Status: Single
Country: UK
Signup Date: 2/28/2007
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Sunday, December 20, 2009
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Well, the “accord” ( nothing really binding) at Copenhagen has been reached, with loopholes so big you could fly a jet plane through them. So much for “extreme urgency to save the planet”.Apparently we’ve made a “first step”. I mean...either the planet is imminently about to scorch to a crisp, or it’s not. What’s the deal here??
When your house is burning down, you don’t take a “first step” out of the building..you MOVE FAST....you RUN taking GIANT STEPS!
According to the politicians “speech rhetoric”, there seems to be a kind of feel good factor in sounding as if you’re really taking it seriously, and are genuinely making the effort required to address the situation...But then everybody knows that talk is cut price. Is anyone surprised? What did you expect?
None of the super power countries are prepared to take the massive U turn required to even start putting the brake on something that is so overdue that it’s possibly way too late in any case.
I believe that draconian measures would have to be installed to even begin to make a dent in the proceedings of global warming, but the powers that be are so totally wrapped up in serving the interests of the businesses they serve that whatever they say is just tokenism.
Environmentalists have been banging the drum for years now..The planet was being polluted, abused, exploited, raped and pillaged way before Al Gore’s film. And NONE OF THEM wanted to know. “Green” was synonymous with “ loony tunes” back then, and guess what...it still is, as far as the business of politics/corporate power is concerned.
All the NGO’s and activists..( representing the collective international voice of civil society/ ordinary people ) were kept out of the building, and that’s exactly where they want it to be!
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Friday, December 18, 2009
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The Land Mark Oriental Hotel, Hong Kong (where Annie held an event for SING earlier this year) are currently holding a raffle with all proceeds going to The SING Campaign. Prizes include a signed lithograph, a signed SING booklet and a signed Eurythmics box set. Tickets are HKD 100 each and are available from the MO bar. The draw will take place on 31.01.10.
Click here to visit the Land Mark Oriental website
Click here to visit The SING Campaign website
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Friday, December 18, 2009
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Childhood in ruins
Last December, Israel began a 23-day bombardment of Gaza, killing around 1,400 people. One year on, a generation of children is growing up amid the wreckage of that attack, traumatized – and radicalized – by the experience
Guardian foreign editor Harriet Sherwood
The Guardian, Thursday 17 December 2009
Ghiada abu Elaish's fingers twist in her lap and her eyes cloud over as she recalls the day an Israeli shell killed four of her cousins and left her in a coma for 22 days. She has had almost 12 months to reflect on the tragedy, a time in which hatred and anger might have consumed the 13-year-old. Remarkably, though, not only has she survived shocking injuries and a dozen operations, with many more to come, but she has retained both her sweet nature and faith in a bright future.
Which makes it all the harder for her to return each day after school, dressed in the ubiquitous Palestinian uniform of blue-and-white-striped smock over jeans and trainers, to the scene of the massacre – her family home.
It was Friday 16 January and Ghiada was studying for exams. Her father, a pharmacist, woke from a nap, demanding tea and shouting at the younger children to be quiet. "Suddenly I could hear my cousin downstairs, screaming 'Dead! Dead!'" A shell had hit the building – a block of five apartments, housing the extended Abu Elaish family – smashing windows and causing extensive damage to the flat below.
In the ensuing panic, Ghiada defied her father and followed him downstairs. "One room was completely black. I saw Aya [my cousin], she was on the ground with wood on top of her. There was a big hole in the wall."
Ghiada tried pulling Aya out from under the furniture. A second shell struck. "There was a big light for a second," she says. "I saw some windows smash and I heard screaming all around. A piece of shrapnel hit me. I started to scream for help and then fell down unconscious."
Ghiada's father, Atta Mohammed abu Elaish, rushed into the room. "I saw bodies without heads and legs. I saw my daughter. I saw her mother screaming." He ran outside to call an ambulance. "The Israelis stopped the ambulances 250 metres from the house. Some boys from the street came to start ferrying the bodies and the injured out of the building."
