Customer Reviews

Race Against Time (CBC Massey Lectures Series)

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Every now and then, there is a book everyone must read.
Racing Against Time, by Stephen Lewis, is that book.
His eloquent oratory on Africa's AIDS pandemic (and the world's
complicity) makes riveting reading-the page takes
nothing of his voice away: it amplifies it, it adds vibrato to his
plea for every person & nation to hear it and respond.
Stephen Lewis gives a highly personal account of a
numbing-scale disaster, in a tone as immediate as the
mega-tragedy of our times. Profoundly stirring.

Lewis clearly and passionately explains, in terms that every American should read, the status of children, of women, of food systems, and of disease/pandemics in Africa and throughout the developing and dominated worlds. Really, if you want to understand the disaster that our rich governments are allowing to persist and metastacise elsewhere out of sight. I learned so much from this book! You should too.

I first heard about Stephen Lewis while flipping the channels and came across him giving a speech on PBS. I didn't know who he was and I almost changed channels, but he was telling a lot of great jokes with a strong presence (despite the fact his punch-lines were all polysyllabic). So I kept listening. Then his topic changed from pleasantries to his real issue - the crisis in Africa. It was one of those things you don't forget about. I listened to him for an hour and - when I read parts of Race Against Time two years later, I can still hear him. And my only real critizism of this book is that, strong as it is, Stephen Lewis is an orator and his words are best heard, not read. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in Africa or the Third-World, those (like myself) pursuing careers or already in the health care community, those with strong social consciences for the underprivilaged and have links with political or charitable organizations that can help, or just anyone who wants to heard compleling true-stories of death, life and strength out of African communities from a gifted mind. There are a few pieces of "boring politics and economics" in here that might confuse and annoy some readers (I'll admit, I don't understand it all), but I believe the rest is a must read.

This book is the latest revelation in the tragic story of the plight of African nations. As special envoy for the UN Stephen Lewis has traveled extensively in Africa and has had first hand experience of the AIDS/HIV disaster as well as the effects of drought, hunger, war and the growing mortality rate due to disease. A very honest account, Stephen Lewis takes a critical and objective look at the part the UN and other institutions are playing in allowing this tragic situation to continue.
If you are interested in developing a world view, read this book.

Race Against Time is the published version of the 2005 Massey Lectures, a five-part series delivered by Stephen Lewis and broadcast by the CBC in November 2005. Lewis, the UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa and one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of 2005, does not mince his words: the current situation in Africa is comparable to the Holocaust, and it is immoral for anyone, from you or me straight to the top of every government and international body, to be silent in the face of such tragedy.

Not very diplomatic for a diplomat. It is more than clear what a risk it was for Lewis to deliver these lectures, and he acknowledges as much. No one is safe from his criticism, not even himself. In essence, he depicts both the United Nations family of organizations and the leadership of most industrialized countries as untruthful and ineffectual hypocrites when it comes to human rights in Africa. Quite simply, I'm amazed he still has his job, and I fluctuate between being inspired by his fearlessness, delighted at his straight talking and worried for his future. And yet, even at his most cutting, Lewis makes clear his unfailing and constructive commitment to actively making things better.

These lectures, which cover everything from debt to trade to education to gender as they relate to Africa and AIDS, are a must read for everyone. Better yet, get yourself a copy of the CD version (Lewis himself acknowledges that his true vocation is the spoken word) and hear the master orator at work. The most powerful of the lectures capture the profound humanity of what is happening in Africa, and jarred me out of a comfortable slumber from which the crisis can seem so immense and far off that it is difficult to engage on more than an intellectual level. Wide awake, I was in awe of his ability to lead me through the most complex and profoundly distressing issues while keeping both my emotional connection and hope alive.

The points at which his focus tends to move away from the humanity of the crisis and towards its macro-organizational aspects are where his words lost some of their power for me. And on finishing the final lecture, entitled "Solutions: A Gallery of Alternatives in Good Faith," I couldn't help wishing he'd thrown a bit of activism for the individual citizen into his direct calls for national and international reform and accountability. But I can't be too hard on the guy. After all, he is a hero in the truest sense of the word, and his principled courage is an example to all of us.

