there were two news stories that caught my eye [and my heart] yesterday. It doesn’t happen often but it did yesterday. And I wonder if they are linked.

It was a small act of defiance, but Rosa Parks’ refusal, as a black woman, to give up her bus seat to a white man, would change the course of American history.

The first news story was the death of Rosa Parks. She was arrested in 1955 for not giving up her seat for a white man. The law imposing this was made in 1865 [90 years before]. Her case was backed by a civil right leader and it lead to a 381 day boycott of the bus system, led by the then unknown Martin Luther King. You can read her obituary here. It asked me this question: what injustices are taking place in our time, what prejudices are built into our culture?

UN charity Unicef says 18 million children in sub-Saharan Africa could be orphaned by Aids by the end of 2010.
It also says that every minute, a child is infected with HIV and another child dies from an Aids-related illness.

The second was the number of ‘AIDS’ orphans predicted in Africa by 2010. Huge numbers. I have friedns who are just now considering a move to Uganda to work in a childrens home, maybe with a view to setting up their own. Wow, what a need. Is this an injustice of our age? Should, as Bono says, the West be doing more to help address the AIDS problem in Africa?

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