warren Buffett on the greatness of America. He talks about his tour of Africa with Paul O'Neill (the treasury secretary, not the baseball player). He speaks highly of Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and George W. Bush, all of whom he has lobbied for the cause. He excuses himself from the room to call the boss, Bill Gates, who is financing what's been dubbed the "Heartland of America" tour.
"If we're the generation that says it's OK for an entire continent to burst into flames, then I think our civilization, what we've achieved so far, will be made kind of ridiculous by history," he says.
His passion is obvious, but so are his thoughtfulness and restraint. He's clearly trying to work within the system, not smash it in a fit of ego-driven rage.
"I'm a fan of the United States," he says. "I think it's not just a country but an idea. And sometimes the idea has to be defended."
Which segues into another line of reasoning the singer is pushing: national security and self-defense.
"(AIDS-fighting) drugs are an advertisement for the United States," he says. "Africa is on the frontier of holding back extremism. It's smart to have hearts sometimes."
Earlier, Tucker, star of the "Rush Hour" movies, was asked why Americans should care about troubles half a world away when so many problems are pressing closer to home.
"It's like in the Bible, 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,' " he answers. "It's a question of our common humanity."
And so it is. Forget the rockers and the actors for a moment. Focus instead on the grieving wife and mother who shares a tour bus and the spotlight with them. It's her face that we should rush to see. It's her story that should cause us to care and pray and act.
A killer is stalking a continent. It's time to turn off the music and the movies. Time to help out a distant neighbor in need.
What will we Americans do while millions die of AIDS?
Tim Swarens
December 06, 2002
Agnes Nyamayarwo is sitting quietly beside an Irish rocker and an American actor in an Indiana newspaper office.
The conference room is jammed with journalists, celebrities, handlers and onlookers. Cameras click. Tape recorders capture every word. And otherwise cynical reporters lean forward in anticipation of what a rock legend called Bono and a movie star named Chris Tucker will have to say about one of the world's great political and moral issues.
It's Agnes, however, in a room overflowing with fame and its trappings, who holds the moral center.
She's far from her home in Uganda. Far from Africa. Far from a land where millions are dying from hunger and disease.
But she's not far from the epidemic of AIDS. A husband and a son are already dead. Her own body has been infected with HIV for 12 years. She worries about the future of her eight surviving children. "I felt I should come to America to talk about what I know about AIDS," she says.
Agnes knows that another 6,500 people will die from the disease today. She knows 2.5 million Africans will be lost next year. She knows 25 million orphans will haunt the continent by the end of the decade. She knows 30 million people in Africa will succumb to AIDS by 2010.
Unless. Unless Bono, Tucker, Agnes and others are heard. Unless governments, corporations, churches and ordinary people fight what threatens to become the worst epidemic in world history.
"This is an absolute moment in time when your children will ask you, 'What did you do while millions were dying?' " Bono, lead singer of the band U2, says. "This is not the cause du jour. It's an emergency."
Bono is not the typical rock star. He quotes Warren Buffett on the greatness of America. He talks about his tour of Africa with Paul O'Neill (the treasury secretary, not the baseball player). He speaks highly of Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and George W. Bush, all of whom he has lobbied for the cause. He excuses himself from the room to call the boss, Bill Gates, who is financing what's been dubbed the "Heartland of America" tour.
"If we're the generation that says it's OK for an entire continent to burst into flames, then I think our civilization, what we've achieved so far, will be made kind of ridiculous by history," he says.
His passion is obvious, but so are his thoughtfulness and restraint. He's clearly trying to work within the system, not smash it in a fit of ego-driven rage.
"I'm a fan of the United States," he says. "I think it's not just a country but an idea. And sometimes the idea has to be defended."
Which segues into another line of reasoning the singer is pushing: national security and self-defense.
"(AIDS-fighting) drugs are an advertisement for the United States," he says. "Africa is on the frontier of holding back extremism. It's smart to have hearts sometimes."
Earlier, Tucker, star of the "Rush Hour" movies, was asked why Americans should care about troubles half a world away when so many problems are pressing closer to home.
"It's like in the Bible, 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,' " he answers. "It's a question of our common humanity."
And so it is. Forget the rockers and the actors for a moment. Focus instead on the grieving wife and mother who shares a tour bus and the spotlight with them. It's her face that we should rush to see. It's her story that should cause us to care and pray and act.
A killer is stalking a continent. It's time to turn off the music and the movies. Time to help out a distant neighbor in need.