The attack was one of countless assaults during Israel's 23 days of war on Gaza – Operation Cast Lead – that began on 27 December. But it was also one of the most notorious because Ghiada's uncle – Aya's father – was a doctor who worked in Israeli hospitals and was well known to Israeli viewers for advocating peace and reconciliation. All through the conflict, Dr Izzeldin abu Elaish gave regular eyewitness accounts by phone in fluent Hebrew to Israeli television. Within minutes of the attack on his own family, he was back on the phone to a journalist in a Tel Aviv studio, weeping and begging for help as Israeli viewers listened: "My daughters have been killed."
Indeed, they had: Bissan, 20, Miar, 15, and Aya, 14, were dead, along with another cousin, 17-year-old Nour. Ghiada was in a critical condition; another of the doctor's daughters was also wounded.
The injured girls – thanks to that live TV broadcast – were unusually and swiftly evacuated to a hospital in Tel Aviv, where Ghiada was found to be suffering from multiple problems with her heart, kidneys, stomach and legs. She remained in hospital in Israel for four and a half months.
Now, Ghiada says, she thinks about that day "always", but tries not to let others see her pain. "When I am crying, I go to my room and cry alone," she says. Does she feel angry? No, she says, just sad. And she plans to stay put in Gaza: "Maybe others would like to emigrate, but that's not for me."
Toll of death and destruction
But if Ghiada expresses no bitterness, her father insists she is angry and so is the rest of the family. "It's very hard for us," he says. "That accident took Bissan, Nour, Miar, Aya – and my brother." Dr Abu Elaish has left Gaza for Canada. "He is the eldest brother, the father of the family, and now he's gone. How can we forgive?"
The shelling of the Abu Elaish family was unusual in that it caught the attention of the Israeli public, but what Ghiada continues to endure 12 months on is shared by many of Gaza's 750,000 children – half of its population.
More than 1,400 Gazans were killed in the 23 days of the Israeli assault, including several hundred children. The actual number is in dispute. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) documented 313 deaths, almost 40% of them less than 10 years old. Other Palestinian groups say the toll was much higher. More than 1,600 children were injured.
But the 23-day war is only part of the story. The long history of Israeli assaults on Gaza, and the two-and-a-half-year-long blockade of the territory after Hamas took power, has exacted a toll on almost every aspect of children's lives: schooling, housing, leisure time, what they eat, what they wear, how they see the future.
A Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP) survey earlier this year found that about 75% of children over the age of six were suffering from one or more symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder. Almost one in 10 ticked off every criteria.
"The majority of children suffer many psychological and social consequences," says Dr Hasan Zeyada, a psychologist with GCMHP. "Insecurity and feelings of helplessness and powerlessness are overwhelming. We observed children becoming more anxious – sleep disturbances, nightmares, night terror, regressive behaviour such as clinging to parents, bed wetting, becoming more restless and hyperactive, refusal to sleep alone, all the time wanting to be with their parents, overwhelmed by fears and worries. Some start to be more aggressive."
Dr Abdel Aziz Mousa Thabet, professor of psychiatry at al-Quds university in Gaza, says the conflict has a different impact on boys and girls. "Girls have more anxiety and depression, boys are more hyperactive."
Some children no longer look on their homes as a place of safety, security and comfort. Others don't even have a home to go to. The Israeli bombardment damaged or destroyed more than 20,000 houses, forcing some families into tents and others into crowding in with relatives. Hamas distributed money to displaced families to rebuild their homes but the Israeli blockade has created a desperate shortage of materials. Almost one year later, some children still have no roof over their head.
Hanan Attar, a slight 10-year-old wearing flip-flops several sizes too big for her small feet, is wistful as she recalls the house destroyed by an Israeli tank shell. "We had land, my father is a farmer," she says. "We used to grow watermelons, but the land was too close to the border and we can't get there now."
