The Point: Something worth saying

Friday, June 09, 2006

Something worth saying

THERE ARE SOME BOOKS THAT ARE SIMPLY spectacular on so many levels, so simple and rich, that I can only smile and say, 'That's it.' The Remarkable Maria is one. The author, Patti McIntosh, travels extensively, and wrote this book after working in Suriname with a number of AIDS Service Organisations. Suriname, rich in cultural and linguistic diversity, is one of many countries in the Carribean region (though it faces the sea from the mainland) seriously affected by HIV/AIDS. In this book, set in the capital city of Paramaribo, the titular Maria learns about belonging, about loneliness, and about dreams.

It is truly incredible how powerful children's books can be. The Remarkable Maria resonates on many levels, because while it explores complex issues of HIV/AIDS transmission and stigma, the feelings she experiences of being left out on the playground are universal. When we meet her and her sister, Willie, they and their mother are forced to pack up and move in with their uncle after their father's death. Maria senses her uncle doesn't like her, and he is never seen. Instead, we learn from Maria herself that she and her sister have to eat off of separate plates. They form a sweet relationship with the woman next door, Mrs. Mackenzie, and delight in watching Babbel Box on television every Tuesday as they play with her puppies.

This week marks the 25th anniversary of the AIDS pandemic. A UNAids report released last Tuesday reveals that the rate at which people are infected with HIV may have stabilised for the first time since the virus was first discovered. The agency estimates, however, that 38.6 million people are living with HIV worldwide, and HIV remains 'an exceptional threat.' In Suriname, medical care for people living with HIV and AIDS is relatively comprehensive in comparison to other developing countries with such high problems with poverty, but the government suffers from a lack of resources and funding, and many people are failing to receive adequate treatment. The UN's ambitious goal of providing anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs), which can offset some of the effects of AIDS, to 3 million people worldwide by 2005 has, in a word, failed, but access to medication for people in the developing world has increased considerably, from just 240 000 people in 2001 to 1.3 million last year (though still falling far short of sufficient).

As Stephen Lewis writes so passionately in Race Against Time, the print edition of the Massey lectures he delivered last year, this crisis, and our failure in the North to mount a committed and whole-hearted response to it, shames and diminishes us all.

I haven't much to say about The Remarkable Maria because it speaks quite well for itself. Beautifully illustrated by Tara Langlois and the children of SMART, Suriname Art, after they read the book to a group of schoolchildren in Paramaribo, its publisher, Maggie & Pierrot, recently won an award for best children's book publisher in the 2006 Alberta Book Awards. It is an accolade it richly deserves, and I hope with all my heart people of all ages love this book as I do, because it is exactly the kind of book we should be reading to our children today.

Labels: aids, books