"I have spent the last four years watching people die..."

Thus begins this passionate account of the victims of the AIDS pandemic in Africa, the people who struggle to survive and the efforts of those helping stem the tide. Stephen Lewis, the UN Secretary General's special envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa, has been criss-crossing Africa documenting the ongoing dramas and the rest of the world to raise awareness, commitment and funds from the richest countries. The book comprises five separate, interrelated lectures, the CBC Massey Lectures, that Lewis delivered in the fall of 2005. They were broadcast across Canada and beyond. Lewis is a commanding orator, well known for his engagement in humanitarian causes. You can hear his powerful voice through the text of this slim volume. The style is direct and very personal. The reader shares his frustrations, sadness and despair and, finally, his energy and optimism that, eventually, the battle against AIDS will be won. It is a book that everybody should read.

Lewis talks about his deep love for Africa stemming from years living and working in different countries during his young adult life. Throughout his career, he was in positions that took him back to that continent, whether as special advisor on Africa or as deputy executive director of UNICEF. Each lecture focuses on one aspect or another within the wide range of issues that require attention in the context of HIV/AIDS in Africa. In his first lecture he sets out the context and historical perspective. He then moves on to his personal encounters with victims and their supporting families. In the next lecture he singles out education as one vital component to prevent the spread of the disease. He expresses anger at the lack of investment for literacy and basic education in many African countries, resulting in extremely low literacy levels, in particular among women. His frustration at missed opportunities and blasé attitudes by the UN and the international community in general is palpable. He provides examples and arguments for his critique.

Another devastating development is the topic of the fourth lecture: the increasing prevalence of women and in particular young women and girls suffering from the disease. They have not only been disadvantaged by lack of access to education, they are victims of traditional discrimination, violence and extreme poverty. At the same time, Lewis is deeply moved by the grandmothers. Often destitute themselves and poor in economic resources, they have become foundation to keep families and communities alive. Everywhere, they are taking on a new role as "heads of household", looking after and providing for the quickly growing number of AIDS orphans of their extended families. Lewis is full of praise for their lifesaving efforts and admires their dedication and stamina.

Finally, in his last lecture he pulls together ideas, suggestions and recommendations aimed at fighting back the pandemic. Lewis challenges the silence that has prevailed regarding the root causes of AIDS that include poverty, exploitation and neglect in many parts of Africa. He deplores the lack of affordable medicines and basic health services. He calls on government leaders, international agencies and all of us to engage and participate in the struggle to fight AIDS. It will be hard, but it is possible. [Friederike Knabe]

...while antiretroviral, preventative care, and medicinal treatments for HIV/AIDS receive less than a paltry fifty billion.

A trillion for weapons.

Fifty billion for HIV/AIDS.

The most astonishing thing about reading Stephen Lewis' book is not from the mass of appropriate statistics he presents on the scourge of the pandemic (as part of a Massey Lecture Series).

It's not in his eloquently- and convincingly-presented fulminations on the absolute futility of the global community to do anything of substance and efficacy in the face of the spread of HIV and AIDS.

It's not even in the cogent manner in which Lewis presents his views as part of his convincingly stepwise dialectic how to - at the very least! - make a small but significant dent in the growing cataclysm of HIV/AIDS.

No.

It's by way of a reveal from his recent last trip to Africa, to Zambia. In his own words, as he sat in front of a group of young women suckling their young, backed by a gathering of grandmothers, now co-opted into taking care of their young grandchildren and the children of others orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

As he describes it, he asks them where have their young men gone?

A hushed murmur descends upon the swelling mass. In this township - or illegal (unincorporated) settlement on the fringe of the capital Lusaka's cityscape, as in many other cities across this once-illustrious continent -- men (males, that is) hardly exist!

They've been murdered by the global community.

That's right, decimated by a global community which spends - to the ludicrous tune of a 20:1 ratio - more than one trillion dollars (!!!) on the international arms trade. Opposing this mighty industrial mass is a global humanitarian attempting to scrounge together (I was going to use the word 'cobble,' but your reaction will require something much sterner than that!) a mere fifty *billion* for Africa's AIDS-ravaged?!

