Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax

Wangari Maathai & the origin of HIV

Africa laureate dismisses AIDS "bioweapon" flap

Wangari Maathai has made a typically combative start to her first full day as a Nobel laureate, defending a recent suggestion that the HIV virus might have been made in a laboratory as a plot against Africans.

I guess since I wrote about my admiration of Dr. Maathai on Friday, I oughta address this, too.

Personally, I am inclined to believe the "monkey theory"...that HIV is essentially a mutated form of a primate virus that jumped species. I know of scientists who believe otherwise, though...there's a theory that the virus was transmitted in polio vaccines, for example. And some think that it really was specificlly engineered by the CIA (or Hitler, or maybe the KGB.)

If I had a lot of time and energy now, I'd research unethical medical experiments and bioterrorism to put into perspective why people might be inclined to believe conspiracy theories like this. But I don't.

And it doesn't matter. The critical issue with HIV/AIDS in Africa now isn't where the virus came from, it's how to treat the people who have it and to keep it from spreading.

And I stand by my admiration of Wangari Maathai. Flipping through Hope's Edge the other day, since I'd taken it out for the quotes on Friday, I saw something else that turns out to be relevant. Toward the end of the book, Frances Moore Lappe talks about the criticisms of the organizations and movements she wrote about. She says:

They're not perfect. Grameen and the MST, and really all the groups whose stories we share, are just examples of the millions of people worldwide, experimenting, struggling, failing, and succeeding in carving new paths and creating a world in line with their deepest values.

The people we met are pushing the edge of possibilities, not asserting that they've reached an endpoint. They are modeling creativity, not modeling models.

Posted by Nic at October 10, 2004 08:28 PM