“Where you live should not decide
Whether you live or whether you die
Three to a bed
Sister Ann, she said
Dignity passes by
And you speak of signs and wonders
But I need something other
I would believe if I was able
I'm waiting on the crumbs from your table.”
From Crumbs From Your Table by U2
U2’s Crumbs From Your Table is a powerful tune that asks serious questions of the wealthy developed world in general and the Christian Church in particular, though the fierce attack on the Church is tempered a little by Bono name dropping his friend Sister Ann selflessly giving her life to look after those dying and living with the impact of AIDS in Africa.
Written as a frustrating response to Bono’s initial engagement with the Churches over the AIDS catastrophe, Bono would later confess that the Church had responded better than he thought they would. Yet lines, not included in this Lyric For The Day, asking, “would you deny for others what you demand for yourself” hit hard below the belt of the soul.
On this World Aids Day my good friend Lisa Brake-Ho’s Facebook status reads: “In 2010 I had the privileged of delivering two healthy babies because of where I live... in 2015 I pray that is possible for every mother- no matter where she lives.” Lisa has this song in mind. Lisa and her husband Lung are more than too aware that their children Jasmine Grace and Jonathan won in the Russian roulette of our world because they were born in Ohio, USA. Had the ball landed on a different number and they’d been born in a township somewhere in Africa it is more than possible that they would not be celebrating their gifts of new life. Lisa longs that an African mother has what she has in education, diet, medicine and health care and is determined to fight to make it happen;
In 2000 I walked around Khayalitscha, near Cape Town where about a dozen brick houses were surrounded by thousands upon thousands of shacks. “No Shacks By 2005” was their slogan. I smiled without any sense of hope. Impossible! Yet, in 2005 I walked those same streets and one or two shacks looked out of place in a sea of brick houses. So, I look ahead to 2015 and believe that we can give the parents of Africa the hope that no child will be born with HIV. Africa has taught me to believe. Africa deserves are commitment. On World Aids Day get active. Be positive. Not HIV positive BUT “NO HIV” positive! In 2015 make sure that where you live doesn’t decide whether a baby lives or a baby dies!
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