A recent report found that China is the world’s leading renewable energy producer.

Daljit Dhaliwal speaks to Emma Duncan, deputy editor of the Economist, about the future of green growth around the globe.

Is the United States lagging too far behind other countries in developing renewable energy sources and businesses?

Tell us what you think in the comments section below. Please remember to be respectful and on-point in your comments. Malicious or offensive comments will be deleted and repeat offenders will be banned.

• Watch the signature video: Taxes curb Danish oil use, promote energy independence

In Denmark, a Ford Focus costs $51,000 — $34,000 of which are taxes. The Danish economy has grown 78 percent, while cutting carbon emissions in half. The country has also become a net exporter of energy — wind alone has created 30,000 new jobs.

• Watch the signature video: Everyday Danes profit from pioneering wind power

But as Google has gained a foothold in markets around the world, adapting its versions to different countries and languages, an inevitable problem has emerged: how do you delineate international boundaries when they are disputed by multiple countries?

This caused problems for the tech giant earlier this year, when its Chinese characters mislabeled an area called Arunachal Pradesh, which is under Indian administration.

While a simple solution to border disputes would be to stick to internationally recognized demarcations, Google has taken things a step further. Rather than risk antagonizing disputes among its partner countries– each with its own market potential– Google has customized its maps according to different countries’ official positions on their versions of its Google Maps application.

“This does not in any way endorse or affirm the position taken by any side,” according to a Google spokesperson, “but merely provides complete information on the prevailing geo-political situation to our users of global properties in a dispassionate and accurate manner.”

Take, for example, the Chinese version of Google Maps:

The disputed boundaries between India and Pakistan are indicated by dotted lines. But the border with China (to the northeast of India) is nevertheless solid.

Consider, then, the Indian version of the same region:

Here, it appears the only disputed area lies between Tajikistan and China, to the north of India. Indian territory itself, including the western part of Kashmir which is often attributed to Pakistan, is not in question. Furthermore, the area between China and India, which in China’s version belong to China, now lies within Indian territory.

Finally, compare these two version to the standard version of Google Maps:

Here, all disputed boundaries are indicated by a dotted line.

These border disputes predate the Internet — and are unlikely to go away any time soon.  Google has at least managed a temporary diplomatic resolution in cyberspace.

Google has customized their Maps application to reflect border disputes around the world. While border disputes predate the Internet — and are unlikely to go away any time soon — Google has at least managed a temporary diplomatic resolution in cyberspace. http://worldfocus.org/files/2009/11/th_china_map.jpg http://worldfocus.org/files/2009/11/th_china_map.jpg ]]> http://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/11/03/for-google-maps-diplomacy-trumps-geography/8021/feed/ http://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/11/02/today-russia-vaccinates-for-h1n1-and-clinton-in-kosovo/8112/ http://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/11/02/today-russia-vaccinates-for-h1n1-and-clinton-in-kosovo/8112/#comments Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:34:35 +0000 Worldfocus http://worldfocus.org/?p=8112 Stories compiled by Mohammad al-Kassim, Channtal Fleischfresser, Connie Kargbo,
Ivette Feliciano, Christine Kiernan and Gizem Yarbil and edited by Rebecca Haggerty.

NORTH KOREA: A North Korean foreign ministry spokesperson says his country is ready to talk to the U.S. about the nuclear issue.

INDIA: India is on high-alert as the one-year anniversary of the November 26th terrorist attacks in Mumbai approaches.

AUSTRALIA: Off the west coast of Australia, a boat with 39 people on board sank on Sunday night. At least one person has died and many others remain missing.

KENYA: Researchers at a malaria conference in Kenya on Monday said that almost 1 million people die of malaria around the world every year due to a lack of affordable medical treatment.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: The United Nations has suspended its support of Congolese army units accused of killing at least 62 civilians. According to the UN peacekeeping chief, the civilians were killed between May and September of this year.

SOUTH AFRICA: Robben Island, made famous after Nelson Mandela was jailed there, is under threat by rabbits and other animals that are eating the vegetation. Robben Island is a World Heritage site that attracts up to 1,800 tourists a day during peak season.

NETHERLANDS: Radovan Karadzic will not attend his trial in the Hague Monday but is expected to be present Tuesday, according to legal advisers.

