What Can We Do to Stop This??

Nope, not much, besides passing some favorable trade laws. But I think the US wouldn't be too popular if it intervened militarily. I don't think the EU has the resources to do much of anything in Africa. If there were some democratic movements within those countries, I could see the US lending them support.

 

Well I didn't say war. I just said the governments need to change. They are dictatorships abusing the people. I think we can all agree a democratic government would help.

 

I certainly can't argue with that logic. And personally, I'd feel better if the US was responsible for removing corrupt governments (though I wish they'd start at home). And from a moral standpoint, I think we should spend money to help the poor in these countries. Not just because it will help us sleep at night....but because it lends credibility to our actions of "regime change" (I just love that catch phase....it sounds so innocuous).

But what do we do about the fatfatcows? It sure seems like we're becoming more and more unpopular. It seems like their legions are growing. I don't know.....maybe I'm giving them too much credit. Maybe they're like Glynch....way out on the fringe, but REALLY LOUD!!

I didn't used to care about popularity contests, but 9/11 changed all of that. If we're gonna "do good," we need to make damn sure that the vast majority of the world is behind us. 9/11 didn't just kill a bunch of our people....it put a big-ass dent in our economy. We're still reeling from it.

If Bush is bluffing right now, I'm DAMN impressed with him. And I haven't been all that impressed with him. And maybe Saddam will do something stupid that lends worldwide credibility to our attacking them. Or maybe Saddam will step aside and avert the war. Either of those would be a great win for Bush. But if Saddam keeps up the rhetoric, and those worthless inspections continue to show up nothing (big shocker!), and we still go to war......what happens?

We've just drawn a big red target on our collective backs for the next generation of martyrs. I'm not real crazy about that.

I guess what I'm trying to say in all this babbling is this: either we need to start focusing on making ourselves look better in all of this.....or we need to back out and become more isolationist. Let other countries deal with their own problems. Our allays will have a problem with that...no doubt....but they should have been more proactive with the pro American propaganda.

After all, we're always the one supplying the most cash and the most bodies.

 

Nice point. And it even starts at home, sadly. A few irresponsible rogue US biologists, starved for media attention, have started saying that HIV does not cause AIDS (e.g. Berkeley's Peter Duesberg). 99% of doctors and biologists believe the evidence that AIDS is clearly caused by the HIV virus, but these fringe folks get a lot of press (at least in California they do). Duesberg says he will inject himself with AIDS-contaminated blood to prove his point -- I almost wish he would.

 

We just need to find the world's largest oil reserve in Africa somewhere. Until African countries are part of our strategic interests then I don't see us really doing more than we're doing now. Which is all the more reason that I find it annoying to hear Bush talk about freedom for the Iraqi people when there are starving, depraved masses of people all over the world. What about them?

 

I thought the govt told us that condoms dont work.

I think the solution is more money to religious-based organizations

 

I'm pretty sure Mateo was refering to this topic awhile back.
http://bbs.clutchcity.net/php3/showthread.php?s=&threadid=49445

-We need to donate the condoms for those who want to use them. Along with the donations, we have to send teachers to educate the people on how to properly use them. It will sound outrageous to talk about the "unmentionables" but we're doing this task half assed if we don't.

-We need to lower the price of prescription drugs that our pharmaceutical companies own the rights to. We also need to ensure that these drugs are taken properly and not to be used half assedly. Raining down magic drugs is one thing. Making sure that HIV doesn't become resistant to them is another.

-Instead of soldiers, we need to send more specialists in aid and infrastructure rebuilding. We spend a fraction on this compared to defense. We can teach them to care for the land and not overfarm them. We can teach them techniques to care for their land. And also teach them general education.

The education of women is seen as the most preventive measure of AIDS, because with independence and free will, they have the ambition to set aside sex until later. This is the most unlikely scenario because of cultural behaviors and reactionary male resistance.

Right now our humanitarian efforts are usually uncoordinated or are held mostly by charity organizations. The governments recieving this aid does not take an active role in changing policy and are allowing misinformation to carry on. One such example was the adamant refusal by some governments to accept our donated wheat and grain because it was genetically modified. They refused to allow their starving people to eat "unnatural food".

This will probably be the hardest task.

-Domestically, AIDS is still a problem. Worldwide, there are myths with tricks on how not to get AIDS without condoms. There's also denial that it still exists and will continue to kill.

AIDS Has Not Peaked Yet

 

I hate to say it, but the situation in Africa is as close as you can get to hopeless. There's no economic infrastructure, little political infrastructure, and terrible agriculture.

1. More condoms.

2. Sex education. A real problem in Africa, since there's not a good forum to disseminate such knowledge in most countries, there.

