AIDS: Images of the Epidemic. World Health Organisation, Geneva, 1994. pp. x + 142, Pictures, Panels, Annex, References and Notes. ISBN 92 4 15161637, Price SWFR 22.40.
According to WHO AIDS started off in the late 1970's and early 1980's among homosexuals, bisexual men and dung users in Latin America and the Caribbean but heterosexual transmission has also risen significantly.
The book Aids: Images of the Epidemic is divided into three parts and twenty-one chapters. Part one opens with a historical background of AIDS followed by a detailed description of the disease and the various modes of transmission. The second part presents the global dimension of AIDS. In this part also the state of the art of the disease world-wide is described. The ripple effect of AIDS is highlighted. The often-asked question: why is AIDS still spreading? Is addressed in part three of the book where poverty is identified as one of the main factors facilitating the spread of the disease. WHO firstly outlines what can be done to control the spread of the disease.
In recognition of variation in the nature and degree of spread of HIV/AIDS world-wide due to local social, economic and cultural factors, WHO assesses the situation in various regions.
At the outset WHO acknowledges the inadequacy of information about the disease. In other words, what is known about AIDS is but a tip of the iceberg because;
Many countries were slow to admit they had an AIDS problem and to set up systematic surveillance and reporting. Moreover, where expertise and blood testing facilities are lacking, it may be difficult to differentiate AIDS from other common diseases. And in remote parts of developing world, many people fall ill and die without ever coming into contact with modern health services (WHO, 1994:17).
This limitation notwithstanding, WHO sets out "facts, figures and faces of the state of the disease, its dynamics and trends by region and why more people are being infected in spite of enhanced AIDS campaigns.
Sub-Saharan Africa, though one of the world's sparsely populated areas, accounts for more than half of the global HIV infections, with east and central Africa being the hardest-hit.
South and South East Asia (Japan, Hongkong, etc.) are relatively less affected, with transmission rates similar to Africa's a decade ago. However, because of "the difference in population sizes, what is happening in Africa now could be dwarfed by the Asian epidemic" (p. 22). Unprotected sexual intercourse and needle sharing are the predominant modes of transmission particularly in India, Myanmer and Thailand where prostitution and drug use is high.
In East Asia and the Pacific the infections are relatively low but the patterns are highly varied due to diversity of cultures. The common modes of transmission are heterosexual and homosexual intercourse. WHO fears that the high population size, density and rural-urban population migration attracted by booming urban economies in the region may enhance the spread of AIDS in future.
HIV/AIDS transmission trends in Australia, North America and Western Europe are similar to those of Latin America and the Caribbean. Sharing of syringes among the impoverished stands out. WHO illustrates this with Edinburgh's AIDS crisis where the close down of the main needle and syringe supplier and intensive police crackdown on drug users resulted in extensive sharing of such equipment.
WHO describes the effect of AIDS as "a stone dropped in a pool, sends out ripples to the edge of society, affecting first the family, then the community, and then the nation" (p. 36). WHO graphically illustrates this point with pictures and detailed descriptions of life in families in regions worst-hit by the disease. Orphanage, death and economic hardship are featured as some of the effects of AIDS.
As to the factors facilitating the spread of AIDS, WHO observes that "poverty facilitates risk behaviours and hinders AIDS prevention". Poverty and wars are the main contributory factors to recent increases in the spread of the disease in regions which initially had low cases such as North Africa, the Horn of Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean. Poverty in rural areas and the prospects of economic opportunities in urban areas combine to enhance migration. WHO notes:
It is migration that often takes the heart out by communities, disrupting family life and stable relationships and loosening traditional controls on behaviour (WHO, 1994:49).
The initial anti-AIDS campaigns tended to use fear. WHO, however, points out that fear tactics are counter-productive in that they encourage prejudice and discrimination against people with AIDS instead of helpful behaviour change.
WHO describes the mechanism of overcoming resistance to condom use through social marketing and peer educators. However, it cites high school AIDS programmes without showing how resistance to provision of sex education in most societies could be overcome.
One of the most appealing aspects of the book is its creative application of terms. For instance in the book HIV is described as "opportunistic virus" in the sense that "it exploits ignorance, prejudice, fear, fatalism - and the very human tendency to hide from difficulty or threatening truths in the hope that they will go away on their own" (p. 43). The relationship between AIDS and poverty is described as "a deadly symbiosis".