Home is now a tent on a patch of scrubby sand, shared by 10 members of her family, including a 50-day-old baby sister with a pinched face and a tin of formula milk perched on her rusting iron crib. The baby, Haneen, is seriously underweight at only 3kg, and is not growing. Her mother, Arfa, 40, cannot breastfeed because she is taking medication for back problems; the formula costs 45 shekels (£7.50) a tin, money that the family has to borrow. The father, too, is sick as well as unemployed. He reaches on top of a tall fridge that dominates the tent to pull down a sheaf of x-rays showing how his leg, broken in the conflict, is pinned together with metal.
"We are civilians, we don't belong to any faction," he says. "What are we guilty of so that we have to live like this? I spent my entire life building up my home. In one hour everything was gone."
Hanan doesn't complain about the tent, but says "the house was better". She adds: "A snake came one night and bit my mother. I can't sleep at night; I'm scared of the snakes and the dogs."
Meals are cooked on a Calor gas stove; the toilets – a hut donated by an Arab charity – are shared by all the families in the compound of tents. "There are big queues," says Hanan. Winter is coming; the tent is "freezing", she says.
There is a community of tent families, circled round the shared lavatories. The children play as all children do, kicking a football, wrestling, dragging sticks through the sand. The families are doing their best in near-impossible circumstances. Some families have even planted small gardens in the scrub: corn and a few flowers.
But Hanan – who wants to be a doctor so she can treat the sick – says she spends most of her time in the tent with her seven brothers and sisters. Do they think they will ever go back to a proper home? "God knows," says Arfa.
Overcrowding, lack of privacy and poverty are contributing to what some in Gaza call the "mental siege" . Tensions within families are increasing, say Gaza's mental health experts. "Some parents themselves have depression and anxiety. Some become more aggressive towards their children," says Zeyada.
John Ging, director of UN operations in Gaza, puts it like this: "Parents are sitting there in their homes, very upset and very frustrated at the their situation, and that is of course having ramifications for the home environment." Has there been an increase in domestic violence? "Of course . . . children are losing respect because of the breakdown of the role-model structure. They see their parents as incapable of providing for them, they're seeing their parents as a failure."
Lost childhoods
Part of the problem is the lack of release and entertainment for children. There are few gardens or parks, no cinemas or theatres, many sports facilities have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli bombing, and one of Gaza's great natural advantages – a 25-mile stretch of sandy beach facing the Mediterranean – is hiding a fresh danger.
In the summer months, families flock to the beach on Fridays and Saturdays. The sight of children splashing in the waves is cheering until one remembers that every day 20m gallons of raw sewage is pumped into the water. Since Gaza's sewage processing plant was bombed after the kidnap of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in July 2006, there has been no alternative means of disposal. Now, according to Save the Children, children are developing skin diseases as well as bacterial infections from swimming in polluted water.
"There are not enough safe places for children to play," says Mona al-Shawa, head of the women's unit at the PCHR. To counter this, the UN organised a hugely popular "Summer Games" during the long school break, despite objections from Hamas about boys and girls mixing together. "There were those on the political side saying kids should be going to summer camps, not doing sport and recreation, but preparing for a future life of militancy," says Ging.
Ging says schooling has also suffered. Thirty-two of the UN's 221 schools were damaged in the Israeli assault, plus scores more government ones. None have been repaired because Israel does not allow construction materials into Gaza, saying they could be used to make weapons.
"So the schools, where the windows were blown out or other damage was done, have been cleaned up, made safe, and continue in operation today without the physical repairs because we haven't been allowed to bring in one pane of glass or one bag of cement since last January," says Ging.
Israel did permit a consignment of wood into Gaza to make school desks for 8,000 children, but then blocked delivery of the steel necessary to complete them. "Now you see three kids squashed on to a desk," says Ging. "How are teachers supposed to give each child the attention they need?"
There is also a shortage of school books and pens, and what does arrive mostly has to be smuggled through underground tunnels from Egypt.
