During the first meeting of our freshman seminar, Dr. Jem Spectar told us why he was there in that classroom teaching us about the "International Politics of AIDS in Africa."
Spectar has dedicated his life to stopping the spread of AIDS in Africa, but not by lobbying politicians on Capitol Hill or providing people with anti-retroviral drugs from an African clinic.
His less conventional, more thoughtful approach, is integral to spawning the world-wide realization that solving the AIDS epidemic is a global obligation. Viewing AIDS victims as fellow members of humanity — before citizens of states — requires a shift in mindset. It requires us to think as global citizens. To move beyond "us and them" to "we".
Dr. Spectar's plan of attack is simple. Through writing papers about the socio-political causes and political solutions to the pandemic, Dr. Spectar wields his weapon of choice: education.
"Hopefully the virus of knowledge can spread faster than the virus of AIDS," he said.
Spectar's words provided our passport to becoming agents of change. Armed with awareness, the twelve of us have argued with roommates and neighbors, inundated our "away" messages with AIDS facts, and simply talked to anyone who would listen.
As the semester has come to an end, we have each discovered what it means to support a cause. Gradually changing the way people think and evoking concern is a task we have taken to heart.
Contrary to popular belief, there is a solution. Impeding the spread of AIDS in Africa is not only possible but practical with funding for increased treatment and prevention strategies.
Treatment programs offer a short term solution to saving the working class population that currently upholds a crumbling infrastructure. The economies of African states are further endangered by the rising number of workers and state officials who are dying of AIDS.
Moreover, giving women the drug nevrapine can reduce the chance of mother to child transmission of AIDS by 30 percent. So far, AIDS has killed 3.8 million children, and orphaned roughly another 13 million more.
Prevention programs targeting sexual education can remove the cultural stigma that envelopes AIDS. In South Africa in particular, the rape rate has increased exponentially in the last decade due to a cultural myth that having sex with a virgin can rid a man of AIDS. The practice of widow inheritance — where a deceased man's wife has to engage in sexual relations with his brothers — further spreads the virus.
But perhaps the greatest cultural facilitator of the spread of AIDS is the dearth of women's rights. Unable to refuse husbands who may have been unfaithful and soldiers who use rape as a weapon of war, women breed the disease. Education and other strategies can prevent this perpetuation of inequality and unsafe sex.
In the end, it all comes down to numbers, figures that you can sink your teeth into. According to Jeffrey Sachs, director of the center for International Development, $1.5 billion from the U.S. is needed to increase prevention and fund treatment for Africa this year. That equates to every American giving five dollars — the cost of a movie, a McDonald's value meal, or a Princeton car sticker.
"Even if the price tag rose to 10 dollars per American in future years," Sachs wrote in an editorial for the 'Washington Post,' "it would seem a small price to pay for saving five million lives."
In 2001, the Bush administration gave $200 million to the Global Fund for fighting AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis. Officials from the World Health Organization and UNAIDS expected the economic powerhouse to give $1.5 billion.
At the end of our first meeting, Spectar asked why we were taking the seminar. As our reasons ranged from curiosity evoked by magazine features to backgrounds as active members in international NGOs, Dr. Spectar told us what we all had in common.
"I was looking for people who wanted to change the world," he said.
In other words, "idealists."
Dr. Spectar epitomizes the idealistic adult who remains practical but not cynical in a society that needs to be changed.
And through his teaching, we hope it will.
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