Senator Barack Obama (IL), traveling in Africa as part of a Congressional Delegation, will take a test for HIV and allow cameras to record it on his stop in Kenya. This bold publicmove is intended to encourage men to get tested and as he said, "take responsibility for their safe sex practices." He announced he would do this from the headquarters of the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa, who today have mobilized a global action to encourage real change in policies in that country.

"Now, more than ever, we must care about each other's problems," Obama said, speaking to a think-tank audience of more than 200 people. "Not just when there's a missile pointed at us or a dictator on the march, but wherever conditions exist that could give rise to human suffering on a massive scale."

[img_assist|nid=508|title=Sen. Barack Obama and Bishop Desmond TuTu|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=150|height=100]

He also criticized the South African government for its failure to address the AIDS crisis realisitically, saying, "The information being provided by the ministry of health is not accurate," Obama said. "It's not scientifically correct."

Part of the problem in Africa has been a reluctance to embrace western medicine over traditional forms of healing; compounding the problems of poverty, racism, colonialism, globalism, and competing indigenous cultures that combine to create a crucible in which to incubate the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

In much of the world today there is a resurgence of traditional healing and a connection to ancient ways. Some people want to dismiss them completely suggesting that only science has the answers. Others have buried their heads in the sand, rejecting western medicine as corporatism run-amok. Unfortunately there are grains of truth in each side's criticism of the other.

In the US, conservative ideology has attempted to thwart science on many fronts, but just as quickly dismisses any natural healing as some neo-pagan plot against fundamentalist politicized-Christian dogma.

Where East meets West in yoga, meditation, or accupuncture, we see hope in integrating the ability for the body and mind to work together in enhancing western medicine's efficacy. Where North meets South in biodiversity issues attempting to patent plant life and ancient herbal medicines that indigenous peoples have used for thousands of years, there are legitimate concerns about how better to learn from different approaches and respect what each has to teach for the benefits of all.

It is not a question of either/or, but of the potential for all to acknowledge that there is some truth to be found in ancient ways and some truth to be found through testing them dispassionately with scientific methods. That can happen while being respectful of the peoples that have preserved their knowledge of the healing qualities of certain plant life for thousands of years without any help from corporate global empires or intellectual property laws. The world today is quite a laboratory to learn about healing in this and coming generations, if we can find the respect for ways that are different, regardless of perspective, and open our minds and hearts to the potential each tradition or method brings.

We must also be willing to reject methods that have been proven not to work.

Sen. Obama is right to criticize the South African government for not following scientifically proven facts and developing sound public health policies based on those facts. South Africa's policies have been just as indefensible as the Bush Administration's.

Science and public health prevention methods must be seen as the collective wisdom of humanity. AIDS is real: having sex with a virgin, as some in Africa believed, does not cure HIV, nor do herbs alone as some AIDS denialists promote … nor does the Bush Adminstration policy of Abstinence-Only … those are beliefs that science can safely say it has proven do not work. Not only don't they work, their continued promotion only serves to confuse proven public health strategies and thus contribute to the spread of AIDS, not its healing.

Sen. Barack Obama's HIV test will give many men the courage to get tested. Let us hope it inspires us all to care a little more about finding the potential in healing through compassion and understanding, not condeming others through judgment and stigma as has been official policy for too long.