The result is children attending overcrowded schools on a double or even triple shift system that has contributed to a continuing decline in education levels. One in five of the 200,000 pupils at the UN's 221 schools in Gaza failed basic Arabicand maths exams this year.
Engendering extremism
"It's shocking for them but it's also alarming for us in terms of the future," says Ging. "The objective of the [Israeli] policy is to counter extremism. Education is probably the most effective tool through which you will counter extremism, by developing a positive and well-educated mindset. And yet we are being prevented by the policy from educating these children."
It is, he says, "facilitating the destruction of a civilised society and, worse than that, the development of an extreme society".
One of the starkest examples of school destruction is the American International school, Gaza's elite fee-paying institution in Beit Lahiya, which was bombed in the early hours of the morning of 3 January. The Israeli military claimed it was being used as a rocket-launching site. Now, where once stood science laboratories, computer rooms, a music centre and sports fields, there is a mountain of crushed masonry, twisted metal girders, broken glass and droppings from the sheep that roam the deserted site. To the side of what was once the main building lies a row of burned-out schoolbuses. The odd fragment of textbook can be seen amid the rubble.
Then there is the difficulty of trying to concentrate in class when children are clawed by hunger. Three-quarters of Gazans rely on food handouts, according to the UN. Save the Children says it is seeing newborn babies suffering from malnutrition. Anaemia, especially among girls, is common.
The UN has started feeding children in its schools because, says Ging, "they're coming to school without breakfast and therefore their attention span is very short and the academic results will then reflect that".
Food, at least, is something that is relatively easy to fix. There are many less tangible issues that concern child experts, such as a lack of healthy role models. "During the war, children could see that their parents could not fulfil their needs," says Zeyada. "They see their fathers as weak, powerless. They see parents can't give them feelings of security, can't protect them. So they look towards other figures. That might be God as an absolute power – so children might go towards religion, become more fanatic. Some identify with fighters from Hamas and other groups.
"Without hope, we are moving fast towards more aggressive children, more fanatics. If the siege ended you would see positive changes among children. They [Israel] are creating their enemies. They are pushing a new generation of children to believe in violence as a way of solving their difficulties. They are creating their own enemies of the future."
In September 2007 Israel declared Gaza a "hostile entity". "I said at that time, and I continue to say it, that's a self-fulfilling prophecy," says Ging. "You designate it as a hostile entity, you treat it as a hostile entity and in fact what happens is you generate hostility. And that's precisely what we have been witnessing here at the grassroots level for the last two and a half years under this illegal siege . . . We have more extremism in Gaza every single day."
Yet through it all, it is striking how many Palestinians cling to a belief in a better future. For all her traumas, Ghiada hasn't given up. She attends a thrice-weekly English lesson after school to improve her chances of fulfilling her dreams.
The teacher hands Ghiada a question to answer to the class in English: If you were a colour, what colour would you choose? The girl doesn't hesitate. "Red," she tells the class.
The teacher asks the students what the colour red means to them. Blood, suggests one; danger, says another, both witnesses to last year's carnage. Ghiada considers for a moment, then replies: "It makes me happy. It's the colour of love."
And what will Ghiada do with her English? She wants to be an airline pilot, she says.
Ironically that's one career choice that will certainly require emigration: Gaza has no aeroplanes and the runway of its only airport was bulldozed to rubble by the Israeli army years ago.