UK: The number of unemployed 2008 graduates in the UK has jumped 44%, compared to those who graduated the year before.

FRANCE: France’s immigration minister announced a nationwide debate on “national identity,” supported by more than half of French voters. Critics allege that the plan is “pandering to anti-immigrant sentiment.”

KOSOVO: Former US President Bill Clinton was greeted by thousands of fans in Kosovo yesterday, where he was attending the unveiling of an 11-foot-statue of his likeness. Clinton reportedly said “I never expected that anywhere, someone would make such a big statue of me.”

RUSSIA AND CIS: Russia begins vaccinating children against swine flu today at medical research institutions in the cities of Perm, St. Petersburg and Smolensk. At least 3.5 million single doses of the swine flu vaccine are expected to be produced in Russia by the end of the year. Meanwhile, neighboring Ukraine received a shipment of flu vaccines yesterday. Some 22 people have died from H1N1 in Ukraine, prompting the government to close all educational establishments today.

Russian police have detained some 50 human rights activists who were protesting near the Kremlin in Moscow yesterday. Protesters chanted “Freedom!” and “Respect the constitution.”

St. Petersburg State University has retracted a demand that humanities and social science researchers submit their work for screening before publishing it abroad, explaining that the requirement would apply only to research that could have military applications.

Twenty-three Russia soldiers from Kaliningrad are stranded on a fishing trawler that was captured by Somali pirates last week. The ship reportedly is being sailed towards a pirate base of Somalia’s coast, and an EU warship is monitoring the voyage.

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov met his British counterpart in Moscow today, in an attempt to ease relations between the two countries that have been strained since the 2006 poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. The two leaders reportedly “agreed to disagree.”

NICARAGUA: This year, Mexico has extradited a total of 100 criminal suspects to the U.S. — a record number.

PERU: Researchers in Peru have attributed the demise of an ancient civilization to deforestation.

AFGHANISTAN: More than two months after Afghans went to the polls to choose a president, Afghanistan’s election commission proclaimed President Hamid Karzai the winner, in the wake of challenger Abdullah Abduallah’s withdrawal from the race.

PAKISTAN: A suicide bomber killed 30 people and injured more than 45 in a busy section of the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

ISRAEL: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Israeli actions on settlements fall short of U.S. expectations, although over the weekend she had praised Israel’s settlement concessions as “unprecedented.”

Al Arabiya satellite news channel is reporting on the Arab reaction to the Obama administration’s apparent softening of its demand for a complete freeze on Israeli settlements.

Israeli police arrested an American-born Jewish man, Ya’acov Teitel, for his role in a string of terrorist attacks that took place over the past twelve years in Israel.

PALESTINE: Palestinian news agency Ma’an is reporting that parts of the Gaza strip will be without electric power.

Producer Gary Strieker reports from Ethiopia’s Amhara region where 60 percent of children suffer from trachoma.

For more on Worldfocus’ coverage on Ethiopia, click here.

A Taiwanese gamer playing Happy Farm on Facebook. Photo: Flickr user copycatko

Hsin-Yin Lee, a former associate producer at Worldfocus, is a news editor at the “China Times” in Taipei.  She writes about the current Taiwanese obsession with a Facebook game.

“Happy Farm,” a six-month-old Facebook application, has spawned millions of cyber farmers across the island. According to the game developer, Taiwanese fans constitute up to 80 percent of the 3.7 million members of “Happy Farm.” Thanks to its popularity, Facebook’s reach rate in August was up 60 percent from July, which helped Taiwan post the highest growth in new Facebook members worldwide during September.

The rule of “Happy Farm” is quite simple: You come, you seed, you conquer. Each virtual farmer is allowed to set up farms, grow crops and raise livestock in a fiercely competitive environment. Points are won not only by one’s hard work but also his craft in stealing from friends when they are offline.

However, not everyone is happy with “Happy Farm.” Taiwanese premier Wu Den-yih recently had to step in to discourage people–especially civil servants–from playing it.

Wu’s comment came after several server shut-downs at local police stations because too many police were playing the game at work. The authority also worried that “crop-stealing” might hurt the image of the police.

The Happy Farm craze has set Taiwanese society in circus. In private companies, managers have issued statements to make clear that “harvesting in an air-conditioned room is immoral.” Some restaurants have even been renovated to resemble the “Happy Farm” interface to attract customers!

