Forecasting the Future in Sunny London

Hi folks, I know, I know, I haven't posted anything for a while. Was in London for a very interesting meeting on a project called AIDS2031. The report on the project, which aims to forecast what the global AIDS pandemic will be like 50 years after HIV was first identified, will be out at the end of the year.

Sometimes it is really great to get out of Malaysia and get put in a tiny bubble, even if for just a day, and sit with some really knowledgeable people to talk about an issue of common interest. My colleagues on the International Advisory Group of AIDS2031 are people like Sir George Alleyne, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative on AIDS for the Carribean and also Chancellor of the University of the West Indies; Ruth Dreifuss, former President of Switzerland;Archbishop Gunnar Stallset, former Archbishop of Oslo;Sir Roy Anderson, Rector of Imperial College, London and Noreen Kaleeba, founder of The AIDS Support Organisation, Uganda. The convenor of the meeting was Dr Peter Piot, formerly the Executive Director of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

Basically the report will make recommendations for what we can do now to get the best possible outcome for the pandemic in 2031. There are successes all over the world in managing the AIDS pandemic but there are also many challenges. For instance, the current global economic crisis is putting a spanner in the works for many AIDS programmes because many funders are short of money. But we also have to remember that in the next 25 years, there will most likely be another economic crisis or even two. So we need to factor that into our predictions particularly for how to manage treatment programmes for people living with HIV, including improving health systems to cope with such programmes. I will make an announcement on this blog when the report, An Agenda for the Future, comes out end of the year.

Meantime....I was away and many things happened back home and elsewhere. Jaya Supermarket collapsed, Penanti by-election took place, Gong Badak stadium roof also collapsed and PM Najib is now in China, 40 years after his father first went (and coincidentally, 20 years after Tiananmen Square today. You think he'll make note of it???). One day before I was to fly home, that Air France plane disappeared. I was to fly on exactly the same sort of plane but well, these things happen and I did need to get home. Very sorry for all those who lost their family members however.

But I got back yesterday and this morning I had to attend an event where L'Oreal company was donating RM150,000 to the Malaysian AIDS Foundation for a campaign called Keep In School Scheme (KISS) to support 100 children living with HIV continue their education in secondary school. This was part of L'Oreal's 100th anniversary celebration where in the 60 countries where they are, they are supporting 100 community projects particularly in education. So I was pleased to receive that cheque on behalf of the Foundation.

So it's been a very fruitful week but it meant that I just did not have time to really sit down and post anything. It didn't help that the weather in London was so good that I couldn't bear to stay indoors :-)

Anyway, will try to be good and post more regularly. Right now, am waiting to listen to President Barack Obama's speech 'to the Muslim world' in Cairo and then write my thoughts on that.