The 23-day war in numbers
Statistics from the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme
• 1,420 Palestinians killed, 446 of them children
• 5,320 injured, 1,855 of them children
• 4,000 houses destroyed
• 16,000 houses damaged
• 94.6% of children aged six-17 heard the sound of sonic jetfighters
• 91.7% of them heard shelling by artillery
• 92% saw mutilated bodies on TV
• 80% were deprived of water or electricity
• 50.7% left home for a safer place
• 25.9% report one symptom of PTSD
• 39.3% report more than one symptom
• 9.8% report full criteria of PTSD
Statistics from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
• 1,414 Palestinians killed during the conflict, including 313 children, of which: – 31% girls, 69% boys
– 15% under 5; 23.3% 5-10; 62% 11-17
– 73% died from bombs; 19.8% from artillery shells; 5.4% shot; 1.5% from white phosphorous
• 5,300 Palestinians injured, including 1,606 children
• 36 UN schools damaged
• Approximately 20,000 homes completely or partially destroyed
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Wednesday, December 16, 2009
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International agency Oxfam has welcomed the announcement by international drug purchasing agency UNITAID to create a patent pool for HIV drugs. Millions of poor people will now have access to cheaper, more appropriate medicines.
Because HIV becomes resistant to treatment over time, millions now need expensive second-generation medicines. However the prohibitively cost of these drugs makes them unavailable to most who need them.
This new agreement will mean drugs that currently cost about $1000 a year could be available for as little as $100. The voluntary initiative will ‘pool’ drug patents, allowing manufacturers to produce affordable generic versions of second-generation drugs. In return the generic manufacturers pay a fair royalty payment to the originator pharmaceutical company.
Mohga Kamal-Yanni, Oxfam’s Senior Health Policy Advisor and UNITAID civil society board member said, “This historic moment brings hope to the millions who don't currently get the HIV medicines they need to stay alive.
“This will not undermine any country’s ability to use existing intellectual property law. We have seen positive engagement from companies such as Gilead, Merck and Tibotec during the development of the plan. Now is the time for them and others to demonstrate their commitment to global public health by adding their patents to the pool.”
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Tuesday, December 15, 2009
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I just wanted to share these latest pictures from Vrygrond, so you can see what tremendous progress they’ve made since it was a building site!!
Annie's performance at the television charity event Spendenmarathon in Germany in November 2008 raised hundreds of thousands of euros for the Vrygrond Community Development Trust , who in conjunction with the Elton John Aids Foundation are using the money to build the Vrygrond community day care centre in Capetown. The centre will provide care and support for those affected by HIV, vulnerable children and caregivers. This is a follow-on project, replicating a model that has already proved to be successful in Nyanga, The Etafeni Trust.
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Tuesday, December 15, 2009
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“This is to wish you as big a smile for Christmas as this little girl's when she received her 'bag of love' at Etafeni last week With love and thanks from all of us at Etafeni”
The Etafeni project is a multi-purpose centre for children affected by AIDS and their caregivers in Nyanga, Cape Town, South Africa, this is also supported by the Elton John Aids foundation. With thanks to the combined efforts of Annie Lennox and SpendonMarathon there have been funds raised, which will go toward setting up a second center of this kind in Vygrond, another township in the Western Cape of SA. For more information visit www.etafenitrust.org
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Monday, December 14, 2009
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I am absolutely delighted that TAC have been awarded the prestigious FEB award for the extraordinary achievement they have accomplished so far.
This kind of recognition is hugely significant, not only because it acknowledges TAC’s achievements, but also because it sends a loud and clear message to the international community that TAC is being supported at the highest level. In the same way that the citizens of South Africa campaigned, strategized and struggled for freedom from Apartheid, the members of TAC have mobilize thousands of men and women at grassroots level across the nation in the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic. I am immensely proud of TAC leaders and members, and also honored to be a participating Friend of TAC.
There is so much to be done, but we are making progress. With proper treatment, nutrition, and medical care HIV does not have to be a death sentence. Mothers can live to take care of their children, and those children do not have to end up as orphans.Working together through education we can help to break the cycle of stigma, ignorance and fear.
Viva TAC..Viva!!
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Saturday, December 12, 2009
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Jesus Vasquez Martinez, is a well known Spanish television presenter...He loved my HIV POSITIVE T shirt, and asked that we send him one. He has subsequently made a photo session and given a huge interview to a Spanish magazine about it..unfortunately we don’t’ have a translation....anyone speak Spanish???