Students are complaining that too much work has made them unable to wake up in the middle of night to guard their crops; even drug dealers have been seen using the game to contact customers and establish new networks.

Experts say that overuse of Happy Farm didn’t come out of thin air, though. Taiwanese people are generally overworked, and it is the fatigue generated by heavy workload, experts argue, that leaves people no choice but to get connected through the Internet as much as possible.

According to the 2008 World Competitiveness Yearbook published by the Lausanne-based business school IMD, Taiwan’s working hours were ranked as the fifth-longest in the world - behind Mexico, Hong Kong, South Korea and India.

Since each Taiwanese employee has to work an average of 2,256 hours a year, experts said “Happy Farm” provides an ideal environment for self-indulgence at work. While taking care of your own farm brings contentment, getting a taste of humanity by stealing crops somehow eases the feeling of isolation.

Now, pardon me for ending my article here. I really need to get back to my farm to collect some pumpkins.

A Mexico city statue during the early days of swine flu. Photo: Flickr user olivcris

With concerns rising in the U.S. and abroad about the H1N1 virus, we want to hear your thoughts.

Do you think the U.S. government is doing enough to protect American citizens from H1N1?

Tell us what you think in the comments section below. Please remember to be respectful and on-point in your comments. Malicious or offensive comments will be deleted and repeat offenders will be banned.

Mayan-inspired artifacts in Yucatan, Mexico. Photo: Flickr user ncreedplayer

Many conspiracy theorists, contradicting the claims of most scientists, point to 2012 as the year of the apocalypse. They often cite the Mayan calendar as evidence that doomsday will occur just over two years down the road.

Blogger Sean Goforth writes how the Mayans do not actually see 2012 as the end of the world — but merely as the end of a time cycle — and how most have more pragmatic concerns.

According to History Channel lore the Mayan calendar ends on December 21, 2012. Indeed the Long Count calendar, one of several used by the Maya, reaches the end of a 394-year cycle, known as a Baktun, at about that time. The Long Count calendar begins in 3114 BCE; hence, 2012 AD will mark the end of the 13th Baktun.

Popular consciousness has conflated “Mayan calendar” and “end of cycle, 2012,” interpreted ‘cycle’ to mean ‘existence’, and spawned a rumor mill that the world is on the brink of destruction. Turns out, global demise is at hand, rife with meteors, tidal waves, “pole shifts”, nuclear annihilation, etc. I, for one, was unaware until last semester. While returning mid-term exams, a student quipped that his grade didn’t matter because everyone is going to die in three years anyway. Normally a quiet bunch, I found myself among a chorus of doomsdayers. The speculation seems unlikely to abate—next month the apocalyptic thriller “2012” will debut in theatres.

Unlike other doomsday prophecies, this one contains a germ of archeological and astronomical truth. Along a rural path in southern Mexico, a tablet known as Monument Six was discovered in the 1960s. Inscriptions on the ruin note the year 2012 and speak of something happening with Bolon Yokte, a Mayan god associated with war and creation. One section of Monument Six roughly translates as, “He will descend from the sky.” A little eerie perhaps, but nothing too damning when put in context. David Stuart, an expert on Mayan epigraphy at the University of Texas, states, “The Maya never said the world was going to end, never said anything bad was going to happen necessarily, they are just recording this future anniversary on Monument Six.” The Maya also plausibly cited 2012 because they were astronomical prodigies. Upon the 2012 winter solstice the sun will line up with the center of our Milky Way, an occasion that only comes around every 25,800 years.

But the idea of the clock “running out” in 2012 is a Western invention. The Maya in fact celebrated the end of cycles, so the transition from the 13th Baktun to the 14th should be greeted, if anything, with revelry. And the Maya noted dates beyond 2012. Guillermo Bernal of Mexico’s National Autonomous University points out inscriptions at various Mayan sites reference future dates as far away as 4772. Part of the misinterpretation emerges from the Mayan practice of pre-recording important dates.

