Stephen Lewis Lecture Summary Laurie Murray
In Stephen Lewis’s lecture at Mount Royal College, at the time being a United
Nations Special Envoy to AIDS and HIV in Africa, he talks about all of the things
that are going on in the world today and how it is “breeding a sense of cynicism and
despair” in the world. Lewis takes a look at things that are effecting us worldly,
internationally, globally and what communities are doing to cope and deal with it all.
Today people don’t know what to expect from politic and are hesitant to vote because of
a lack of trust in politicians, which is leading to young people not voting at all. We have
genocides, ethnic cleansings, large resistant armies abducting children and teenagers,
violent sexual assaults and wars going on all over the world that are being dismissed
without a second thought. The way the world is going, it is bringing a change beyond
peoples grasp. Globalization is “intensifying disparities between people“. Lewis talks
about how globally the world is being driven to a better place but in reality it can’t handle
the global problems and conflicts that are happening today. Lewis asks “ Why are we so
ready to suffocate human society?”. Because of globalization and everything else is
going on in the world today, the social sector is being left out. Community gives people a
sense of power, engagement and a sense of difference. Communities are coming together
by embracing diversity and multi-culturism, opening food banks, seniors assisted living
homes, special needs programs at schools and a great number of more things. Lewis says
that it is “exciting to see driven communities work” together to help others. There is little
or no reverence left for the human spirit and recognition of the quality of human life. We
need to get that back. To do this it is important to use learning to improve the human...