Another main strength of the book is its presentation style which skilfully weaves statistics with substantive textual descriptions illustrated with colour photographs and direct quotes from AIDS patients and other people involved in anti-AIDS campaigns. These provide a clear, though frightening, image of the disease in all its aspects.
The book is certainly useful to anti-AIDS crusaders, researchers and the general public.
Kibet A. Ng'etich
Department of Sociology,
Kenyatta University
ISD and Gaia Foundation. 1996. The Movement for Collective Intellectual Rights; edited by Solomon Tilahun and Sue Edwards. 214 pp.
The book comprises a collection of papers by prominent thinkers, environmentalists and legal/policy experts from the South. The topics covered include "Community Rights" Partnership for National Sovereignty: IPRs, Collective Rights and Biodiversity, "In Defence of Local Community Knowledge and Essential Elements of a Rights Regime", "Legal Framework to Protect in South North Prospects Biological Resources", "Collective Intellectual Rights and Control of Access to Biological Resources".
The book articulates the on-going debate between the North, which favours intellectual property rights and the South, which insists that community intellectual rights be protected from the plundering acts of northern entrepreneurs and irresponsible actions of southern governments. The unfair deals in ownership of resources which are now reflected by the World Trade Organizatin (WTO) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and to a lesser extent by the Convention on Biological Diversity are clarified. The book pivots its argument on the fact that the South, wherein the biodiversity is concentrated, is tapped freely for source material and farmers' germplasm on the rationale that it formed the common heritage of mankind; corporate interests invade the local commons of the South for free, make some change in the breeding process by modifying the plant variety's characteristics and quality, and claim property on these for a patent of an invention of an industrial product (i.e. novelty, industrial application and originality). Lost in this process is the fact that Southern peasants and pastoralists, in addition to having knowledge of wild local plants and animals, have also created the biodiversity of crops and domestic animals through selection and experimentation. It is this great innovation and contribution to the conservation of biodiversity that is not considered important by global institutions responsible for the in the attribution of `rights', it is argued.
The book also addresses the role of local governments in the South, and gives advice to protect community interests and to avoid taking any measure that destroy the basis for sustainable livelihoods of local communities. It is argued that the material goods (plants and animals) over which the `intangibles' rest (i.e. traditional knowledge, medicine, wisdom, etc.), will not survive as they will be rapidly depleted or destroyed.
The book has drawn examples of a legal `framework' for the control and access of genetic resources of a country and for the equitable distribution of natural resources between the South and the North.
The need for and international movement to put favourable conditions in place for the utilisation of resources, both by the North and the South, is emphasised. The book provides the framework for such an international movement; the missions, the key result areas and the objectives are all identified in the collection of articles by eminent individuals from Africa, Asia and Latin America and institutions such as the Third World Network (TWN).
The role NGOs play in the protection of biodiversity e.g. `old cultivars' from commercialisation, misuse and monopolisation is also mentioned.
The central focus of action recommended is the need for concerted effort and common action on the part of Third World Communities and their friends in the North, to bring issues that impact on the sustainable livelihood systems of Southerners to the fore-front in all international fora, including those created by the North for the maintenance of the status quo and/or to enhance the advantages of the North as exemplified in WTO and GATT.
There is room for improvement of technical editing and the layout of the book. This however, by no means reduces the value of the information therein. Perhaps the book could have been enriched by including more case studies reflecting unfair dealings in the utilisation of nature's resources; case studies bring issues closer home.
The wealth of information in the book will help to pioneer the development of unique legal regimes towards the protection of intellectual rights of communities who are the owners of the traditional environmental knowledge and institutions necessary for the management of Biodiversity in the South.
Prof. Shibru Tedla
Manager, Eco-consult
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Engel, J. R., and Engel, J., (eds.), Ethics of Environment and Development. Global Challenge and International Response, Tucson, University of Arizona Press, 1990.
The deep environmental crisis into which our planet has been plunged by unrestrained human activity has become a matter of global concern. The book; Ethics of Environment and Development: Global Challenge and International Response brings together the contributions of several authors across the world, and as can be expected, there is not homogeneity except for the fact that from different perspectives, they seek to "clarify ethical principles at stake" in the concept "sustainable development" of the World Conservation Strategy. It combines the satisfaction of basic needs with environmental conservation from the point of view of science, society and religion. The authors take a critical view of western economic progress with its careless technology, consumerism and greedy commercialisation which has dominated the world and destroyed traditional, cultural and religious practices of conservation.
