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   Soft-spoken in person and tough-talking on the screen, actor Danny Glover puts his reputation as a fighter in film to work in the real-life battle to keep AIDS high on the global agenda.
Best known for his portrayal of Sergeant Murtaugh in the very successful Lethal Weapon film series, Glover came to a United Nations Town Hall meeting for World AIDS Day in New York. In a time when so many other issues – from terrorists threats to fluctuating economies – are crowding the radar screen, it is up to the United Nations to keep the world’s focus on the AIDS crisis, says Glover. "We have to acknowledge that there are two different worlds out there. In a country like South Africa, which has to deal with the issue of AIDS, poverty and health, the main thing on the agenda is not the events of Sept. 11," says Glover, now in his third year as United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Goodwill Ambassador. AIDS is the primary security threat in sub-Saharan countries such as South Africa. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called the virus no less destructive than warfare itself. The numbers back him up: while more than 200,000 died in conflict in Africa in 2000, AIDS took the lives of more than 2 million. The Security Council, the UN body which deals with peace and security issues, took up a health issue for the first time ever when it considered AIDS as a threat to peace and security in Africa in January 2000. It was an historic recognition of the link between AIDS the infection and AIDS the threat to human security and development, according Dr. Peter Piot, UNAIDS Executive Director. "We have to learn to attach those issues of security and development to the issue of AIDS," says Glover. In developing countries AIDS imperils security by infecting the ordinary people that keep society functioning: the civil servants. Communities are crippled in their efforts to develop when they lose their teachers, doctors, nurses and other caretakers in their most productive years. The cycle is vicious: at the same poverty, underdevelopment and illiteracy contribute to the spread of AIDS, the disease reverses the advances developing countries have achieved in these areas. The United Nations ranked AIDS a "global emergency" in its Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS issued at the UN Special Assembly on HIV/AIDS in June 2001. "I don't think that we could in any way disguise the tremendous upheaval that AIDS has caused and potentially will cause in the future," says Glover. "When we talk about security in the world we have to be talking about getting this pandemic under control." Glover has travelled all over Africa visiting projects and attending summits advocating the fight against AIDS, but the root of his activism begins close to home. His brother has AIDS. He has also lost many friends to the disease, most recently his "little buddy" Nkosi Johnson, the 12-year-old South African AIDS activist whom he met and befriended while at the AIDS conference in Durban last year. Children are doubly affected by the virus - it steals both their lives and the lives of their parents. There are more than 13 million children orphaned by AIDS - children who will grow up without the emotional guidance of parents, not to mention education, health care and the financial support that build a stable society. "Nkosi not only died of AIDS, he was also orphaned by it. So many other children are already orphaned by the AIDS crisis and so many millions more are destined to be orphaned," he says. Forums such as the World AIDS Day town hall help maintain the momentum in the fight and allow those in the field to come together to share their struggles - and their victories. "We need events like this where we can have some reprieve from what's going on in the world and refocus our energy and our efforts to mobilise people and resources," says Glover. "And to say that despite everything else, despite all the issues, that we care." "If ever we were able to corral this pandemic, it certainly is because of our human determination to do it," he says. After all, "we are all part of the struggle, we are all part of the human race." FIND OUT MORE about how the UN and its agencies are fighting to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. Click on the links next to Danny Glover's photo. OTHER STORIES: Battling the HIV taboo in the Caribbean | An African pastor shares story - and his status | Thinking positive is the best defence | Broadway keeps AIDS on the agenda |
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