Pathetic! Really.

Lewis sets out to shock, and shock you - dear reader - he mightily does.

As if the book's content weren't reason enough to buy it, I picked up Lewis' book because I respect the whole Lewis family tremendously. Presently comprised of Stephen, his columnist spouse Michelle Landsberg, their various children, including Canadian TV host, filmmaker, and activist Avi Lewis (of counterSpin fame), and his famous writer/activist wife Naomi Klein (of NO LOGO fame), plus their children.

They, as I, are Toronto, Canada natives. Essentially, it means we were all subjected to similar centrifugal forces that had and still swirl about these parts; perhaps from differing generational standpoints, yet all the same. What I'm trying to say is that it's nice to read how the growth of this big city hasn't dulled the sensibilities of my fellow cityfolk to the condition of others in dire need on the planet. Africa has remained at the front and centre of the Lewis agenda, despite the fact that Toronto's "earn/spend" ratrace has spiralled completely out of control in these fair Canadian climes.

I have certain criticisms of the book as well.

For one, I'd have liked Lewis to expand on these appropriately scathing comments to encompass a more detailed treatment of exactly *why* the continent of Africa appeals to him so much.

Okay, he does go into his youthful meanderings to some degree, somewhere around the middle, during the sixties. Heady times for the African continent. I've made a mental note - because of the colourful manner in which Lewis tells about these formerly newly-democratized African colonies - to look up several sources on the theme.

However, I do understand why Lewis' pickings have been slim in this regard. For one, it's his "position paper." This is a speaking series. There's no time for pie-in-the-sky reminiscences, since every minute of what he's on about counts. In the time I've taken to write this, and in the time you've taken read this, something *already* could have been done.

I'm also a little miffed how someone with as much experience as Lewis, how he's not able to supply strategems for the lowly "(wo)man on the street" to come to weigh with their own bodily (and other) contributions.

Again, I don't necessarily fault him for this either - RACE AGAINST TIME is precisely that. Lewis perhaps doesn't have the time - and this *shouldn't* be read with a hint of humour on my part - to waste on supplying the ones without the necessary financial means to come to the rescue. Nevertheless, if he ever considered a sequel to this - or, as Irshad Manji has done with her own site - he might perhaps provide a forum for those of us so inspired to weigh in.

Ideas all...

What frightens the hell out of this here reviewer is what the situation will be like within a mere decade to fifteen years. Lewis yanks down a dark shroud of reality. What is totally assured is that there will be even more deaths. There will be even more suffering. There will even be countless more numbers of orphans living without parents - and this is no pithy statement considering Africa's culture thrives on close family ties, unlike North America's.

The world will continue to make justifications for its financial and other inactions, and UN and other so-called humanitarian personnel agencies will continue to fence-sit and dilly-dally while more "arithmetic calculations" are being made about things like "prevalence rates," "natural rates of death and birth," and minuscule victories about the reduction of the spread of the disease.

All this without a single thing being done to back it up - nothing of substance, that is - for the ones who are already severely afflicted, by what this here reviewer claims is a curable affliction.

Ach, I'll just say it - the world doesn't give a hoot about Africans, nor their continent, nor their cultural offerings. With the expectation that our planet's population is set to balloon to nine BILLION souls by 2020, it's eerily understandable how the world might prefer to cull away at its swelling numbers on the most vulnerable continent: Africa.

Lewis didn't admit to this - and I can understand why. He's already in enough hot water as it is (he's an international rabble rouser, bless 'im), and in his own words he's only a "part-time envoy" of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. But I'll say it here for him.

It's sad.

It's tragic.

It's insane.

Read this book if only to wrest your comfortable self from the seemingly safe confines of your lifestyle. Thank goodness for men like Stephen Lewis. Men who aren't afraid to take a chance.

Anyone who's set foot in Africa will realize how precious a legacy it is...

I purchased this audio book from this author for my husband prior to his attending his lecture at Rice University. He love it. Both presentations (from the book and as a lecturer)truly showed the alarming disparity of health care for HIV/AIDS sufferers in Africa his great passion and compassion for these people. A must have for anyone (especially health care professionals) who share this same passion.