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Death of a continent (Aids crisis in Africa)
The Denver Post ^ | July 3, 2002 | Pius Kamau

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.


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: africa; africawatch; aids; bloodhounds
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To: far sider
Check out the quotes here from www.virusmyth.net.
21 posted on 07/03/2002 2:00:02 PM PDT by SteamshipTime
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To: Kalashnikov_68
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.
22 posted on 07/03/2002 2:01:03 PM PDT by Tacis
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To: CaptRon
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.
23 posted on 07/03/2002 2:01:58 PM PDT by Tao Yin
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To: Kalashnikov_68
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.

24 posted on 07/03/2002 2:06:58 PM PDT by dead
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To: Cachelot
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.

25 posted on 07/03/2002 2:31:28 PM PDT by Catphish
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To: Kalashnikov_68
"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.
26 posted on 07/03/2002 2:51:39 PM PDT by Mark Bahner
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To: Catphish
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.

27 posted on 07/03/2002 2:52:45 PM PDT by Cachelot
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To: Joe Boucher
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.
28 posted on 07/03/2002 2:57:16 PM PDT by RicocheT
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To: rdb3; Khepera; elwoodp; MAKnight; South40; condolinda; mafree; Trueblackman; FRlurker; ...
Black conservative ping

If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)

29 posted on 07/03/2002 2:58:00 PM PDT by mhking
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To: Kalashnikov_68
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!!
30 posted on 07/03/2002 3:03:02 PM PDT by Aric2000
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To: Kalashnikov_68
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.

31 posted on 07/03/2002 3:07:58 PM PDT by Razz Barry
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To: AppyPappy
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.

32 posted on 07/03/2002 3:14:42 PM PDT by alaskanfan
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To: Kalashnikov_68
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

33 posted on 07/03/2002 3:16:42 PM PDT by Servant of the Nine
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To: Militiaman7
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.
34 posted on 07/03/2002 3:24:16 PM PDT by Paulus Invictus
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To: Servant of the Nine
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.
35 posted on 07/03/2002 3:27:56 PM PDT by Righty1
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To: Kalashnikov_68
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.
36 posted on 07/03/2002 4:33:48 PM PDT by Conservative Chicagoan
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To: Mark Bahner
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.

37 posted on 07/03/2002 4:46:02 PM PDT by Drew68
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To: SteamshipTime
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.
38 posted on 07/03/2002 4:49:00 PM PDT by Drew68
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To: Servant of the Nine
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.

39 posted on 07/03/2002 4:52:24 PM PDT by Drew68
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To: Kalashnikov_68
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...

40 posted on 07/03/2002 5:04:23 PM PDT by Freedom_Is_Not_Free
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