Vietnam Veterans' art online. This online gallery features a portion of the works in the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum in Chicago, which contains works in various media created by vets from around the US. At left: "Ambush Behind a Thin Wood Line," by John Plunkett:

"Our home base sat at the foot of the only mountain range for about a hundred miles. It consisted of two mountains: Nui Ba Den and Nui Ba Ra. These paintings are from a diary that was written in my brain and in the brains of thousands of others, on a daily basis in Vietnam. Some of the situations did happen to me; others were bad dreams, fears of what might happen, hallucinations; images that seemed to appear out of nowhere, for no reason."

Link (thanks, Invisible Cowgirl)
[Boing Boing Blog]
  comment []3:23:42 PM    

The Real WMD.

Kofi Annan's BBC World Service Interview will be broadcasted from 0330 GMT on Saturday 29 November, 2003.

Catch it on the radio/internet if you can.

World leaders 'neglecting Aids' (BBC article)

The world is losing the war against Aids, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has warned.

In a BBC interview, Mr Annan criticised political leadership in the developed as well as the developing world.   He urged people in the developing world to challenge their own governments and insist on their right to support.

Forty million people are infected with the HIV virus that may lead to Aids - three million have already died of the disease this year alone.

Asked if he, as head of the UN, was winning the war against Aids, Mr Annan said: "I'm not winning the war because I don't think the leaders of the world are engaged enough."

Mr Annan said it was unjust that Aids was manageable in the rich world but a death sentence for people elsewhere.

He said the developed world - in particular the United States and the European Union - had failed to provide the resources needed to pay for anti-retroviral drugs, set up prevention and testing programmes, and train doctors and nurses.

'Security issue

"I feel angry, I feel distressed, I feel helpless... to live in a world where we have the means, we have the resources, to be able to help all these patients - what is lacking is the political will."

He said many governments had described Aids as a security problem, yet were not giving it the level of attention devoted to terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

"For people in some of the countries we are talking about, Aids is a real weapon of mass destruction - and what are we doing about that?  It does indicate a certain incredible callousness that one would not have expected in the 21st Century. "

... "
  comment []12:30:26 PM    

World Aids Day -  Dec. 1st, 2003

Five people worldwide die of AIDS every minute of every day. HIV has hit every corner of the globe, infecting more than 42 million men, women and children, 5 million of them last year alone.

Worldwide Statistics

• People newly infected with HIV in 2002: 5 million
• AIDS deaths in 2002: 3 million...that's over 8,000 deaths per day
• Estimated number of people living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2002: 42 million
• Total of AIDS deaths at the end of 2002: 28.1 million
• Total number of AIDS orphans: 13.2 million

Source: UNAIDS
For further international statistics visit the UNAIDS web site.

  comment []12:12:00 PM