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Buckminster Fuller and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Buckminster Fuller and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

economies of care, page eleven

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Burden of care, province of women.

A good piece of advice on any occasion, but particularly good advice for going into arguments, conferences and conventions, my friend Emily Davila told me, "Listen for what is not being said." Later, after the IAC, Emily voiced her concern that discussions about the burden of care were neglected in the conference. There was only one panel addressing the burden of care, The AIDS Care Economy and the Burden on Women, and it was scheduled at the same time as a session titled The USA HIV Epidemic in 2008. The day of the opening session of the IAC the CDC announced critical errors in the gathering of epidemiological data which resulted in the grave misrepresentation of the AIDS epidemic in the USA. In point of fact, the CDC had underreported HIV infections in the US by 40%. Needless to say, many (myself included) decided to forgo the session on the burden of care to hear what Kevin Fenton of the CDC had to say for himself (more on that later - I assure you). Although there was no way for the planners of the conference to have anticipated the overwhelming, resurgent interest in the American AIDS epidemic it was nonetheless a slight in programming for such an important matter to have only had one session devoted to it.
As I wrote in a previous post two-thirds of all caregivers for people living with AIDS in Africa are girls and women. Deeply entrenched societal views on the place and work of women, and the value of women's work product, have exacerbated the extent to which the burden of care has grown wild - unchecked, unstudied and largely ignored. Caring for ill family members, neighbors and children is work that falls largely to women because the sick room has long been believed to be the province of women. While the pervasive corrosiveness of a stereotyped view of femininity responsible for this belief is deeply problematic, an exploration of the corresponding economies of care requires a simultaneous examination of why it is that the work done in the sick room, in the service of the dying, has not been deemed work at all, but a duty that requires no remuneration.

economies of care, page three

economies of care, page two

economies of care, page one

The best way to support children is to keep their parents alive.

Human rights are easier to endorse than enforce.

and creates solidarity in a common humanity.

Health is a truly universal aspiration

Finally! A plenary on MSM.

Finally! A plenary on MSM.

This exclamation, followed by thunderous applause opened Jorge Saavedra's plenary session titled Sex between Men. Activist friends the previous day had said that the IAC in Mexico City was going to be to MSM issues what the 2000 conference in Durban was to the African epidemic. Saavedra's lecture was far and away the most exciting of all the lectures I saw at the conference. But how is it that we are 27 years into the epidemic and only this year at the 17th International AIDS Conference was there a plenary lecture on MSM? Only now, when in 1981 Larry Kramer founded Gay Mens Health Crisis (GMHC) and in 1987 AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP)? Only now, when the leadership of these organizations along with other LGBT activists began public discourse and challenged governments at the very start of this global crisis? Among gay men in the United States, HIV incidence fell by 75% during the 1980s. This was in large part because of the tireless and extraordinary leadership in the gay community. During a meeting of the LGBTA Caucus (A = Allies) at the Ecumenical Pre-Conference on HIV and AIDS, a concern that was voiced over and over was that the shifting nature of the pandemic (the growing number of orphans and vulnerable children, the "feminization" of the pandemic, etc.) has forced gay and lesbian activists back into the closet. Hard won battles have escaped the attention of history. This cannot stand and Dr. Saavedra's plenary lecture was a step in the right direction.

Jorge Saavedra at the International AIDS Conference

Bill Clinton at the International AIDS Conference

Part of the whole picture

70% of people living in poverty worldwide are women.

76% of HIV positive women in Africa are between the ages of 15 and 24 years old.

2/3 of all caregivers for people living with HIV in Africa are women.

Over 30 million people are living with HIV, half of them women.

Where do we go from here?

Four days after the closing session of the 2008 International AIDS Conference, Where do we go from here? is surely the nagging question keeping delegates up at night. The past six International AIDS Conferences have had overarching, unifying themes and this year's theme was Universal Action Now. In 2006 the theme was Time to Deliver. In 2004 Access for All. In 2002 Knowledge and Commitment for Action. In 2000 Break the Silence. In 1998 Bridging the Gap. In his treatise on rhetoric Aristotle wrote, "Rhetoric is useful because things that are true and things that are just have a natural tendency to prevail over their opposites, so that if the decisions of judges are not what they ought to be, the defeat must be due to the speakers themselves, and they must be blamed accordingly." The rhetoric of past conferences has been captivating, and surely future conferences will continue to use rhetoric to induce action surrounding this global crisis. The speakers of the 2008 IAC in Mexico City, the first I have attended, took Universal Action Now, in word and meaning, to be the framework for their political speechmaking, and rightly so. If the failure of what is right and what is just falls on speakers and not judges, then surely once rhetoric wins in the court of public opinion (and who among us will argue that the time for universal action is not now) whose responsibility is it to interpret that rhetoric, to hold to account speechmakers, to question the progress of promises?

These are not easy questions. From now until the 2010 IAC in Vienna I will be continually creating artworks asking these questions, illustrating the overwhelming statistics presented at the 2008 IAC, and attempting to interpret the progress and failures of policy in the years that will take us from Mexico City to Vienna.