THE TIRESOME TUG OF AIDS

Breaking promises to help people afflicted with HIV/AIDS is genocide,
the president-elect of the International AIDS Society says.

"If you have evidence your inaction is responsible for millions of
deaths, you promise to correct that equation, then you fail to
deliver, what do you call that?" Dr. Julio Montaner said.

"It's not just ignorance. It's not mere negligence. It's more than a
crime against humanity. It can only be characterized as genocide," he charged.

Montaner's salvo is consistent with the shrill, impassioned talk that
has flowed from the 16th International AIDS Conference, which
concluded in Toronto yesterday. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has
been savaged for not attending.

The shrillness, and the rage behind it, are offputting to many. But
there is cause for it. With 38.6 million people infected with HIV
worldwide, and 2.8 million AIDS deaths last year, we are confronted
with needless deaths on a scale not seen, perhaps, since last
century's world wars.

The diffidence of many in the First World, and the failure of wealthy
governments to follow through on promises, reflect a failure of
empathy among the majority population of the western world.

When AIDS first appeared, it was an affliction of homosexuals. Most
of us were not homosexual, so we didn't readily identify with the danger.

It spread to intravenous drug users. Most of us weren't addicts, and
didn't identify. Now it is a scourge of black Africa, and the pattern repeats.

The brotherhood, sisterhood, oneness of all people is one of those
principles toward which the human mind is most resistant. Religious
sages give lifetimes seeking to absorb it.

Is stinting on AIDS relief genocide? That is going too far. An act of
omission has a different moral architecture from an act of commission.

Are we our brothers' and sisters' keepers?

To that, each of us, with our governments, should shout a heartfelt yea.