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13th International AIDS Conference 2000
Durban, South Africa
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Upon arrival in Durban, Global Focus Films joined other confused and jetlagged journalists and delegates who had traveled thousands of miles to attend the 13th International AIDS Conference. We helped each other cart luggage up a very steep ½ mile long hill to the dormitories at the University of Natal where we would be staying. We were exhausted; the view, however, was breathtaking. We could see the Indian Ocean, a harbor full of massive ships and the city below. The landscape was rich with tropical plants and the air full of a hundred different languages: voices that would speak to "Break the Silence" about HIV/AIDS.
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The next six days were filled with a hectic pace of panel discussions, crowds and chaos. ACT-UP Paris stormed official meetings, nonviolently disrupting political discourse and shocking African political delegates. On the first day we joined a demonstration at Durban City Hall in which thousands protested the high price of AIDS treatments by the pharmaceutical industry. We learned that Bristol Meyers Squibb's "Secure The Future" program (to help women and children combat AIDS internationally) was referred to as "Secure The Profits" and that many of their offers to help programs in South Africa were little more than publicity stunts and hollow promises.
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Global March For Access to HIV/AIDS Treatment
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During the rally we listened to Winnie Mandela, former wife of ex-president Nelson Mandela, speak out against S. Africa's new apartheid, only to read headlines the following day admonishing her as a "loose cannon." Perhaps the strongest visual statement was the arrival of hundreds of children and young adults wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the words "HIV POSITIVE" in bold letters, alongside t-shirts reading "Africa is Burning." We found ourselves hugged and kissed and felt the relief of HIV-positive Africans who, for the first time, had gathered the courage to publicly disclose their status. That first night we sat 10 seats away from South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki and listened as he took the stage at Opening Ceremonies, sidestepping his controversial entertainment of the idea that HIV doesn't cause AIDS.
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Winnie Mandela
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The following day Erika Gibbs, youth advisor and associate producer for Global Focus Films, took the microphone during a Q&A to admonish a panel on youth prevention and education for focusing too much on studies and too little on action. The audience's response made clear that no level of conference organizing was enough to completely "Break the Silence," as the conference's slogan attempted. There was far too much to be done and, no matter how urgent international cries for action, it would require years of sustained response from governments and communities before a measurable impact would be felt. We later spoke in frustration with Dr. Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS, about the absence of youth panelists in sessions purported to address issues of HIV and youth. He agreed to work to include youth in the 14th Int'l AIDS Conference to be held in Barcelona, Spain in 2002.
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Durban City Hall
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Photos and text by Kellie Gibbs.
*Representations of people on this page are not an indication of their HIV/AIDS status.
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Email us at: GlobalFocusFilms@aol.com
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Copyright 2000
Global Focus Films
All rights reserved
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