Still, experts are getting rather frustrated with the hubbub surrounding the Mayan calendar. Apolinario Chile Pixtin, a Mayan elder, is annoyed: “I came back from England last year, and man, they had me fed up with this stuff.” Sandra Noble, executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, calls the doomsday scenario “a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in.” Academics and Maya elders instead believe Earth in 2012 will be hit by a “meteor shower of new age philosophy” and pop astronomy, no doubt teased by TV specials.

Ruminating on doomsday in three years may be engrossing, but it’s a luxury many Maya don’t have. A drought-stricken 2009 is proving quite harsh. According to one Yucatan archeologist, if you went to Maya Yucatan communities and said the world might end in 2012, “They wouldn’t believe you. We have real concerns these days, like rain.”

- Sean Goforth

Here, CCTV reports on Vladimir Putin’s first visit to China since he became prime minister in May 2008. Putin and Chinese premier Wen Jiabao signed $3.5 billion in natural gas and other trade agreements.

According to Iran’s state-run Press TV, Amiri worked as a researcher at Tehran’s Malek Ashtar University.

Many in Iran assume that Amiri defected, but the U.S. denies any involvement.

Nazanine Moshiri of Worldfocus partner Al Jazeera English reports from Tehran.

Explore the top film-producing nations in this interactive feature. Click on a country to learn about its film industry.

Below, read a Q&A on the growth of the Nigerian film industry.

* Data courtesy of the U.N. and UNESCO. Read more.

Jamie Meltzer, director of the documentary “Welcome to Nollywood,” joins Worldfocus to discuss Nigeria’s blooming film industry.

Watch a clip from the film, in which Nigerians discuss the rise of Nollywood:

Worldfocus: Films from so-called “Bollywood” and “Hollywood” often have distinct styles or themes. Is this true of “Nollywood” as well? Are particular styles/themes/genres popular?

Jamie Meltzer: Well, the interesting thing about Nollywood is that the genres and style keep evolving. It’s a very young industry (15 years or so), so there is no prototypical Nollywood film or genre. At first, films depicting cults and occult activity were popular, and an explosion of those kinds of films flooded the market, and then interest died down due to overexposure. Then, “epic” films — period films about tribes and West African history — were popular, and then the market was flooded, then interested waned…then love films, then action films. It is always in flux.

Worldfocus: How do the production and distribution of films in Nigeria differ from the U.S.?

Meltzer: Very different. Nigeria has the first all-digital film industry — all films are shot, edited and distributed through digital means. This is an industry that exists because of the democratizing effects of technology — cheaper and better video cameras and desktop editing systems allowed this industry to start and thrive. The productions are generally done on the cheap ($20,000 - 60,000 U.S.) and put out quite quickly. They are distributed through home video — DVDs and VCDs — through markets throughout Lagos and Nigeria. For a number of reasons, theaters aren’t popular in Nigeria, so people watch these at home mostly.

Worldfocus: Can you describe the culture surrounding movies?

Meltzer: There is a strong celebrity culture — a few stars that are known throughout the country and that are immensely popular and command large salaries. People love to discuss the films, and I found that they provide a real service to those in the diaspora, linking them to their home culture in a profound way. You can find Nigerian films in African and West African markets across the world. They have also spawned a host of imitators in other African countries, which is great because the success of Nollywood is pushing other nations and cultures to get into the act of making films by, for, and about themselves — a real antidote to the monoculture that often results from the disproportionate impact of American pop culture and Hollywood.

Worldfocus: As the U.S. film industry wrestles with the Internet and other changes, what challenges is the Nigerian film industry facing right now and what future do you envision for it?

Meltzer: As an all-digital industry, Nollywood is ahead of the U.S. in many respects, and even though most people in Nigeria have Internet access — though Internet cafes, etc. — there isn’t much of an online viewership for Nollywood, but maybe that will change.

- Katie Combs

Iran has agreed to a deal that would move most of its declared stockpile of enriched uranium to Russia for further refinement, before it is delivered back to Iran for peaceful uses at a research reactor in Tehran.

From Russia’s perspective, it is now a key player in global nuclear politics.

Timothy Frye, the director of the Harriman Institute on Russian and Eastern European studies at Columbia University, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the significance of the new deal and Russia’s motivations.

In this extended interview — recorded in May, prior to the crackdown following the disputed election — Iranian students discuss how they bypass filters to find music and films, both online and in shops on the streets. They also share their ambivalence about the prevalence of Western popular culture in Iran.