The main argument of the book is that cultural and religious values have a central role in creating a new world order based on the sanctity of nature, where human beings can co-exist in harmony with the universe. The authors argue that moral ideals in cultural and religious traditions motivate people to care for the environment. This new paradigm, places moral values and ethics at the centre of development and environmental issues. Ethics, the authors argue, should be the driving force behind development and environmental conservation. It should seek to understand and evaluate moral values in cultures and how these clarify or distort the relationships of human beings to one another and to the earth, giving reasons for alternative courses of action.
Part one of the book establishes the basis for the global challenge. The basic assumption behind the new world order is that human beings hold some values in common and can identify with people of other cultures. Human beings have an obligation towards the living earth and this obligation is based on a sense of the sanctity of the earth and the right to existence of all, living and non-living. The dichotomy between modern science on the one hand, and traditional values and religion on the other is viewed as unnecessary. Modern science which seeks to exploit the earth should be complementary to other disciplines and ways of life of people. True science should seek to understand the "mysteries of nature with deep humility and wonder". From this understanding flows respect for cultures and livelihoods, the basis for sustainability, justice and equity.
The second part of the book treats the international responses from various social science approaches and religious traditions. A humanistic ethic seeks the creation of conditions under which individuals who are unique would be able to develop freely their potential. The basic principle of development is not the accumulation of material goods or pleasure, but self-realisation within a network of social interactions. This understanding overcomes the dichotomy between individualism and collectivism. Development then should not be seen merely as creating material comfort but the enrichment of human life through the satisfaction of basic and refined needs. This calls for frugality in the use of material goods.
Eco-feminism pleads to be allowed to play a leading role in defining the new world order, since women on the basis of biological processes are closer to nature. Their relationship to nature is that of caring, nurturing, and mutual giving and receiving instead of domination and exploitation. Feminist ecological ethics, argue that human beings are not superior to other forms of life. It seeks to deconstruct social domination in all forms and promote equality, ecology and peace.
The five major religious traditions of the world; Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam share a common vision of nature, and the purpose or vocation of human beings on earth. Hinduism and Buddhism believe in the sacredness of all creation, as the divine is present in all forms of life. All life is inter-linked and this demands respect and caring by human beings. Judaism, Christianity and Islam put human beings at the apex of creation but only God has sovereignty over his creation. Human beings have free will but this is not a licence to violate nature. They are expected to act responsibly towards the earth since they will be judged by what they do.
In the case of African traditional religion, the land and all its resources belong ultimately to God. These are reverenced and taboos exist around their use. The misuse of land and natural resources would invite misfortune for later generations.
Central to world religions is the theme of justice, peace and equity. Accumulation of wealth and the lust for pleasure as well as environmental degradation is due to man's disobedience towards God. The religious traditions make an appeal to human conscience and also call for the practice of spiritual discipline to put humanity in harmony with the divine, within himself/herself and with nature.
The book makes a great contribution to the current debate on environmental crises and solutions to the problem. The strength of the collection lies in the argument that values derived from cultures and religious traditions are central to the promotion of conservation and equity. The exaggerated power of science which brands cultures and religion as primitive and irrational, and creates unprecedented environmental disaster for which it (science itself) cannot provide solutions, is called to question. The uneasy friction between knowledge and nature, fact and value are seen as false since these are complementary and need not contradict one another.
The call of the book for a new global ethic which seeks to make sustainable development a moral imperative would need further reflection and debate before it can be widely accepted as it is not evident to all. The authors themselves are aware of this limitation even though they see the urgency of environmental care as a moral imperative in order to save the earth and humanity. Given the dominant growth model, which is guided by political and economic interests, one wonders how the ideals of the book can be realised within the foreseeable future even if sustainable development is accepted as a moral imperative.
All said and done, the book is worth spending time on. I am uncertain to whom in particular to recommend it, as it covers almost all spheres of life-science, society and religion. It would therefore reach a wide range of audiences especially natural scientists, deep ecologists, policy makers, developments theoreticians and practitioners, theologians, religious leaders and environmental movements.
Augustine Matthew Ayaga
Institute of Social Studies
The Hague, Netherlands.
List of reviewers of this volume
Dr. Tegegne Teka
Prof. Welfred Mlay
Prof. J. Shiundu
Ato Dessalegn Rahamato
Dr. Darge Wole
Dr. Abdul hamid Bedri Kelo