Don't turn Iraq over to the UN

Glad to hear that George Bush is still lukewarm on the United Nations. It appears that the age of bending over for this crowd of quasi-legitimate, whining third-rate bullies is fast drawing to a close. The sooner the better, for the Third World especially, since you and I can dodge the UN quite well thanks. So to George W., I say, let them hand out food and organize medical aid. Anything else? You do it, you're competent. And for heaven's sake, if there are Canadians begging to be included, like I don't know, say, Stephen Lewis, how about a nice firm loud bog off.

The UN appears, when judged on its results, to be the ultimate invention of the Canadian intelligentsia of the last 40 years, all hot air, organizational charts, inexorable hyper-inflation of self-righteous bureaucracy, endless re-writing of completely unreadable mission statements, opposition to anything that smacks of capitalism and endless strident demands for more cash. Looks very pretty, sounds very egalitarian, postures that the UN is the hope of mankind and devastates everything in its path. One could list pages of inept, compromised, expensive-for-us decisions based on bad sociology, worse science, and crazed geopolitics.

But let's, for the sake of simplicity, take AIDS in Africa, shall we? UNAIDS is headed up by Stephen Lewis, of that axis-of-do-gooders, that includes his son, Avi Lewis and daughter-in-law, Naomi Klein. Perhaps the best undertold story of the past two years (though exhaustively detailed by The Wall Street Journal) has been the juxtaposition of Lewis weeping crocodile tears on every TV station that will host him, while denying infant formula to breastfeeding HIV positive African women because the formula was from a thieving lying multinational, and not just one thieving lying multinational either. From 1997 through 2001, UNICEF, of which Lewis was number two until he moved to the top AIDS position, turned down millions of tins of formula from Nestle, Wyeth and several other companies, on the grounds of what can only be called virulent anti-capitalism. Finally, a pilot project of 25,000 women in three countries was launched. Do I need to remind you that in South Africa, so many people are dying that they are burying people vertically?

Meanwhile, in Uganda, transmission of the HIV virus has dropped more dramatically than anywhere else in the developing world. In Stephen Lewis's worthy tromp around the speaking circuit, was this ever mentioned? I'd like to lay odds that it wasn't. No indeed, just the grasping hand, crocodile tears and the call for massive worldwide societal change. And why? Because Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, that gleaming beneficent creature who was present at the last State of the Union, acknowledged by Bush, and wildly applauded by those who know his work, chose not to pull in UN experts. No, he invited Christian and Muslim clergymen to preach forthrightly to Ugandans about the need to abstain from premarital sex and stay faithful to their partners. The Ugandan government backed this up with an exhaustive public relations offensive that told its citizens that sexual fidelity was a matter of life and death. Schoolchildren were told to be abstinent till marriage. Condoms were distributed to those at risk. And the AIDS rate has dropped steadily since 1991. ABC: "Abstain, Be Faithful or Use Condoms." (Emphasis on the first two.) "Zero Grazing Outside of Your Own Field."

By last year, according to The New Republic, the number of pregnant Ugandan women testing positive for HIV antibodies had fallen from 21.2% at the height of the epidemic in 1991 to 6.2%. By contrast, in neighbouring Kenya the rate is roughly 15%; in Zimbabwe it stands at 32%; and in Botswana fully 38% of mothers-to-be are HIV-positive -- with rates continuing to rise in each country.

"People used their own wisdom to curb the spread of the epidemic," Vinand Nantualya, a Ugandan physician and immunology researcher, said in the National Review last month. "The president just captured the common thinking of the people." Low cost, no products, no bullying of the corporate world, no necessity to harness world opinion to drive down the price of pharmaceuticals, no need for the wildly expensive international AIDS establishment to move in and milk everyone in sight of every available penny. What's not to like?

Well God for one thing. UNAIDS is mad for condoms and Lewis travels all over Africa teaching tribes people how to use them. But many pastors, imams or tribal priests won't promote them, nor do Africans like condoms. Despite the fact that the church or mosque is cornerstone to African culture, UNAIDS ignores them, because acknowledging the growth of the Christian church (especially) is counter to the UN's campaign against conservative Christians and indeed, conservatives of all stripes. The most important thing for this unelectable and virtually unaccountable organization is to promote its vision of mankind. Then, and only then, you get help.

