A Graveyard of the Young

Patrick Gaspard, former U.S. Ambassador to South Africa, says "In like global health, one could cite one statistic after another, but sometimes these issues really are made more graphic through anecdote. Not that long ago, I found myself in a rural community about two hours north of Johannesburg...I looked around at the headstones in the cemetery, and just realized that everyone buried within, within my view, all passed away in their 20s, in their 30s, some in their 40s, and I could not understand what had taken place. And when the ceremony ended, I turned to one of the community leaders, and I asked him to please explain to me why there seemed to be such short life terms. And he looked at me as if I had three heads. And he was bewildered. And he said, Well, of course, that was HIV and AIDS."

This interview is from the the FPA archives.