On the way back from Austin, (on the way there, I managed to get my ass rearended...and that sounded alot less gay in my head a second ago; the car should be a-ok in a couple of weeks, just alot of irritation) I was listening to NPR and heard the shocking news that GW Bush has actually done something sensible and progressive. He signed a bill to provide funding for AIDS treatment and prevention. It's very encouraging that W has decided to face up to the problem rather than do the typical conservative pretend-its-not-there routine, or even worse, the just preach abstinence routine. (Note to conservatives: PEOPLE WILL FUCK). The majority of the bill's provisions goes to help programs in Africa and the Caribbean, and gives local programs flexibility to utilize the money as they see fit. But there are a few bones I would like to pick (aren't there always?)
First of all, the bill bypasses the UN's Global Fund for fighting AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, which has a history of being democratic, effective and transparent. By acting on his own, Bush is once again turning away from the UN and the international system in favor of unilateral action. Not cool Zeus, not cool.
Also, only 20% of the money is earmarked for prevention. It is my humble opinion that the fight against AIDS must start with education and prevention. Rural areas in Asia and Africa are most suspectible to the virus simply because they don't know enough about it, and the prevailing culture is to not talk about it at all. TIMEAsia has some wonderful articles on the spread of AIDS in Asia and the unsuccessful attempts of those in power to deal with it. Just by spreading the word about the disease and showing people how to prevent it can go along way towards containing this pandemic.
Hopefully, this will encourage other countries to start giving, it is estimated that by 2007, the fight against AIDS will require $15 billion a year.
In other encouraging news, Ariel Sharon used the word 'occupation' to describe the Israeli presence in Palestine. It's just a word, but an important step nonetheless, let's hope Likud hardliners and Palestinian suicide bombers don't fuck this up.
some corrections to the last entry : There is a verb disagreement in the second paragraph as well as a missing word. Find them and you win a cookie!! These corrections brought to you once again by the ever-observant (grammar nerd) Sonia, who if she wasn't so damn wonderful would be mildly irritating with the constant corrections. :)
Posted by sheelpi at May 27, 2003 07:33 PMI'm glad you noticed this, it was also on BBC World. The move sounds quite gutsy and down-to-earth for GW, but in honestly its like the "War on Drugs". AIDS is all about containment due to the stigma/mortality involved with the disease. Healthy people still see keeping the disease at bay as more important than preventing it. At this point, it would be more effective if they siphoned all that money into developing a time machine so we could go back and get rid of Monkey #0.
Posted by: Akash at May 30, 2003 06:43 PMEven if we did have a time machine Old Man we don't even know if it was a monkey or something else altogether. Epidemiologists aren't even fully certain in the knowledge of its origin. We just know that the first real outbreak occurred in the Lake Victoria area and monkey meat was the suspect.
Posted by: Keyur at June 2, 2003 05:56 PM