Five years ago today, our country suffered from the most devastating attack on U.S. soil in our history. On September 11, 2001, 2,752 people died when terrorists flew airplanes into the World Trade Center, crashed a plane in Pennsylvania and attacked the Pentagon. That day is one that no American will ever forget. The tragedy of 9/11 affected all Americans. The entire country felt the pain and shock of New Yorkers, rescue workers and families of victims.

There is another tragedy, however, that Americans barely even notice. In Sub-Saharan Africa, over 6,300 people die from AIDS every day. In terms of numbers, an attack on the scale of 9/11 happens in Africa every 12 hours, but the killer isn’t terrorism, it’s disease, and ignorance, and poverty, and dirty water, and apathy. More than 38 million people are infected with AIDS and 2.1 million of those are children under the age of 15. In the conditions of poverty that exist in Africa, the likelihood of survival is slim. For those who have survived, 13 million children are orphans because their parents died of AIDS. Who is taking care of these children? In some countries, the infection rate is as high as 60 percent. The most productive segment of African society is dying, and quickly. Teachers, farmers, health workers, parents … they are all infected. What will happen when they are gone? An entire generation is dying off; no one is left to care for the children and widows. Africa is in a state of emergency, and Americans are looking the other way.

The statistics are staggering. One of the leading causes of death for children in the world is diarrhea, due to dirty water. Three billion people live on less than $2 a day. 1.3 billion people have no access to clean water. 300,000 children have been forced to be soldiers. Millions of children have been forced into prostitution across Asia. Yet despite these statistics, the American public is indifferent to the suffering that occurs every day around the world.

Why do Americans have such a narrow worldview? How is it that we’re blind to the suffering that exists just outside our borders? Why do we give money for the survivors of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, but not to the survivors of 1998’s Hurricane Mitch in Central America? Why did Americans give millions to the care of 9/11 victims, but AIDS is hardly a blip on the radar? Americans tend to put value on individual lives. American lives are priceless but African lives seem to be 3 for $1. The self-absorbed nature of our society causes us to turn our backs on the rest of the world. This is a very dangerous mindset to have; the AIDS pandemic is arguably the worst crisis to ever affect our planet. Future generations will judge us by our actions in the time of need; can we really sit by and watch it happen?

This is not to say that all Americans are heartless and self-absorbed. There are many charitable organizations making an effort to turn the tide of AIDS.

Celebrities such as Bono and Angelina Jolie are working to promote awareness of the problem, but until the American public takes up this cause, nothing will be accomplished.

The American government has taken the first steps in addressing the pandemic. In President Bush’s 2003 Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, he pledged $15 billion over the course of five years to fight AIDS in 120 countries. In the 2006 fiscal year, $389 million of this pledge will be focused in 15 countries to support prevention, $868 million will go to antiretroviral treatment of AIDS in these focus countries, and $481 million will go to the support and care of orphans, vulnerable children, people living with HIV/AIDS and also to counseling and testing in settings other than prevention of mother-to-child transmission. In percentages, it looks like this: 28 percent goes to Total Care Funding, 22 percent to Total Prevention Funding and 50 percent will go to Total Treatment Funding. In addition, the Bush PEPFAR plan works in conjunction with host countries, and 80 percent of the Emergency Plan partners are indigenous organizations.

This plan is a good start, but it won’t cut it completely. $15 billion may seem like a lot of money, but stretched among 120 countries, it’s just not enough to make the difference that Africa needs. When ranking industrialized countries in terms of foreign assistance as a percentage of the GNP, America consistently ranks in the bottom two. The American public needs to look beyond their own lives and expand their world view to include a recognition of the pain and suffering in other countries. 9/11 and Katrina were both horrific events that caused much pain and suffering, but they pale in comparison to the global crisis. This is a perspective that most Americans, and certainly a majority of Cornell students, lack.

As we look back, five years after 9/11, we remember the tragedy, the pain and the suffering we endured. But maybe 9/11 should prompt us to remember something else. In view of our own grieving, we should remember the suffering of those around the world who live through the same scale of tragedy every single day. While American deaths strike us as more shocking, more terrible, more upsetting, we need to remember that the lives of those in Africa and Asia and other parts of the world are just as important and valuable, despite the fact that they are separated from us by an ocean.

Hannah Stearns is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at hes32@cornell.edu. Paint the Town Red appears alternate Mondays.