These days, the Iranian authorities do all they can to control what Iranian citizens see and hear. But as Worldfocus correspondent Bigan Saliani and producer Richard O’Regan discovered during a trip to Iran earlier this year, technology is making that virtually impossible.

At the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh, U.S. President Barack Obama, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain and French President Nicholas Sarkozy disclosed that Iran is building a new uranium enrichment facility that could be used to make nuclear weapons.

They warned Iran to come clean about its secret plant or face new, harsher sanctions. The facility is near Qom, the Shiite Muslim holy city about 100 miles southwest of Tehran.

On Friday afternoon, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held a news conference and said the facility will not be operational for 18 months, insisting Iran has complied with United Nations disclosure rules.

Fariborz Ghadar, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and professor at Penn State University, joins Daljit Dhaliwal to discuss the military significance of this newly-discovered uranium enrichment plant and the impact on nuclear talks.

Does this new revelation about Iran demonstrate that the U.S. and its allies need to take an even tougher line toward Iran?

Tell us what you think in the comments section below. Please remember to be respectful and on-point in your comments. Malicious or offensive comments will be deleted and repeat offenders will be banned.

Daljit Dhaliwal sits down with Julia Greenberg, the associate director of AIDS-Free World, a global advocacy group tackling HIV/AIDS. They place Jamaica’s AIDS epidemic within the context of the Caribbean region, address anti-sodomy laws in Jamaica and around the world and identify the successes and shortcomings Jamaica has experienced in containing the epidemic.

Daljit and Julia also look at the role women play in the epidemic. Women make up half of the adults living with the virus in the Caribbean, and are infected by “bridging populations” — bi-sexual men who are leading double lives. Julia raises the possibility of linking women’s rights with gay rights to tackle the spread of the epidemic.

• Watch all the Worldfocus In the Shadows video signature series
• Listen to Worldfocus Radio on LGBT politics and gay asylum
• For more information on homophobia and HIV in Jamaica, visit The Glass Closet, a multimedia project produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

TRANSCRIPT:

Daljit Dhaliwal: Hello, I’m Daljit Dhaliwal of Worldfocus, and joining me now is Julia Greenberg. She is the associate director of AIDS-Free World, a global advocacy group tackling HIV and AIDS, and she responsible for the Caribbean region. Julia, thank you very much for joining us.

Julia Greenberg: I’m delighted to be here.

Daljit Dhaliwal: So, give us some background on AIDS and HIV in the Caribbean, especially in Jamaica. Start off with that. What are the rates of infection and what are the trends that we are seeing?

Julia Greenberg: Sure. I think the most important thing to know is that in the general population the HIV prevalence rate is 1.6 percent. But if you look at the population of men having sex with men — the gay community — that prevalence rate soars to 31.1 percent.

Daljit Dhaliwal: And what is being done about trying to reach out to these groups and to try and educate them about HIV and AIDS, and to come up with preventative measures?

Julia Greenberg: Well, I think you have to step back when you look at the issue when it comes to men who have sex with men in Jamaica and look at the terrible culture of homophobia that is pervasive throughout the country. So there is a sodomy law — gay men’s lives are criminalized. So, in one of the segments thatWorldfocus aired earlier this week, in fact, there was a gay man who said, “AIDS is not killing us, people are killing us” referring to the very high murder rates of gay men in Jamaica.

Daljit Dhaliwal: Do you think it would make a difference if these laws around sodomy were decriminalized in Jamaica?

Julia Greenberg: I think it would be part of making a difference. I think we have to attack it several different ways. One is definitely getting rid of this sodomy law, which criminalizes sex between men. So if you’re going to do effective prevention for the population most affected by AIDS in Jamaica you would have to actually talk about the kind of sex that they engage in, and you can’t do that because that kind of sex is against the law.

Daljit Dhaliwal: And in terms of the big picture in Jamaica and in other parts of the Caribbean, do you think in the discussion of HIV and AIDS that we are moving away from treatment to prevention, or not?