If any of you can think of simple stigma busting ideas, we’d be very interesting to hear them!
Read The Article:
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Saturday, December 12, 2009
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This whole year is winding down now..and I have to say that it’s been an extraordinary one (for me) in all kinds of unexpected ways...Full of surprises, variety and inspirational events. I have plans and schemes for 2010, which will unfold as plans and schemes tend to do! One thing I know for sure is that when you’re stuck in a tunnel it seems like the light is a very long way away...I’ve trawled through all kinds of tunnels, and more tunnels will be ahead undoubtedly...When you get to a certain age, it seems like what went before has turned into a fiction that replays itself in your head...and only your head, because no one else has lived your story. What what does that mean? And when is it really “real”?..How do you capture the moment, as it’s hurtling into the future at the tick of each second??
I’ve ticked all the boxes for 2009, and I’m going to take a short break to restore, recharge, and revitalize..will still be connected online though...and will continue to blog till my hearts content!
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Thursday, December 10, 2009
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Last night I had some fun at Hammersmith Odeon, where I joined David Gray and his band for a couple of songs. I felt something like the Xmas fairy in fact...Everyone was sweat drenched and adrenalized by the time I got to come in with my fairy dust. I love live performance, but it’s hard core folks. It’s not actually the hurry up and wait...it’s the other way around. David is a complete “real deal” extraordinary artist. I’ve loved collaborating with him. And the band are just flawlessly brilliant musicians. Sometimes it seems to me that the “real deal” artists are an endangered species. Everything seems to have been sucked out, one way or another, and turned into the homogeny of celebridee and talent shows. “Don’t Let the Bastards Get to You” ..has always been my motto, and I’m stayin’ with it!
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Wednesday, December 09, 2009
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The SING Campaign eBay auction has now finished. Congratulations to the luck winners and thankyou to all those who placed bids. We'll be releasing full details over the coming days about how much the auction raised in total.
If you didn’t win an item in the auction, please remember you can still support SING by donating here or by buying one of the beautiful items of merchandise here. As a special thank you, the first 100 people to place an order for a HIV positive t-shirt before Monday 14th December will receive it in a signed box from Annie Lennox.
We'd also like to take a moment to share with some some of the brilliant things SING supporters have been up to this year to celebrate World Aids Day and SING's anniversary. If you did something to celebrate or intend to do something in the future drop us an email here
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Monday, December 07, 2009
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The 10th Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates took place in Berlin on 10 and November in conjunction with celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall. One of the highlights of the Summit was the presentation to the singer Annie Lennox of a special award for the work that she is doing to combat AIDS in South Africa and to help AIDS victims. Annie Lennox presented a heart-wrenching video that she had made of the reality of AIDS in South Africa: emaciated bodies; faces scarred by lesions; dismal funerals; pinewood coffins with string handles. She also showed what could be achieved with well-directed AIDS programmes. For a brief moment, in a far-off corner of the world, opinion was focused on South Africa’s dominant tragedy.
Earlier that day I had watched the Sky News coverage of the funerals of six British servicemen who had been killed in Afghanistan the previous week. There were photos of each of the victims and extensive interviews with their grieving families. Their deaths brought the number of British troops who had died in the war to 229 - each of them covered by the media, each of them mourned by the nation.
The same week 5 000 people died of AIDS in South Africa. There were no reports in the media and no interviews with grieving relatives. AIDS deaths are no longer news - because 5 000 people have been dying each and every week since the beginning of this decade. And yet each death is a tragedy. Each death brings with it suffering and pain - not only for the victim but for the children, parents, brothers, sisters and friends that they leave behind.
Our problem is that we have lost all sense of the scale of the disaster that is afflicting our country. More people die of AIDS every 18 days than were killed in the South African armed forces during six years of the Second World War. More people die of AIDS every thirty-five days than were killed in political violence and conflict in the 34 years between 1960 and 1994. We have already lost more than 2.4 million people in the nine years since 2 000 - compared with 491 000 that Britain lost in World War II.
