Annan welcomes Bush's $15 billion Pledge for Global Fight Against HIV/AIDS

United Nations News ^ | 1/29/03 | United Nations

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

The United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, today welcomed the announcement by United States President George W. Bush of a total of $15 billion in funding to help in the global fight against HIV/AIDS.

Referring to Mr. Bush's pledge, made last night in his State of the Union address, the Secretary-General congratulated the US President on his promise to provide stronger US leadership in combating the devastating impact of the global AIDS epidemic.

"An additional $10 billion - making a total of $15 billion over the next five years, with a new emphasis on access to life-saving treatment and care for millions of people - will make a vital impact, not only in saving lives but also in staving off the very real threat to stability that AIDS represents in the worst affected regions," the Secretary-General said in a statement released in New York.

Mr. Annan also expressed appreciation that $1 billion will initially to go to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which he described as a "key instrument for the international community in giving strategic direction to the global struggle against HIV/AIDS."

The Secretary-General stressed that while experiences on every continent have shown it possible to prevent infection and treat and care for those infected, too often the lack of resources has prevented projects from growing into the full-scale national strategies required for success.

"President Bush has confirmed his belief that AIDS can be defeated," Mr. Annan said. "I hope the US Congress will accept the President's challenge and ensure that the needed funding is made available as quickly as possible, in keeping with the urgency of this crisis. And I hope that this example will encourage other governments to follow suit."

Echoing that theme was Stephen Lewis, the Secretary-General Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, who said that Mr. Bush's announcement challenges every other member of the Group of Seven most industrialized nations - the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada - to follow suit before its next summit in June in France.

"Between now and then, every single member must announce its contribution to the struggle against AIDS overall, and to the Global Fund in particular," he said. "The summit itself should initiate the most far-reaching, imaginative plan of action to confront this communicable scourge that the world has ever seen."

Mr. Lewis also warned that imminent war in Iraq could overshadow any efforts to fight the scourge. "And with the best will in the world, wars have a way of distorting, however unintentionally, every intended human priority," he said. "Wars have their own dynamic, in the wake of which hopes can be strangled and dreams can be suffocated.

"We cannot allow HIV/AIDS to become collateral damage."

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

"Lose your job here"

Can you say, G-L-O-B-A-L-I-Z-A-T-I-O-N, New World Order, One World Order, and worse...

GLOBAL TAXATION.

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

No, we will go at it alone,then. It was made clear last night.

The U.N. are the con artists, I am appalled they call the shots now worldwide for every country.

Who loses if we can't do what we we need to do militarily? We all do.

Who is it you are ticked about that didn't become President? Who is not a con artist, to you? What and who are your answers?

[Double Tap]

No, we will go at it alone,then. It was made clear last night.

Great, fine idea. Then why bother trying to bribe?

Who is it you are ticked about that didn't become President?

Your question make no sense. I voted for the man who is now President of the United States of America. I did not vote for a man who I thought would piss away hard earned American taxpayers money into a bottomless pit in Africa.

[Double Tap]

PS-looks like I'm the one that got scammed.

[uncbob]

The first is AIDS the second is the attempted takeover by Islamic fundamentalists. Weakened by the first the contenent could fall easy prey to the second. W is fighting the war on terrorism, whether some recognize it or not.

Well if you believe this then they will be taking over a continent that will cease to exist since everybody will be dead from AIDS

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

This makes me fell alot better.

Now another HUGE raise for the U.S. military (AD and Retired) would be very gracious and nice.

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

You failed to comment on my last comment. I will rephrase slightly.

We all lose (nuclear bio chem/computer/suicidal bombers- attack) if these things aren't dealt with, so what if some sucking up politiking happens?

[Double Tap]

Once more for those in the cheap sets. Burn Saddam and all his infrastructure to the ground. Go it alone. Why not?

Giving away $15,000,000,000 to Africa, the bottomless pit, will not change the outlook of the Islamic extremist, so why bother. Just kill them.

Does that answer your question?

[ellery]

Explain to me how that's going to help all the babies in Africa who are born with the virus? Pregnant women who take the medications cut the chances of their baby being born with HIV in half.

[dalebert]

Its my tax dollars and I don't have to like it.

[F.J. Mitchell]

"Keep your pants on, and don't use drugs!"

That works for rational people, but that species who are spreading AIDS, seem to have a mutated sex drive that is stronger than their survival instinct.

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

For the 60 million dollar seats,what part of- if we do not exercise -full sucking up diplomacy till the end- it will all back fire, politically at home, and with Korea knockin at our back door, -don't you understand?

Your tax money paid my pay check and electric bill in military housing for 17 years, and every welfare check and welfare abortion and World for Hungar,World For Africa,Worl For Aids,World for Rainbows,World For Leotards, World For Lesbians, World For Ho Jo's, World For Peace Through Unity, World For Koffi Annans Limo Fleet, Kennedy's Booze,Hands Across America,Unicef, ect... ect...