Julia Greenberg: Well, I think the Caribbean is a perfect example of why we have to do both. So let’s look at treatment for a second. Jamaica has 43 percent coverage rates. So, 43 percent of the people who need AIDS treatment to extend their lives right now are getting it. Then, if you look at the prevention picture overall in the Caribbean, for every five (5) people put on treatment, 10 are newly infected. So we’re swimming against the tide. And it’s my opinion and I think the growing understanding in the AIDS movement that if you want to effectively deal with prevention, you have to deal with the concentrated epidemics among men who have sex with men, sex workers and in some regions drug users.

Daljit Dhaliwal: Right, and these trends that you’re talking about in Jamaica, do they also reflect a pattern in other parts of the Caribbean or is it too much to generalize? As far as you can generalize, what would you say is going on?

Julia Greenberg: They absolutely reflect a trend. If you look at Trinidad and Tobago, the prevalence rate is 1.5 in the general population and it’s 20 percent among men who have sex with men. In the Dominican Republic, for instance, where there isn’t a sodomy law, I believe the general prevalence rate is 1.1, and it is 11 percent in the gay population. So, it’s less than of a divide and maybe that speaks about the criminalization of gay men’s lives. But the trends are absolutely across the board similar.

Daljit Dhaliwal: In terms of Jamaica’s anti-sodomy laws, they would say, “Why is Jamaica always having the finger pointed as us? There are other countries around the world that also have anti-sodomy laws?” What would you say to them?

Julia Greenberg: I would say that’s true. I think there are about 80 countries around the world with sodomy laws or some kind of laws that criminalize relationships between men or relationships between women and women. And I think that’s really important. Look at the United States — it was only in 2003 that our Supreme Court ruling essentially nullified all state sodomy laws. So, that’s true. I would point to the recent Human Rights Watch report on the militia-sponsored attacks against gay men in Iraq. It would make your blood turn cold to read these reports. So, it’s a problem all over the world, absolutely. But the quality of the violence in Jamaica is quite stark. In fact, there are immigration lawyers here in the U.S. working with asylum seekers from Jamaica and they say that across the board, the quality of attacks is extreme, and, in fact, it makes it easier for them to win cases because of the nature of the violence perpetrated against the gay community there.

Daljit Dhaliwal: Is there some insight you can give us as to why this culture of homophobia is so pervasive in Jamaica, say, compared to other parts of the world? Are there cultural factors that make it that way?

Julia Greenberg: The story that is important to understand and tell, but is really difficult to face in Jamaica is that the prevalence is so high in the gay community and stigma is so strong, that gay men are getting married or having female partners and they’re acting as a bridging population to the heterosexual community, and specifically women. And that’s not something that’s discussed. It’s a very difficult issue to discuss again because of the culture of homophobia, but also because it feeds into homophobia. So then, the homophobic elements in the culture can say, “See these gay men are infecting our innocent women.” And, obviously, that’s not the picture.

Daljit Dhaliwal: And what role is Jamaica’s government playing? Could it be doing more? Is it doing what it can do with the money and resources it has available within its widerhealth care budget?

Julia Greenberg: Well I’ll break it down again between the government and the Ministry of Health. So the government has said some terrible things about how they’ll never repeal the sodomy law, the prime minister has said he’ll never have a gay man in his cabinet. So there is a lot being done at the highest levels of government to fuel homophobia. And when homophobia is fueled, you’re not going to, again, contain the AIDS crisis. The Ministry of Health is another story. They’ve recognized that they’re not going to get their job done unless they deal with the epidemic among men who have sex with men.

Again, if I might refer again to one of the Worldfocus segments, the former head of the national AIDS control program said, “It would be good if we could repeal the sodomy, and that the entire government and Ministry of Health needs to understand that they’ve failed when it comes to prevention.”

Daljit Dhaliwal: Is it a political issue for the Jamaican government that they don’t want to decriminalize or repeal the sodomy law, or is it more to do with this culture of homophobia, which you’ve been describing?

Julia Greenberg: I think it’s really integrated and complex. I think it’s a political issue because it really is ingrained in the culture and the society and there would not be popular support for such a move.

Daljit Dhaliwal: Give us a sense of what Jamaica has done — the kind of progress that it has made. And give us some context about the antiretroviral drugs, which have been provided by Jamaica, which are free, whether they are accessed or not accessed by individuals.