3. More drugs will help reduce the misery, but won't affect the underlying problem which is the spread of the disease.

Also, I usually don't like sticking up for the pharmaceuticals... but drugs are priced so high because most research never pans out. You only see the ones on the market which did work... and then you see the cost of developing THAT individual drug compared to the price of the drug. But the revenue produced by that drug have to provide profit to investors, pay for the manufacture and research of the drug, and make up for the many failures.

 

Not to mention they have this to deal with:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030115/ap_on_re_af/congo_cannibalism_2

 

The African youth is being ravaged most directly in the AIDS epidemic. The entire workforce of many African countries are being eliminated at this moment. If we can lengthen their lives for 7-10 years, it will give them time for their infrastructure to recover (given that the next generation is properly educated on AIDS).

If the government were to spend more money on aid and infrastructure building, then it could also be possible to subsidize pharmaceuticals for the drugs we lift the patents for.

It's a multipronged effort (such as getting governments and tribes to genuinely be on the same page), but it isn't hopeless considering the wealth we have at this point in time. It's only hopeless if we continue aid in uncoordinated efforts that sound economical individually but are worthless if not used collectively.

 

Bono is very involved in the Aids issue in Africa. He’s got a web site on it and has brought together an impressive group of churches.

Faith Moves Mountains

Religious leaders are stepping to the forefront of the fight against AIDS - and for a better future for the people of Africa.

Congregations on the front lines in Africa are promoting safe behavior, bringing a message of love and acceptance to the sick, and pressing governments to provide more resources for treatment and care. Concerned churches, mosques and synagogues across the US and Europe too are doing their part to show solidarity, raise funds for prevention and treatment, and lift their voices in support of a strong global response to the AIDS emergency.

Many of the same churches and religious groups were leaders in the Jubilee 2000 campaign to cancel the debts of the world's poorest countries. The Jubilee Movement was inspired by the Jubilee Principle, Leviticus 25, a biblical injunction to redistribute land, cancel debts and free slaves. The Jubilee Principle is a prescription not only for charity but for justice; it is inscribed on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia and has inspired campaigns from the abolition movement to the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa.

What are religious leaders doing and saying today? Here's a selection. If you don't see your faith community here, let us know what they're doing - or start something in your own community.

edit: There are links for each of the following groups and their initiatives on the web site

Pope John Paul II
"The battle against AIDS ought to be everyone's battle."

Franklin Graham, CEO, Samaritan's Purse
"I would suggest to you tonight that HIV/AIDS is a plague of Biblical proportions and we should attack it with the same level of commitment, zeal, money and resources that we have rightly applied toward combating international terrorism."
Prescription for Hope: Calling Christians to Respond to AIDS

The All Africa Council of Churches
"The Church is uniquely placed to combat HIV/AIDS at all levels from the individual to the global and to protect the marginalized and most vulnerable in society. We are compelled by the life, example, death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to love, think and act."

World Council of Churches
Dozens of faith-based organizations from around the world came together to adopt a statement on the role of religious groups in the fight against AIDS in 2001.

United Methodist AIDS Network

National Episcopal AIDS Coalition

American Jewish World Service responds to AIDS

World Vision
An international Christian relief and development organization with a new AIDS initiative.
http://www.datadata.org/press_faith.htm


When I think of problems as large as this one I think of the story of the man on the beach with the starfish. If you don’t know it, it goes like this.

A man went out for a walk one after a big storm. He went down to the beach and found that the storm had washed thousands of starfish up onto the beach where they were dying. He walked down amongst them and started throwing them back into the sea. Just then another man happened along and said to the first, “What are you doing? There are so many starfish on the beach that you’re not going to make any real difference.” The first man leaned down, picked up another starfish and tossed it into the sea, and said to the second man, “I made a difference to that one.”

There are times when problems seem so big that we can’t by our own wisdom see any answer. I think these are the times we have to take it one step at a time, do what we feel is right and what we’re called to do, and walk in faith knowing that we are making a real difference to real people. A cure may be just around the corner, or it may be 100 years away, we just don’t know. But acting from a place of hope and compassion, we can make a real difference to real people today.

 

It's nice that there are a lot of organizations and countries helping out, and the lack of infrastucture and opportunity is a big problem. But if the behavior of the people themselves does not change then it is all a moot point.

How do you change a whole culture's behavior? Good question, I have no idea.

Of course the medical community can hurry up and come up with a cheap cure- what's taking them so long?

 

The virus mutates rapidly. Someone could get infected with HIV only to die by another strain. If we could cure AIDS we could almost certainly cure the common cold or the flu.

 

Thanks! And a big AMEN to your last point.

 

It will be impossible to contain sexual activity, be it in or out of wedlock, with a person of the opposite sex or same sex or with an animal. We are sexual beings.

Diseases like AIDS will continue to crop up until the extinction of humans or until forcibly "regulated" by the government.

On the starvation issue, I blame it squarely on the governments where this takes place. Show me government officials from these countries who are themselves starving.