This will not change not matter who is President-ever! Unless some fluke happens and the PayNoFederalTaxes party wins one year.(BTW:This is why I asked you who you voted for, I did not know where you were coming from)

Who ever told ya life was fair lied to ya.

So we can all *itch away,Life is a *itch,you die and pay taxes. I am worried about WWIII,whose got da nukes, and the U.N. thinking they are king of the freaking world. Who cares about monopoly money, the only real money is the money we pay bills with.

[scannell]

I was not aware we were giving this money spoken about last night to the United Nations.

I was thinking the same thing, it sounds like Annan thinks this is going to be some type of discretional fund for him to administer...........if you know what I mean.

[fight_truth_decay]

...the universal destination of earthly goods...(think this would pertain also to medical research and discoveries on a humanitarian level).

"Every person is a co-inheritor of the resources of the universe, as spelt out in Gadium and Spes 69: "God meant the earth and all it contains for the use of all human beings. This is why humans, in the use they make of it, must never hold the things they legitimately possess as belonging only to them, but to regard them also as common in the sense that they can profit not only owners, but others."


We firmly resolve to continue to play our prophetic role in this part of the world that God has entrusted to us. Our Justice and Peace Commissions, engaged in the monitoring of oil exploitation at the parish, diocesan, national, and regional levels, have our blessing. We encourage all actions that are geared towards the humanization of the oil industry in our region. The success of such action depends on the degree of consciousness that we all have in the community of earthly goods.

Let all receive our apostolic blessing.

For the Bishops of ACERAC,

President (Seal, signature)

Monsignor Ildefonso Obama, Archbishop of Malabo

---

Cheney, was eloquent: "African oil tends to be of high quality and low in sulphur giving it a growing market share for refining centres on the east coast of the US". AOPIG has also intervened in Nigeria, the north of which suffers political and social unrest, dispatching oil evangelist Michael Wihbey to Lagos in July (9). Officially the aim was to set up a Gulf of Guinea commission representing oil producing countries in the area. Unofficially there was talk of Nigeria leaving Opec, a rumour finally denied by the government."

"At the Equatorial Guinea embassy in Washington they say "in our country, it is the oil companies that keep the US state department informed." Bush's projected visit this year to Africa, above all Nigeria, could prove historic."

Just my opinion but feel the money we give to Africa in regard to Aids will be returned via the gas pump.(LeMonde, January 2003 | JEAN-CHRISTOPHE SERVANT



f_t_d

[Double Tap]

Your rant does not impress me. It is real money because it comes out of mine and your paychecks. Do you understand that? I doubt it.

Full diplomacy. What in hell is that? Oh yeah, that is what we have been doing for over a decade. Worked real good, didn't it.

Korea knocking at our back door? Please! They are just positioning for a better handout. One I'm sure we will give them.

How about this, you send them your paycheck for as long as you want to, and leave mine alone.

If we have the evidence that President Bush says we have, then we can go it alone and eliminate Saddam, no problem. And we can keep the $15,000,000,000 that we need here.

[Jorge]

The US has always been the first and sometimes only nation to come to the aid of others around the world when it come to famine, natural disasters and disease.

I am more proud of America's benevolence, charity and compasion toward the less fortunate than I am perhaps anything else.

To see the resentment expressed by a merciless and wretched few in this thread against Bush's compassion and committment to help the victims of what is probably the greatest modern day tragedy to affect mankind...is absolutely disgusting.
God help you when your time comes.....which you can be sure, will not be long.

[Moonman62]

Explain to me how that's going to help all the babies in Africa who are born with the virus? Pregnant women who take the medications cut the chances of their baby being born with HIV in half.

Pregnant women who never get HIV because of prevention have babies whose chances of being born with HIV are zero. Free drugs hurt the prevention effort.

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

The money The United Way AKA The U.N. collected from Hollywood for thw WTC towers victims families never made it to them.

Not all charity of this magnitude reaches the proper hands to help. That the U.N has an inkling to do with it makes me ashamed.

[Moonman62]

I am more proud of America's benevolence, charity and compasion toward the less fortunate than I am perhaps anything else.

To see the resentment expressed by a merciless and wretched few in this thread against Bush's compassion and committment to help the victims of what is probably the greatest modern day tragedy to affect mankind...is absolutely disgusting. God help you when your time comes.....which you can be sure, will not be long.

Bill Gates is already spending a fortune to provide free AIDs drugs in Africa. Why didn't the president invite him to the speech and give him a nod?

And just because we are against the government throwing money at a problem doesn't mean we aren't compassionate.

[ellery]

I'm not arguing against preventive measures. My point is that people with HIV do not necessarily get the virus from promiscuous sex or intraveneous drugs (this is doubly true in Africa). It's ignorant and cruel to imply that everyone who contracts the disease is to blame for their condition.