Why has there not been the same degree of national mobilisation that we witnessed in South Africa, Britain and other countries that we saw during WWII? The threat and the loss of life is far greater. Why have we not mobilised every sinew of our resources to combat the enemy that is already within our gates?
On 30 November 2000, F W de Klerk made the following plea to a conference in Lagos, Nigeria:
“We know what causes AIDS. We know how to stop it from spreading. We know how to protect our children and ourselves. We must spread the message of how we can defeat AIDS in all our communication. We must discuss it in our homes and in our schools. We must spread the message in our places of work and when we get together for recreation. It must be sung in our songs and depicted in our paintings; it must be whispered into the ears of lovers; it must be shouted by children to one another in their games; it must be written on our walls and in our books. Only if we are all totally committed to this struggle will we succeed.
“We must show the compassion of Africa to those who become the victims of AIDS – either those who themselves succumb to the disease and to the millions of orphans who will be left in its wake. Where possible we must alleviate the symptoms and prevent the spreading of AIDS by making anti-retroviral drugs available to those who suffer from the disease and particularly to pregnant mothers. We must ease the passing of the dying and ensure that they leave us and their families with dignity and with as little suffering as possible. We must harness the spirit of ubuntu to open our hearts, our homes and our communities to the millions of AIDS orphans. We must not allow them to grow up unloved and uncared for in the streets or in impersonal institutions.”
That was nine years - and 2.4 million lives - ago. According to StatsSA there are 1.6 million people suffering from AIDS who require anti-retroviral therapy - but only 870 000 are receiving it. Another 3.5 million are HIV positive. There are 1.9 million children who have lost one, or both, parents to AIDS. One in every five women between the ages of 15 and 49 is HIV positive. Unless they receive treatment they will die within ten years of contracting the disease - which now accounts for 43% of all deaths in South Africa.
We need the kind of national mobilization that countries like Britain and the United States mounted in World War II. Annie Lennox is mobilized: she cares and is working tirelessly to help AIDS victims: Shouldn’t we all be doing the same?
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Wednesday, December 02, 2009
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Yesterday had to be of the most extraordinary days of my life. To begin with it was World Aids Day, which always gives campaigners an opportunity to give some focus to an issue that hasn’t gone away, but isn’t hitting the headlines in the press in the same way that other viruses do...You might have seen the interview on BBC breakfast news, or listened to Woman’s hour. I also gave another interview with LBC.
Later on we went to the Guildhall, which is actually the Town hall of the City of London. The ceremony receive the Freedom of the City goes back to the 13th century, and is, as you might expect, very traditional and formal, but as we’re modern day people there was plenty of fun and humor peppered in for good measure. I’m still completely mind blown to be the “youngest freeman of London”..think I might have to get myself a flock of sheep after all.
The performers...
THE KARELIA STRING QUARTET....absolutely wonderful quartet from the Royal Academy
THE AFRICAN CHILDREN’S CHOIR...what can I say...?? Eight and nine year old sweeties who were recovering from flu, but had performed earlier at Downing Street!
THE NOISETTES...mind blowing genius..a goddess in the making
LITTLE BOOTS...simply the best!
PLUS ..STEPHEN FRY, who is me and my family’s ( and the rest of the world’s ) total hero....BOBBY G...who’d just come back from Ethiopia...BRIAN ENO...my beloved chum...and KEVIN SPACEY..another giant!!
I’m so blown away that I’m still in my pyjamas!
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Wednesday, December 02, 2009
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On World Aids Day (Dec 1st), Annie Lennox was awarded the Freedom of The City Of London during a gala held at the Guildhall in London . Kevin Spacey, Stephen Fry, Sir Bob Geldof,Brian Eno, The African Childrens Choir, The Karelia String Quartet, Simon Fuller, Little Boots and The Noisettes were among those in attendance at this very special Red Cross Event 'A Tribute to Annie Lennox'. Annie was presented with the Freedom of the City of London after being nominated by the British Red Cross International Fundraising Committee, in recognition of her fundraising and humanitarian work. Annie performed at the event and presented the SING Campaigns second anniversary film, which explains what SING has accomplished over the past year ( click here to watch it).
