Donald M. Payne: “Mr. Speaker, let me say that we stand here at a crossroads right now. Millions of people all over the world are in the…”

“Mr. Speaker, let me say that we stand here at a crossroads right now. Millions of people all over the world are in the wake of a humanitarian disaster to pale all others. It makes the black plague of the Middle Ages look like small things. HIV and AIDS is a global killer. As ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Africa and as a human being who has seen with my own eyes the havoc HIV and AIDS is wreaking on an entire continent of Africa, I simply am compelled to speak out not only in Africa, but now in India, a nation that will have the largest population in the world in the next few years, even exceeding that of the People's Republic of China. It will have perhaps 1.5 billion people, surpassing China's 1.3 to 4 billion people. It is spreading there and India. It is spreading in China, and so it is something that is all around us; but I think that if we can deal with it in Africa, I think that what we learned there can actually be used in India where it has not yet taken hold as it has in Africa.”