Death of a continent (Aids crisis in Africa)

The Denver Post ^ | July 3, 2002 | Pius Kamau

[SteamshipTime]

Check out the quotes here from www.virusmyth.net.

[Tacis]

As a liberal, I weep over this terribe, terrible situation. If only the Arab traders, African tribal chiefs and European slave trders had been able to rescue these poor souls and well as the ones they moved to the safety, comfort and wealth of the US. Some of these poor, dying folks may have a legitimate claim that the selection process that took the ancestors of those living in Brooklyn while leaving the ancestors of those now living in Africa was discriminatory. And, in the absence of that unfair discrimination, millions of those dying of AIDS in Africa, today, might now be drinking Colt 45s in Detroit and collecting the welfare due them. But, it seems that today's African leaders are doing the same thing to today's Africans that the tribal chiefs of yesteryear did to their African ancestors.

[Tao Yin]

No shit! I wish my tax dollars were used wisely. I'm middle class, and my total taxes would put a family of 4 above the poverty line. This is just silly. Why is the US government involved in charity? Tell me the national interest and I might not complain. Otherwise, let me decide how much and where I want my charity to go.

[dead]

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.

Bill Frist is not voting as a doctor, he is voting as a Senator. And in that case, his only obligation is to respect the constitution.

I agree that the people in Africa need help.

That is why private organizations, celebrities, and the media should be working overtime trying to raise the funds voluntarily, rather than trying to coerce the government to seize more money that they have no right to steal from the innocent by force.

[Catphish]

No, it's not. Although I'd expect the whole continent to literally die off.

Hardly likely. When the rates of disease are high in these countries the population growth actually accelerates as the woman overcompensate for the potential loss of children.

Even if the rates of AIDS infection were so high as to somehow lower birth rates to replacement levels, due to demographic momentum, the population growth would continue.

[Mark Bahner]

"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."

Beg pardon? Approximately 45 million were killed in WWII...at least according to a website I read, that quotes the World Almanac.

http://www.dpds.net/massdeath. html

Still, no doubt a depressingly and needlessly large number have died in both cases.

[Cachelot]

Even if the rates of AIDS infection were so high as to somehow lower birth rates to replacement levels

You may be right, and parts of Africa may actually be/become competent to handle these issues.

On the other hand, the outcome also depends on wether the virus finds a good platform for further evolution and mutation in the African populations.

[RicocheT]

Post 19 well sums up my frustration with our tax/government system. It's had to stay loyal to American beliefs when they milk us like cows and make hamburger out of us when we'er not of use any more.

[mhking]

Black conservative ping

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[Aric2000]

the second must be to be good Samaritans, wherever and whenever that's feasible.

Be good samaritan with your money you @ss, but NOT with my money, and that is exactly what it is. MY money. If I want to give to a bunch of sexually deviant africans, I will reach into my own pocket and give it to them, but don't take it with a gun.

MORON!! Good samaritan, my butt, only with other peoples money!!

[Razz Barry]

As physicians, we have an obligation to patients wherever they are.

Well then, send them your money.

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.

I'll be more engaged. I'll send Frist a copy of this with a big THANK YOU.

[alaskanfan]

Pleanty of truth in that statement. From what I've read, the folks in Africa are basically responsible for their own situation, because of promiscuity.

So now it is our responsibility to bail them out. I think not.

[Servant of the Nine]

It's hard to comprehend why our nation and people have remained indifferent for so long despite the evolving AIDS horror in Africa.

Not hard to comprehend at all. None of our Aids palliatives can be used succesfully without a complex medical infrastructure that does not exist and would take generations to create. By that time there won't be anyone there to need it.

So9

[Paulus Invictus]

Worse, much of the money never goes to the AIDS patients, but into the pockets of the African politicians, including those in South Africa. Why should our taxes pay for their thievery. Is there an answer to this great problem. No. Now there is a new, untreatable strain of the virus. No matter what they do or what expensive palliatives they apply, the affected victims are "dead men and women walking." Sad.

[Righty1]

Even if we put African AIDS patients on anti retro-viral cocktails it would only make matters worse if behavior didn't change i.e. the drugs would become obsolete faster and there would be more drug immune strains to deal with.

[Conservative Chicagoan]

I glad to see there are other people who believe that the Africans caused their own problems and as such it isn't the job of Americans who understand the concept of not being promiscuous to pay for their sins.

[Drew68]

Beg pardon? Approximately 45 million were killed in WWII...

Yeah, I think the 20 million number had been disproven a long time ago. I've read that the USSR alone lost 20 million people fighting the Wehrmacht.

Great site, BTW.

[Drew68]

THat is a very interesting site. I plan on spending some time there. I lost a relative to AIDS about 11 years ago. I've always believed that the disease has been politicized and agenda-driven.

[Drew68]

None of our Aids palliatives can be used succesfully without a complex medical infrastructure

Furthermore, many Africans are suspicious of Western medicine and view things like condoms and the practice of monogomy as "White Man's" efforts to keep black Africans from reproducing.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

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.

Shouldn't this have read, "During 8-years under the Clinton Administration, who apologized profusely to Africans for the sins committed by America, who pioneered the politics of AIDS and who professed to be a Third-Way Globalist, the U.S. had provided..."

It is interesting how Bush is ALWAYS named and blamed while the former Rapist-In-Chief never is. What bias in the media? Where? I don't see any...