Annie posted in her blog today:
"Yesterday had to be of the most extraordinary days of my life. To begin with it was World Aids Day, which always gives campaigners an opportunity to give some focus to an issue that hasn’t gone away, but isn’t hitting the headlines in the press in the same way that other viruses do...You might have seen the interview on BBC breakfast news, or listened to Woman’s hour. I also gave another interview with LBC.
Later on we went to the Guildhall, which is actually the Town hall of the City of London. The ceremony receive the Freedom of the City goes back to the 13th century, and is, as you might expect, very traditional and formal, but as we’re modern day people there was plenty of fun and humor peppered in for good measure. I’m still completely mind blown to be the “youngest freeman of London”..think I might have to get myself a flock of sheep after all.
The performers...
THE KARELIA STRING QUARTET....absolutely wonderful quartet from the Royal Academy
THE AFRICAN CHILDREN’S CHOIR...what can I say...?? Eight and nine year old sweeties who were recovering from flu, but had performed earlier at Downing Street!
THE NOISETTES...mind blowing genius..a goddess in the making
LITTLE BOOTS...simply the best!
PLUS ..STEPHEN FRY, who is me and my family’s ( and the rest of the world’s ) total hero....BOBBY G...who’d just come back from Ethiopia...BRIAN ENO...my beloved chum...and KEVIN SPACEY..another giant!!
I’m so blown away that I’m still in my pyjamas!"
Click here to view more images from the event
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Tuesday, December 01, 2009
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This could mark a turning point in helping to create a more effective response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in South Africa, where 1,000 people die from Aids related causes every single day... A hugely significant shift in attitudes from the previous administration. Let’s hope that the words have a lasting impact.
Annie Lennox
South Africa vows to treat all babies with HIV
All South African babies under the age of one will be treated if they test HIV-positive, President Jacob Zuma has announced in a major policy overhaul.
In a speech to mark World Aids Day, he said he hoped anti-retroviral drugs would save infants' lives.
And he announced he was preparing to take an HIV test himself.
South Africa has 5.5 million HIV-positive people - the highest number in the world - and 59,000 babies are born infected each year.
Mr Zuma's speech is a marked departure from his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, whose government denied the link between HIV and Aids.
Mr Mbeki's critics have accused him of causing about 300,000 deaths by not rolling out anti-retroviral drugs to people with HIV quickly enough.
'Era of openness'
Currently, treatment is available in South Africa only for people whose immunity levels have been significantly reduced by HIV.
I have taken HIV tests before, and I know my status
Jacob Zuma
South African troops in HIV fight
SA's parentless families
Mr Zuma announced in his speech that the drugs would be available more widely to children and pregnant women.
He described it as the start of "an era of openness" and urged South Africans to take responsibility for themselves.
"I am making arrangements for my own test," he told crowds in Pretoria.
"I have taken HIV tests before, and I know my status. I will do another test soon as part of this new campaign. I urge you to start planning for your own tests."
He said the measures would come into force in April next year.
Analysts say South Africa already runs the world's largest anti-retroviral programme - but almost one million people still go without treatment.
The US has announced it will give $120m (£73m) to help South Africa buy more anti-retrovirals, in response to a request from Pretoria.
The rate of HIV infection in the country has levelled out - with no increase in the number of people contracting the virus each year.
But health campaigners are warning that the number of Aids-related deaths is set to rise significantly in the next five years, as the illness takes effect on those who have had it for a long time.
South African charities warned this week that 5.7 million children - a third of all South African children - could become Aids orphans by 2015.
Currently there are 1.4 million Aids orphans in the country.
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