Julia Greenberg: There’s been an increase in the uptake of antriretroviral drugs in Jamaica. And it’s fantastic that they’re given for free. They are now achieving 43 percent coverage of people who need the treatment. But it’s important to state that the global community — the heads of state, the U.N. — have all said that universal access must be achieved by 2010. We’re about a third of the way there, and Jamaica is only a little ahead of the curve.

Daljit Dhaliwal: Is Jamaica unique in using community liaison groups and individuals like Ida, the woman that we saw in our film, in terms of educating communities and trying to reduce the stigma around HIV and AIDS?

Julia Greenberg: I wouldn’t say they’re unique. I think it’s been generally understood because of activism in the global AIDS advocacy community, that communities have to be involved in every aspect of AIDS prevention and support. So, governments are actually required to have communities involved in all of their programs. It seems to me that the Jamaica program is quite strong. The parish AIDS communities seem to be doing really great work. And you see communities adhering to their drug regimens and really absorbing prevention messages when they’re working with community leaders such as Ida.

Daljit Dhaliwal: Give us some examples of the kind of grassroots campaigns that these activists are involved in. And can you share some of the strategies that they are using, which perhaps have or haven’t worked, or you feel you can make better?

Julia Greenberg: To say grassroots campaigns is to overstate it because the lesbian, gay, transgender community in Jamaica has to basically exist underground. Again, as one of the excellent segments you aired shows, if you so much as embrace in public you’re at risk of being attacked by a mob. So, the kind of work the gay community is doing is underground, it involves speaking out when the government or the church says something egregious about the lives of homosexuals and how they should be criminalized, how they’re an abomination in the eyes of the lord.

Daljit Dhaliwal: So what is the best way of tackling that?

Julia Greenberg: Tackling that? I think one of the most important ways is finding leaders within the culture, in the church, in the communities — where you can find an opening. Where they’re willing at least to say that it is not OK to beat or kill gay people. And start working with them to see if they can begin to take a leadership role in making changes.

Daljit Dhaliwal: Let’s talk a little bit about how women are being infected by these “bridging” populations and the way in which they access treatment. Does it happen along gender lines that they have difficulty accessing treatment? Or, are they more stigmatized as a group if they become infected? What is the role of women in HIV and AIDS in Jamaica?

Julia Greenberg: Again, it’s another complex picture. When I was there last February I had the opportunity to meet with a group of HIV positive women at the office of an excellent organization called Jamaica AIDS Support. And these women, I have to say, after spending 10 years working in sub-Saharan Africa in some of the poorest communities in the world, there was no difference between the lives of these women and lives of the women that I met in my work and my travels in Africa. The stigma is intense. The poverty is intense. They’re not able to stay on their drugs for lack of food. They’re not able to get to the clinics for lack of transportation.

Daljit Dhaliwal: Right, and what kind of role can these women play in helping to lessen the epidemic?

Julia Greenberg: I’ve talked to a lot of activists about this — how can we get the gay community and the women’s rights community together talking about this issue. And it’s not happening yet. It really needs to happen. There needs to be an understanding that both communities are affected and they’re in it together.

Daljit Dhaliwal: There is also a culture of blame, as well.

Julia Greenberg: There is a culture of blame.

Daljit Dhaliwal: How do you get beyond those very, very emotional issues when a women becomes infected by a man she thought was straight, and it turns out he’s bisexual or he’s gay? How do you have those conversations?

Julia Greenberg: I don’t think those conversations as far as I understand — they may very well be happening at a personal level, but they’re not happening at a national level or even an organizational level, among the organizations that are working on this issue. It’s really, really tough.

Daljit Dhaliwal: Alright, Julia Greenberg, thank you for talking to us and giving your insights.

Julia Greenberg: A pleasure to be here, thank you.

Lisa Biagiotti produced this interview.

The results were described as a major step forward in the development of a vaccine against AIDS, a disease that kills an estimated 2 million people worldwide each year and infects 7,500 people each day.

Jessica Justman, the senior technical director and assistant professor of clinical medicine in epidemiology at the International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs (ICAP) at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, joins Daljit Dhaliwal to discuss the significance of the study and prospects for the future.

If an AIDS vaccine were available, would you take it?

Tell us what you think in the comments section below. Please remember to be respectful and on-point in your comments. Malicious or offensive comments will be deleted and repeat offenders will be banned.