The Invisible People by Greg Behrman

Author:Greg Behrman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Free Press

Opportunities Squandered (1998-2000)

TEN

Continental Abdication,

The Ultimate Crutch

Late in 1999, activist Paul Boneberg received a call from Hillary Rodham Clinton’s office. More than any of her predecessors, the first lady had spent much of her husband’s tenure traveling the world speaking out on women and children’s issues. Late in the second administration global AIDS had come to command her concern.

She was convening a White House meeting and her office extended an invitation to Boneberg and advocate Terje Anderson. Several Cabinet officials were to be in attendance, including Donna Shalala from HHS and Larry Summers from Treasury. Brian Atwood, the administrator from USAID, was coming; as were Peter Piot, Jim Wolfensohn, director of the World Bank, and Sandy Thurman, director of the Office of National AIDS Policy.

Seated off to the side of the table right behind Mrs. Clinton, next to Anderson, Boneberg was relishing the grandeur of the Roosevelt Room, and thrilled to witness deliberations at such a senior level.

He sat quietly, intently taking in each facet of the proceedings. AIDS czar Sandy Thurman opened the meeting with a presentation on the state of the pandemic and highlighted a recent increase in U.S. funding that she had championed. Peter Piot spoke next, then Donna Shalala. All three spoke with conviction about the horror of the pandemic. Then the foreign policy arm of the government chimed in. In short order, Boneberg’s enthusiasm turned into frustration. Both State and USAID shared everyone’s concerns, but they weren’t advocating an upgraded U.S. effort. Instead, the foreign policy people told the first lady and the esteemed participants that they were doing the best they could, but “these countries don’t want us to do more. They don’t want it to be a priority issue. They don’t want us to do it.”

Boneberg and Anderson bristled, listening as the direction of the conversation veered from a discussion of U.S. policy to a lamentation on the negligence of national leaders in the developing world. “This goes on for basically an hour, and I’m realizing this is going to be the message,” Boneberg said. “No one’s ever going to challenge this,” and everyone’s going to leave the meeting without having accomplished anything substantive.

Sitting directly behind the first lady, feeling as if he was there merely for window dressing or to appease the advocacy community, Boneberg finally interjected, “Mrs. Clinton, can I say something on behalf of the community?”

“Of course you can,” she replied.

Boneberg addressed the esteemed group and noted that there were protests under way on this very issue (by late in 1999, no one at that table needed to be reminded). Boneberg explained that the protests under way were driven by activists’ anger about the absence of activity around U.S. global AIDS policy. Boneberg asserted: “The problem is not entirely around [developing world countries]. The problem is also the developed nations of the world. The fact is that the U.S. has not prioritized global AIDS issues.”

Boneberg’s colleague, Terje Anderson, then chimed in, echoing Bone-berg’s plea for U.S. commitment.

Boneberg recollected the first lady

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