World leaders 'neglecting Aids'{UN & Koffin Annan Alert}

http://news.bbc.co.uk ^ | Friday, 28 November, 2003 | bbc.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

World leaders 'neglecting Aids'

Africa has been worst hit by Aids

The world is losing the war against Aids, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has warned.

In a BBC interview, Mr Annan criticised political leadership in the developed and as well as the developing world.

He urged people in the developing world to challenge their own governments and insist on their right to support.

Forty million people are infected with the HIV virus that may lead to Aids - three million have already died of the disease this year alone.

Asked if he, as head of the UN, was winning the war against Aids, Mr Annan said: "I'm not winning the war because I don't think the leaders of the world are engaged enough."

Mr Annan said it was unjust that Aids was manageable in the rich world but a death sentence for people in the poor world.

He said the developed world - in particular the United States and the European Union - had failed to provide the resources needed to pay for anti-retroviral drugs, set up prevention and testing programmes, and train doctors and nurses.

"I feel angry, I feel distressed, I feel helpless... to live in a world where we have the means, we have the resources, to be able to help all these patients - what is lacking is the political will."

He said many governments had described Aids as a security problem, yet were not giving it the level of attention devoted to terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

"For people in some of the countries we are talking about, Aids is a real weapon of mass destruction - and what are we doing about that?

"It does indicate a certain incredible callousness that one would not have expected in the 21st Century."

Condoms

Mr Annan also criticised African leaders who, he said, were allowing their people to die because they were too embarrassed to talk about condoms.

"We had a situation where one African leader was going to give a speech... and a speech was prepared for him where he was urged to encourage the young people and the population to use condoms to protect themselves.

"He said: 'I can't utter the word condoms. I'm the father of the nation. You can't ask me to encourage the youth to be promiscuous.'

"But this is saving lives."

Mr Annan said he was now "talking to people over the heads of the governments".

"They should take on this fight. They should not be afraid to speak up, and they should not be afraid to challenge their governments to do something about the epidemic...

"They have the right to demand action from leaders whose main and major responsibility after all is to ensure the safety and welfare of their people."

Mr Annan was interviewed by Carrie Gracie to mark the end of the BBC World Service Aids season.

You can listen to the full version on the Interview, broadcast from 0330 GMT on Saturday 29 November on the BBC World Service.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

Koffin what are you doing with the money your extorting from countries other than ours ?

Seems like all that money from the oil for food project would have went a long way in your fight to save the world from aids!

"I feel angry, I feel distressed, I feel helpless... quit talking to dasshole .....Maybe you should quit feeling and act !

[cyborg]

Nutrition is very very poor. Cornmeal is not good for nutrition and keeping body alive. A lot of people die from AIDs because first they are hungry. Second of all, what good is aids drugs if you don't have food in your stomach to take them with? What's good of aids drugs if you can't read the instructions? If you are not on a rigorous time schedule? People are so busy surviving.

[RLK]

Has Mr. Annan ever been on record of telling people they should reduce their irresponsible lunatic sex lives as the necessary first step in curing AIDS?

[At _War_With_Liberals]

"Forty million people are infected with the HIV virus that may lead to Aids "

Not may...does. This is a "conspiracy theory" view of AIDS held by extreme activist groups.

"Mr Annan said it was unjust that Aids was manageable in the rich world but a death sentence for people in the poor world."

It's always a death sentence.

It is also unjust that millions starve in Africa while Kofi eats and stays at 5 star joints and blows thru a multi million dollar expense acct...decadently wasting money that could feed 1000's in Africa.

How does this guy get away with it? If not for the media, would anyone care?

[At _War_With_Liberals]

Personal choices and free will have no place in Kofi's world view. His idea of govt is closer to Saddam's model than ours.

[RLK]

If he knows how AIDS is dissiminated and refuses to say anything about it from his position of visibility and authority, doesn't that make him seriously responsible for the AIDS crisis?

[At _War_With_Liberals]

To Kofi, the US is always somehow guilty of all inequity in the world. We are his whipping boy. He always uses us as a whipping boy to rally 3rd world nations against us. To compare our 15 BILLION effort to the paltry donation of 15 EU members is just another insult. He is pissed because we did not give HIM the money directly, to administer it (skim, set up huge beauracracy) himself. Like Oil for Food.


