Chicago Tribune - July 15, 2002
John McCormick, Tribune staff reporter

Instead he's asked the former president to talk about AIDS--for the second year in a row.

"Poverty, illiteracy, famine, lack of drinkable water, lack of education, lack of publicity are all factors in the HIV epidemic," Jackson said. "The poorest people have it. The least able to get tests and medical treatment once it's detected have it."

Clinton, who spoke about AIDS in America at last summer's conference, will focus his July 22 remarks on AIDS internationally. He has said he plans to make the AIDS problem one of his primary focuses during his post-White House years.

"He knows of its devastation," said Jackson, who gave spiritual counsel to Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. "I walked with him in Africa looking at children devastated."

Jackson said his organization, as part of the five-day conference, will call for 1 million men worldwide to take HIV tests this fall.

"We want ministers to take it before their congregations. We want disc jockeys to take it. We want high-profile athletes to take it," he said. "We want heads of state to take it publicly."

Jackson's group hopes to push the HIV-testing message by inviting leaders from hard-hit nations to join Clinton on a panel discussion, such as Dr. Faida Mitifu, ambassador of the Democratic Republic of Congo; Mildred Trouillot Aristide, Haiti's first lady; Stella Obasanjo, Nigeria's first lady; and Mary M. Kanya, the ambassador of the kingdom of Swaziland.

A United Nations report issued this month suggests more than 68 million people will die of AIDS in the next two decades without vast intervention efforts. Health officials say about 22 million people have already died of AIDS worldwide and 40 million more are HIV-positive.

"Most of those people lived in the developing world," said Lydia Watts, health director for Rainbow/PUSH.

African nations are among the hardest hit.

"We will end up losing generations of people," Watts said. "It probably, inevitably, will destabilize the entire continent."

The conference, "From Slavery to Freedom: Leveling the Education and Economic Playing Fields," will address issues beyond AIDS. Other workshops will focus on the death penalty, slave-era insurance policies, African-American coaches, education funding and the hip-hop industry.

The conference will be held Saturday to July 24 in the Hyatt Regency, 151 E. Wacker Drive.

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