Last January, the United States helped Ethiopia to overthrow the Islamic Courts Union, a judiciary that had assumed control over the southern part of Somalia and brought stability to the capitol Mogadishu and other cities. Civil strife has since ensued, and U.S. government officials defended the intervention by claiming that the overthrown Islamic Courts Union had been harboring terrorists. But, Samatar noted, the government that the United States helped restore to power—the Transitional Federal Government— is run by warlords who have amassed an egregious record of human rights violations over the past 15 years. “Warlords are the ultimate terrorists. If we are at war with terrorists, we should be at war with those terrorists who have hijacked that society,” Samatar said.

The United States, along with the United Nations, has urged the Transitional Federal Government to become as inclusive as possible by bringing together clan leaders who represent he country’s large number of subcultures. That’s a flawed strategy with a dismal record of success, Samatar argued. “Just imagine if I lined you up and said, ‘I’m going to figure out what your politics are by the color of your hair.’ We know what that does: It poisons human relationships and it dehumanizes people by assuming we know what they want before giving them a chance to speak for themselves.” True democracy, he said, will come only from a trustworthy government that eschews corrupt, clan-based politics and serves people as individuals united by shared, national identity.

Samatar’s lecture was part of Headliners, a monthly forum sponsored by the College of Continuing Education featuring University and community experts speaking on the day’s most pressing issues. To sign up for Headliners alerts visit www.cce.umn.edu/enrichment/headliners.
—Danny LaChance

Reality TV Reality Check
When American Idol held auditions at the Target Center in Minneapolis last September, close to 3,000 people were already waiting in line when the 6 a.m. signups began. Thousands more arrived throughout the day. But that was a mere movie ticket line compared to the millions who religiously watch the toprated television show from the comfort of home every week.

Why is America so fascinated with reality TV? One University of Minnesota professor has a theory. “People are drawn to reality TV shows because they want to see ordinary people doing extraordinary things,” says Laurie Ouellette, an associate professor of communications studies and co-editor of the book Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture. “In a way, watching makes us feel like, ‘That could be me up there on stage.’ ”

And how is all this vicarious living affecting viewers? “Reality TV trains us how to judge ourselves and others harshly,” Ouellette says. “The message is that to thrive in this world you must constantly work on yourself and focus inward. Whether you think that’s a good thing or not depends on how you look at it.”

Ouellette says people often ask her what the key to Idol’s success is, as no other contest show has garnered such a huge following. “One of the reasons is the voting,” Ouellette explains. “Voting changes the outcome of the show and that appeals to people because many don’t feel like their votes count anymore in our political system. People want to believe their vote matters in this country and American Idol provides that.”

Now that’s a harsh reality.
—Meleah Maynard

The End of an Era for AIDS Treatment
Securing grant funding is never a sure thing, no matter how worthy the cause. Still, when the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced in January that it would stop funding the University of Minnesota’s AIDS Clinical Trial Unit (ACTU) after two decades of support, it was a harsh blow to AIDS research and the Minnesota AIDS community.

The Minnesota ACTU, which got its start in 1987 thanks to an initial NIH grant, has been a national leader in AIDS research and has served more than 2,000 patients with HIV/AIDS. While the unit will finish out current clinical trials over the course of the next year, with about 70 percent of its annual $1.7 million budget, it’s not yet clear what will happen to patients after that time. The Minnesota ACTU wasn’t alone in getting cut. Several other notable institutions focusing on AIDS research were also defunded. Hank Balfour, principal investigator of the Minnesota ACTU, says shifting national concerns has prompted some of the changes. “There are competing budgetary priorities, such as bioterrorism and avian flu,” he says. “Unfortunately, HIV/AIDS has become less of a major priority in the United States.”

Keith Henry, Minnesota ACTU’s chief clinical research physician at the Hennepin County Medical Center, argues that no area of medicine has seen as much progress in the past 20 years as HIV/AIDS. Such advances, he says, have been remarkable—and they are also part of the reason for the unit’s demise. “Some people might say that it’s ‘mission accomplished,’ but I think it’s something that can be said too early,” he says. “I feel like we got the job 75 percent done, but now the wind will be out of our sails.”

The Minnesota ACTU was an integral part of moving AIDS research forward in leaps and bounds over the past two decades. Although it did not do drug discovery research, its researchers were able to determine how to best use and manage the drugs and data that were available. ACTU scientists were the first to discover how to grow HIV from very small amounts of blood known as microcultures; the development was particularly important for pediatric patients who couldn’t spare a full 30 milliliters of blood for testing. And ACTU researchers were among the first to report transmission of strains of HIV that were resistant to AZT, one of the early and most common antiviral drugs.

Lorraine Teel (B.S. ’84), executive director of the Minnesota AIDS Project, says the defunding will have a dramatic impact on the AIDS community in Minnesota. “From a practical standpoint, it puts pressure on an already stretched local health care system,” she says. “People who may have been on a clinical trial where they had their medication paid for through the trial will have to access more mainstream medical care.”

Balfour says it’s too early to know exactly what lies ahead for ACTU patients once the funding ends at the end of this November, but he plans to use resources from other places, including the International Center for Antiviral Research and Epidemiology, to help fill any gaps. “We’re not destitute, but we don’t have enough resources to deal with hundreds of patients,” Balfour says. “We’ll do the best we can with what we have.”
—Erin Peterson

Overheard on Campus
“ Scientific evidence has proven that secondhand smoke is just as dangerous as it is annoying.”
—John Finnegan, dean of the University’s School of Public Health, speaking in support of a proposed statewide smoking ban.