If we turn Iraq over to the UN, we will almost certainly spawn another generation of America-hating, capitalism-hating, science-hating young men and women who will seek to kill us. One destructive ideology will be replaced by another. We will end up paying for it, and democracy in the Middle East will be set back another 50 years. No UN Mr. Bush, and particularly no Canadians. It is time the UN and the running dogs of socialist statism were held to account by the free world. Nickson has also written for The (London) Sunday Times Magazine, The Guardian, The Observer The Independent, Tatler, The Sunday Telegraph, The Daily Mail, Sunday Express, the Wall St. Journal, Vogue, Saturday Night, Chatelaine, Reader's Digest, and Harper's Magazine. In 1994, she published a novel, The Monkey Puzzle Tree, which tells the story of the CIA mind control program in Montreal in the 50's and 60's. Nickson's column appears on National Post Online every Friday. E-mail: enickson@nationalpost.com

FRIDAY FAX April 11, 2003 Volume 6, Number 16

Dear Colleague,

The US House of Representatives is poised to vote for a huge infusion of
money --- $15 billion --- into the fight against AIDs in Africa, an action
enthusiastically supported by the Chrisitian Right. There is trouble,
however, in that the radical homosexual ethos is seeping into the bill.
Drafters seem to want to follow the disastrous course of throwing condoms
after a problem that is largely based in bad behavior, a recipe that has
only exacerbated the problem around the world. President Bush and
Christian conservatives support an abstinence based program. Stay tuned.

Spread the word.

Yours sincerely, Austin Ruse, President

Action item: Call or email your Congressman and tell him or her not to
support the Hyde Aids Bill since it does not sufficiently encourage
abstinence education. This will help out immensely. Do it now. Go to
http://www.house.gov to find the email address of your Congressman.

PS Last week we forgot to mention a group that was very important to the
success of our Capitol Hill lobbying day. It would not have worked without
the active support of Family Action Council International.
___________________________________________________________

US House International AIDS Bill Demotes Abstinence Training

The House International Relations Committee this week approved an
AIDS bill that differs in significant ways from Bush administration
positions,
especially concerning the prominence of abstinence training for AIDS
prevention. The bill has raised concerns among social conservatives that,
as President Bush's $15 billion HIV/AIDS initiative for Africa takes shape
on Capitol Hill, it will prove impossible to keep the legislation in line
with the President's policy objectives to curb the epidemic.

The Committee voted against an amendment to provide "prioritized
funding for programs promoting abstinence over those that focus on condom
use." The abstinence amendment, introduced by Rep. Joseph Pitts (R-PA),
sought to ensure that abstinence and fidelity training would be a priority
in at
least some US-funded programs. Most HIV/AIDS programs now employ what
is called an "ABC" program - Abstain, Be faithful, or use Condoms. However,
critics contend that many of these programs, including those funded by the
US Agency for International Development (USAID) and UNAIDS, downplay
abstinence and fidelity, and, instead, operate as condom distribution
programs.

The International Relations Committee also defeated a "conscience
clause" amendment, again introduced by Rep. Pitts, which would have
required the US government to "respect the views of faith-based
organizations
by not requiring such organizations to participate in any aspect of any
assistance program if it violated their views as a matter of conscience."
In other words, the amendment sought to protect religious groups, such as
the Catholic Church, that might welcome US funding for abstinence and
fidelity training, but deeply oppose condom distribution. If the amendment
had passed, condom distribution would not have been a prerequisite for
participation in the US program.

The bill allocates the spending of up to $1 billion in fiscal year
2004
for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The Global
Fund, a clearinghouse for the distribution of healthcare funds, was called
into being by UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan, and is promoted by Ted
Turner's UN Foundation. Social conservatives have criticized such a
possibly large US donation to the Global Fund, since there would be no way
to guarantee that the money would be used in compliance with Bush
administration policy guidelines.

Finally, the House bill would allow US international AIDS funding
from
subsidizing groups that promote or perform abortions, or that provide
needle-exchanges. It would also force President Bush to seek Senate
approval for his choice to administer the AIDS initiative, thereby
granting Senate Democrats significant leverage over the appointment.

One portion of the bill welcomed by social conservatives concerns
prostitution and sex trafficking. An amendment proposed by Rep.
Christopher Smith (R-NJ) prohibits any funding to groups that do not
explicitly oppose these practices. Every Democrat on the Committee voting
against the amendment, but it passed on a party-line vote.

No vote on this bill has yet been scheduled in the whole House.

Copyright - C-FAM (Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute).
Permission granted for unlimited use. Credit required.

Source: C-FAM (c-fam@c-fam.org)

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