Pop legend rails against ‘obscenity’ of two worlds

THE inequity between the two worlds we live in is an obscenity, according to singer and Academy Award-winning songwriter Annie Lennox.

The solo artist and lead singer of the musical duo Eurythmics was addressing an international forum on children affected by HIV and Aids in Dublin yesterday.

The forum heard that more than 1,000 children are infected daily with HIV and more than 15 million have lost one or both parents to Aids worldwide.

Lennox, who has sold more than 80m records, is a tireless campaigner for the rights of women and children affected by HIV and Aids, particularly in South Africa.

As the world teetered on brink of a recession this week, Lennox declared she was not giving up on her campaign any time soon — and was in it for the long haul.

“I will continue to campaign because I feel that the inequity between the two worlds that we live in is an obscenity,” she said.

“It is not just a hit; a show up at a concert and then I go away. My commitment is lasting.”

She went on to reveal her despair at the lack of really effective government action in addressing the needs of children in the developing world.

“You see people at the frontline dealing with the symptoms, but what I would really like to see is really long-lasting social and political change,” she said.

The Scotland-born musician and vocalist thought, however, that the Irish Government — which remains on course to reach its commitment to spend 0.7% of Gross National Product on overseas aid by 2012 — was doing a fantastic job and the country’s aid workers in South Africa were doing phenomenal things.

Lennox, 53, went on to say she believed all of the organisations involved with children affected by HIV and Aids needed to connect with ordinary people.

“The work that I am doing is trying to figure out how to guide people into ways that will make a difference,” she said.

“Maybe I am the glue in between.”

About 200 delegates from 42 countries are attending the two-day forum in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham that concludes today.

The event is being co-hosted by the Department of Foreign Affairs through Irish Aid, the Government’s overseas aid programmes.

UNICEF executive director Ann Veneman said children had been the missing face of the Aids pandemic for too long, but that was beginning to change.

Ms Veneman said efforts made to protect children from HIV/Aids were working and more children were being tested and treated for the disease.

In Botswana in southern Africa the transmission rate between mother and child had been reduced from more than 40% to about 5%.

However, a problem highlighted by South African children who addressed the conference was how to educate their peers to prevent the spread of the disease.

Ms Veneman said the conference would also examine the interventions that needed to be put in place to protect children orphaned by the pandemic.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen said all the evidence pointed to broad social protection and welfare approached as a means of mitigating the impact of HIV on children.

“Our own history of social policy and protection, with the introduction of pensions and allowances, demonstrates the importance of these instruments in responding to household and child poverty,” he said.