Posted on 07/03/2002 12:43:11 PM PDT by Drew68
Wednesday, July 03, 2002 - The AIDS crisis in Africa can best be compared to the worst wildfire the human race has ever witnessed - worse than the Black Plague of 13th-century Europe. Already more people have succumbed to it than were killed in World War II.
The approximately 20 million Africans who have died from AIDS are but a fraction of those likely to perish in the coming decades, if we who are able to do something - specifically, the United States - continue to do little or nothing.
Domestically, the United States has pioneered research into the treatment of HIV and AIDS. As a result, our AIDS patients survive longer than anywhere else in the world, and many of them are treated with taxpayer dollars.
On the African front, however, the U.S. had provided the least money per capita, among the G-8 nations, for AIDS prevention and therapy - that is, until Congress appropriated $200 million in 2001. Prior to that, there was a deliberate, complete silence in Washington.
Many American and African activists urged greater involvement and a leadership role for our government in the fight against AIDS in Africa. For a long time, no one listened. Long before the Bush administration happened on the scene, the Clinton administration sleep-walked across the international stage. Death in Africa - from genocide, massacres and disease - merited little response.
It's hard to comprehend why our nation and people have remained indifferent for so long despite the evolving AIDS horror in Africa. Some felt that pernicious racism was the best explanation for this indifference. To others, it was merely the indifference of a wealthy people toward the suffering of the poor. It's impossible to comprehend how a civilized people can watch a whole continent slowly disappear. But for whatever reason, we did.
The Bush administration has made some baby steps; the first was when Congress appropriated $200 million in 2001. Even though this was much less than the $1 billion that the U.N.'s Kofi Annan had suggested each G-8 nation contribute annually to combating the AIDS epidemic, it was a step in the right direction.
Only this week, on the eve of the G-8 meeting in Ottawa, the administration pledged another $300 million. It will be disbursed over the next three years. Compared to the enormity of the situation, this is but a drop in a bucket. Senators in the Appropriations Committee wanted more money allotted, but thanks to Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), a physician, they failed in their effort.
It's incomprehensible to me that a fellow physician would veto the committee's wishes. As physicians, we have an obligation to patients wherever they are. And if the first tenet of our profession is to do no harm, the second must be to be good Samaritans, wherever and whenever that's feasible. This should give all of us pause, to consider the good doctor's reasons.
All the same, we must be grateful that our government and the American people have began paying some attention to the havoc this deadly disease has wrought in Africa and the rest of the Third World. The hope must always be that once we are engaged, our media might decide to shine a brighter light on what has heretofore remained unchronicled. And hopefully, with a more engaged public, the politician might find it politically possible to spend more of the taxpayer's dollars in a place few Americans know of, much less think about.
For years, some Americans urged our government's greater involvement with Africa. And for many years, we were rebuffed. For many years, we urged that giving aid and comfort to the poor was the best defense for America in an uncertain world. And for long, we were ignored, until Osama bin Laden and his henchmen burst on the scene. It now seems the moment has come to beat the drum a little louder, so the Bush administration can be convinced that a half-billion dollars is a mere token when a great deal more is needed from a nation that can spare so much more.
Pius Kamau of Aurora is a cardiovascular, thoracic and general-surgery physician. He was born and raised in Kenya and immigrated to the United States in 1971.
and paying, and paying, and paying, and paying............
A world geography class I took in college in the early 90's drove this point home. The teacher was an Irishman, and he took care to offer as many politically correct answers as possible but it still didn't hide the fact that Africa is a mess.
A fair portion of the quarter dealt with African issues and development, and it was depressing. In spite of the abundance of natural resources still in the ground there, the natural problems (disease, physical geography) require people to have a greater than average abilities in organization, government, etc., i.e. - all of the things that aren't going on in Africa right now.
AIDS is just one of the problems that drag the entire continent deeper into the pit.
I propose the following statement: Africa's best days were the days of colonialism.
Good ridance!
Europe had its dark ages during the "Black Plague" (Pardon the pun), and now Africa will have to endure its plague, and hopefully in 200-400 years, they will pll out of the cesspool that sub-saharan Africa has become.
Too stupid. This is a physician? Educated where, and on what welfare program?
There's basically nothing anyone can do to halt the progress of the African die-off. The population is too compromised and the disease is a hundred per cent fatal, and he knows it. Add to that that the regimes and a great deal of the people are too rabid for anyone to even bother with.
No, it's not. Although I'd expect the whole continent to literally die off. The infection level is amazing already, and the numbers are bound to be much higher than what is actually counted.
Only thing that can save a remnant of them is to get civilized, and that's the one thing they won't do.
People generally want to help others. Americans especially--they have been the most giving and generous people ever to grace the earth. The problem is this: when people feel that they can help, they do. When they feel that a problem is so overwhelming that nothing would be much of a help, they don't even try. It's human nature. There are exceptions. Mothern Theresa comes to mind.
People like to "be good Samaritans, wherever and whenever that's feasible", and generally they are.
In God We Trust.....Semper Fi
How's this for Marxist socialist B/S ?
Pius Kamau of Aurora is a cardiovascular, thoracic and general-surgery physician. He was born and raised in Kenya and immigrated to the United States in 1971."
I think this Kenyan needs to be returned to his homeland.
What a load of rat commie horse s***. And check out INVENTING AN EPIDEMIC: The Traditional Diseases of Africa Are Called AIDS.
I had no idea. This article makes so much sense. Oh man the libs are so pathetic! I've been in Haiti several times, which is supposedly where AIDS in America came from. AIDS in Haiti seems to be very limited. Why would AIDS be decimating Africa but Haiti seems to overcoming it? This article (from the Am. Spectator) explains it very well. Thanks, Steamship.
Oh, but they will try. And very probably make it worse.
The best way of dealing with Africa would be no contact whatsoever, economic or otherwise - not so much as an embassy and no one getting in or out - for 25 to 50 years. Sink or swim. But I'm afraid they'll sink rather than even try to swim.
What do you expect from a culture that houses beliefs like "aids can be cured by having sex with a virgin"?
Is this statement in there to justify using American tax dollars to solve other people's problems because we have used those dollars to help our own? So, the whole world is entitled to US tax dollars, is that it?
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