Stephen Lewis, the UN secretary general’s special envoy for HIV/Aids in Africa, “has accused President George Bush of ‘doing damage to Africa’ by cutting funding for condoms, a move which may jeopardise the successful fight against HIV/Aids in Uganda, reports The Guardian:
“There is no doubt in my mind that the condom crisis in Uganda is being driven by [US policies],” Mr Lewis said yesterday. “To impose a dogma-driven policy that is fundamentally flawed is doing damage to Africa.”
Bush’s phony dogma has led Brazil to “refuse to accept $40m (£22m) in American aid rather than stigmatise prostitutes who Brazilian health workers said were essential to their anti-Aids strategy. Senegal was also cut off from US aid because prostitution is legal there.”
On Saturday, while I twiddled my thumbs in the hospital, I watched CNN’s “On the Story” featuring Andrea Koppel and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who is close to Bill Clinton and his AIDS program — he once worked for Clinton as a speechwriter and White House fellow — and who responded quite frankly to an audience member’s question asking where the money Bush has promised to fight AIDS has gone … BELOW:
OSCAR: Hi, my name is Oscar. I’m from Gothenburg, Sweden. Regarding this growing epidemic, this ever growing epidemic, whatever happened to the Bush administration’s initiative, ambitious initiative?
GUPTA: I’m sorry did you say the Bush administration’s initiative?
OSCAR: Yes.
KOPPEL: I think the $5 billion one, yes.
GUPTA: Right, it’s actually $15 billion over five years. It’s called PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Well, it is there. You know, it hasn’t been as much money as people expected in the first couple of years but it was supposed to be $15 billion over five years, so it could still get there.
The biggest criticism really has been is any of this money going to go towards buying generic drugs. As many of you may know, generic drugs are exponentially cheaper than brand name drugs and people think that if you spend some of this money on generic drugs you could treat and save a lot more people. That hasn’t happened as of yet. A lot of people are still waiting to see if that happens but the initiative is in place. …
— Transcript, On the Story, CNN, Aug. 27, 2005
Nearly all of Bush’s dogmatic policies kill someone. How tragic is that?
Etc etc etc… oof.
Pax
Insstead of calling himself a “war president”, he should just cut to the chase and call himself the “death president”. He’s all about killing people, and has been since Texas.
Let’s not forget that while he was Governor in Texas he never once granted a stay of execution to anyone, even those where there was clear reason to do so. (And who advised him against granting these stays, hispal the torture czar abu Gonzales).
your typo is a funny pun
“hispal”
Since his name is Al and he’s, um, hispanic.
There’s nothing quite like “unintentional wit”. Good catch on your part.
It’s all about fear– and the easy way to manipulate the ignorant.Torqemada would be proud to see this happening
Had to look it up. Great analogy.
(Inquisitor General of the Spanish Inquisition a real nutcase)
Glad to see you back in action, Susan, and I hope you’re feeling much, much better.
Stephen Lewis – one of my favourite Canadians. He has a big heart and pulls no punches when it comes to dealing with human rights issues. We could certainly use more public voices like his – people who are not afraid of the power brokers and stand up for those they care about.
Bush will never understand that this ‘abstinance only’ crap just doesn’t fly everywhere. Hand people condoms? OMG, they might have SEX! And we all know that’s evil. “Dogma driven policy” is Bush’s legacy – a legacy that will leave thousands dead. That’s exactly why that man is so damn dangerous.
It’s not even that the “absinence only” crap doesn’t fly everywhere, it doesn’t fly anywhere, including within the community of evangelical wingnut adolescents who pledge to abstain and then, unsurprisingly, cannot resist the power of biological urge.
The pregnancy rate amongst these abstinece pledgers is actually higher than that for regular youths who learn about birth control methods. And the ignorance inculcated into these youths by their religious extremist authority figures means they’re even less prepared to deal with their increased instances of pregnancy and they’re further traumatized by the pathological fears they’ve had instilled in them about abortion.
One more tragedy chalked up to the destructiveness of false morality and false piety.
From BBC:
What shortsighted and immoral policies!
Here’s a link to an LTE of mine the NYT published back in June, responding to an absolutely terrible, deceptive op-ed written by David Brooks. Link here.
The false morality at the heart of this destructive Bush policy is further evidence of the criminal nature and spiritual bankruptcy of the Bush regime.
By the way, there is a huge AIDS crisis in China, which goes unreported –
Operation HIV In China”
US-based Human Rights Watch, in its 57 page report about China, said civil society groups, websites and even bloggers seeking to help drug users, homosexual men and prostitutes, have been harrassed or detained. It is expected that 10 million Chinese could be infected with HIV by 2010. China presently has an estimated 840,000 people infected with HIV.