By Patricia Watson, Features Co-ordinator 
Herbert Lewis (left), president of the Jamaica Employers' Federation, listens intently to Thomas Gittens, programme manager at the Caribbean Oversight and Support Unit, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), New York, during a workshop on HIV/AIDS put on by the UNDP at the Renaissance Jamaica Grande Hotel, Ocho Rios, St. Ann, on Monday. - Norman Grindley /Staff Photographer
CARIBBEAN PEOPLE working in HIV/AIDS are taking the issue of discrimination against persons living with HIV/AIDS far too lightly and as a result it is hampering efforts to control the disease.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Leadership for Results Project on Monday, Hetty Seargeant of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) noted that everyone in the region, and particularly in Jamaica, know that discrimination against persons living with HIV/AIDS exists, but continue to treat the issue with scant regard.
"I say we have taken the issue lightly, simply because there is no country in the world that I think of where discrimination, intolerance, and violation of human rights has not hurt society and its prospects for development and sometimes deeply divided entire nations," Mrs. Seargeant stated.
She noted that the world has witnessed too many centuries of brutal discrimination and Caribbean societies need to be careful that they do not repudiate some forms of discrimination and condone others.
It is a very thin line. And history will show that the arguments now used to discriminate against groups such as men who have sex with men, are strikingly similar to the arguments used to support other forms of discrimination in the past, and the same sources have often been quoted as justification. No one based on race, class, colour, religion, physical capability, gender, sexual orientation, or personal beliefs, should be subject to discrimination and violation of their human rights," Mrs. Seargeant passionately noted.
She said she was aware that these issues were very sensitive in societies such as Jamaica, but felt that it is time to place them squarely on the table for public discussion.
Strong political commitment and an open discussion of issues is needed if Jamaica is to stem and reverse the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
"We cannot contain the disease, nor can we achieve meaningful development in our countries if we do not make a connection between these objectives and discrimination, intolerance and human rights violations," she said.
Mrs. Seargeant also noted that another "unfortunate and potentially devastating error made in the region in relation to HIV/AIDS is that citizens continue to believe it is a homosexual or sex worker disease and that only certain people become infected.
"We can look at Botswana or South Africa or Namibia or any of a long list of other countries that initially took this approach. What happened in those countries is what is currently happening in our region the incidence level of the disease went north on the chart," Mrs. Seargeant pointed out.
Guest speaker at the conference, Herbert Lewis, president of the Jamaica Employers' Federation, noted that Jamaica's human resources are of utmost importance to the economic and social development of the country. But with the number of persons infected with HIV rising each year, this resource is at risk and by extension the development of Jamaica.
"No economy can improve if as a result of this dreaded disease we lose our skills because those with the required skills or training die. No economy can improve if the scarce resources which should be spent on training and education has to be spent on already burdened and in many instances struggling health institutions. No economy can grow if the productive capacity is robbed of its most productive group of people. No business can survive if it continuously loses productive man days due to absence from work of its employees who are HIV infected," Mr. Lewis noted. He said as a people we owe it to ourselves, families and country to be responsible in our mode of behaviour.
The Regional Leadership for Results workshop is the first of its kind in Jamaica and its objective is to train core persons as leaders in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