It's crazy, but he will not say that AIDS is caused by HIV, because he is towing the line for leftist activist UN human rights/gay groups. One of the anti US theories is that the US invented AIDS and is using it to kill Blacks.

He supports this theory for political reasons.

[Stultis]

He said the developed world - in particular the United States and the European Union - had failed to provide the resources

Always affix blame for all ills on those doing the most to ameliorate them. It's the leftist way:

In Washington, Hundreds Protest Bush AIDS Policy (in-freaking-credible leftwing hypocrisy alert) ^
			Posted by Stultis On 11/26/2003 1:49 AM CST with 21 comments VOA News (and other reports in thread) ^ | 25 November 2003 | Joe De Capua In Washington, Hundreds Protest Bush AIDS PolicyJoe De CapuaWashington25 Nov 2003, 12:47 UTC A week before World AIDS Day, about 800 people from about a dozen organizations gathered in Washington, DC, to protest the Bush administration’s AIDS policies. The demonstrators called for greater spending as well as expanded treatment and prevention programs. "People with Aids are under attack, what do we do? Act up, fight back." The woman leading the chant is Asia Russell of the groups ACT-UP and the Health Gap Coalition. She says President Bush failed to follow through on his promise when he announced his AIDS initiative...

[RLK]

I'd like to be alone in a room with that little son of a bitch and slap him one time in a way that would leave both his eyes in one socket.

[At _War_With_Liberals]

You read my mind! Where I come from, a Kofi ass kicking is in order.

The philosophy of Democrats is just like his.

As the neutral UN leader, shouldn't he commend us on our AIDS successes and the lives saved/prolonged?? Incredibly, he criticizes us because less people are dying here.

[ChiMark]

We never get the truth on how AIDS is spread. What you do with your wee-wee has alot to do with it. But the compliant press makes AIDS out to be like a cold virus. Is sodomy out of control in Africa or what!

[texastoo]

It was reported by WHO in 2000 that the UN peacekeepers were responsible for much of the spread of aids. At that time the UN nor the home countries of the peacekeepers were not furnishing condoms. Since then, the peacekeepers were furnished condoms.

This was proven by the World Health Organization as some of the countries did not have aids until the peacekeeper came home.

Richard Holbrook, the UN ambassador at the time said to keep a lid on it. So it was not widely publicized.

[At _War_With_Liberals]

Next, we can give the UN 1 Billion to 'educate' Africans that suicide is dangerous.

And the condom thing? The gut reaction of any man that puts on a condom is "I wanna take this thing off". I see it this way- If someone hands me a gun with blanks in it, I still won't put it to my head and pull the trigger.

Despite the US condom culture, some groups have a 70% out of wedlock rate, and often multiple partners must be tested to determine the father. (2,4,10 men in a window of a few weeks!)

Unfortunately, the concept of the condom is more important to liberals than the practical results.

[Fenris6]

"Mr Annan also criticised African leaders who, he said, were allowing their people to die because they were too embarrassed to talk about condoms"

Condoms fail. Peeps in the US who promote condom use as a means of "safe sex" should be sued just like the tobacco companies were. Promoting condom use is promoting Russian roulette

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

Always affix blame for all ills on those doing the most to ameliorate them. It's the leftist way:

Let them ! affix it im not a leftist Frankly i can't understand the leftists way of thinking it's like non-thought is the primary and real thought is the combatant.

[Toskrin]

Some people want to blame someone for everything. HIV is a disease. Diseases are not the fault of anyone.

There have been major breakthroughs in HIV treatment, and, with proper treatment, it is no longer a death sentence. Who came up with most of these effective treatments? For-profit pharmaceutical corporations in the United States of America. If the artists in South Africa would do a little research, they would find that many of the companies that make HIV drugs are offering them in Africa at a fraction of their cost.

U.S. scientists develop the drugs, U.S. companies efficiently produce them, and U.S. consumers bear the brunt of the drug development costs for the rest of the world. Strange, I don't see anyone thanking us.