[Mb-civic] Shame and Determination on World AIDS Day

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

World Aids day was Dec 1st.  Here is a very good article about it followed by 
another short piece which includes action alerts...


Concludes Brook Baker of Health GAP:

"People with AIDS and their allies have moved from the outrage of nothing
being done to the miasma of things being done far too slowly and poorly to
boot. Whatever specific campaigns activists mount to expand and improve
the global response, we must not do so without referencing the larger
picture. The paucity and ineptitude of the global response is an indictment
of a world order where businesses set global policy, where governments
neglect social obligations, and where multilaterals and international NGOs
curry favor from stingy, domestic-policy-crazed donors.  The message on
World AIDS Day 2005 is one of shame and of determination -- shame at our
collective inability to raise the world from its lethargy and determination
to show more pragmatic solidarity with the individuals, communities and
nations wracked by this lethal plague."

 
Corporate Focus - Dec 1, 2004
http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp-focus/2004/000187.html


Shame and Determination on World AIDS Day

By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

Today, December 1, is World AIDS Day, a chance to take stock of how the
world is doing at confronting the worst pandemic of the last 500 years.

It is an unbearably grim situation. The death toll and shattering of
communities across Africa -- and increasingly other areas where the 
epidemic is skyrocketing -- defies description. Yet world leaders, in rich and
poor countries alike, are letting the problem worsen, as they let corporate
greed, ideology, homophobia and incompetence get in the way of solutions.

The only good news is that activism has stopped the situation from being
worse than it is, and holds out hope of making it a lot better.

Quick reminders of how bad things are --

For those who relate to numbers: Roughly 40 million people worldwide have
HIV/AIDS, and the number is rising fast. More than three million people are
dying from AIDS-related each year, and that number is rising fast, too. The
average life expectancy in many southern African countries, the region 
worst hit so far, has plummeted to less than 40. In St. Petersburg, Russia,
infection levels rose 100 times between 1998 and 2002.

If the numbers don't move you, check out the heart-rending report in the
Sunday New York Times on how the HIV/AIDS epidemic is laying waste to
Lavumisa, a village in Swaziland. Here's a short excerpt:

"Sixteen-year-old Nkuthula Madlopha wanted to be a police officer. Instead,
next year she will till her grandparents' fields, filling in for her dead
parents. Her brother will herd livestock.

"Their grandmother, Vayillina Madlopha, wanted a quiet old age. Instead, at
80, she is a new mother. 'I thought my daughters-in-law would be serving 
me food, washing for me and cleaning the yard,' she said. 'Now I must start
afresh.'

"Eleven-year-old Ntokozo wanted to be a third grader. Instead, he lies on
the floor of his one-room hut, his knees swollen like baseballs and his
mouth pitted with sores. His mother, who died in May, infected him with
H.I.V., either during her pregnancy or later as he helped tend her oozing
sores. His sister, Nkululeko Masimula, 26, wanted a job. ' I wanted to have
my own business; to be a hairdresser or a wholesaler,' she said. Instead,
she tends her brother and their 61-year-old grandmother. She sells the
family's chickens to raise money for food. Finding the $20 a month 
required to take her brother to the nearest antiretroviral drug site, 60 miles 
away, is a pipe dream."

And a review of the miserable response of the world's governments and
institutions --

A few developing countries have stepped up and instituted prevention and
treatment programs that are at least remotely commensurate with the scale 
of the tragedy.

By and large, however, developing country governments have failed to 
devote serious resources or political capital to stopping the spread of the
epidemic, reinvigorating public health systems, providing life-saving
treatment to people living with HIV/AIDS, or stopping the violence against
women and redressing the power imbalances that are responsible in
considerable part for the epidemic's deadly surge among women and girls.

The performance of rich countries -- who don't have the same resource
constraints to fall back on as an excuse -- is equally appalling.

In April 2001, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called for the creation of a
global fund of $7 billion to $10 billion annually to address HIV/AIDS. (To
put this number in perspective: the United States now spends $35 billion a
year on pet supplies.) The fund was in fact established, as the Global Fund
to Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

The Global Fund is an imperfect institution. Among other problems, it has
been slow to move the money it has received.

But the Global Fund is among the best things going in international aid. It
doesn't waste money on a huge bureaucracy or overhead, and hasn't let
consulting firms capture money intended to assist people in the developing
world, and it works to involve people living with HIV/AIDS and
nongovernmental groups in the process of developing project proposals.

The Global Fund's big problem is that it is criminally underfunded. It has
committed $3 billion in its three years of existence. In November, because
of funding shortfalls, the Fund decided to delay its next funding round for
two months, until September 2005. This was a victory over those, led by 
the United States, who wanted to delay the next grant round indefinitely.

The rich countries simply have not been willing to pony up the monies 
needed to address the epidemic, with more than enough blame to spread 
around among Europe, Japan and the United States.

The Bush administration has worked hard to subvert the Global Fund. 
Although the relevant Senate committees had agreed in 2004 to spend 
$550 million on the Global Fund, in the final appropriations process the 
administration maneuvered, pressured its Congressional allies, and 
succeeded in slashing the final Global Fund commitment to $350 million.

(To prevent a re-occurrence of this fiasco, activists are mobilizing today
to demand that Congress next year appropriate $1.5 billion to the Global
Fund and provide $330 million to the Fund as part of an emergency 
spending bill expected this winter. To join this effort, simply call Senator 
Majority Leader Bill Frist at 202-224-3344 and tell him how important it is 
to fund the Fund.)

The administration dislikes the Global Fund in part because it is
multilateral, in part because it supports the use of low-cost, quality
generic drugs, and in part because of its readiness to fund condom 
programs.

So instead of supporting the global initiative, the administration has
invested billions in a bilateral program. The program will hopefully deliver
results eventually, but it has been slow to get off the ground, duplicates
work already accomplished by the Global Fund and other bodies, and is
reluctant to support use of generics.

Indeed, the United States is actively working to undermine the prospect of
generic production of AIDS and other drugs. In a host of free trade
agreements, the United States is demanding on behalf of Big Pharma that
countries agree to rules that will delay introduction of generic competition
for years or even a decade or more. Given that the generic price of
first-line AIDS drugs is now less than 2 percent of the price of brand-name
drugs just five years ago, this is a big deal.

Meanwhile, although they are reluctant to put new monies into developing
countries, rich nations are quite happy to suck resources out.

The sub-Saharan African countries hardest hit by HIV/AIDS happen to be 
the poorest and most indebted. Together, they owe $300 billion to the World
Bank, the International Monetary Fund and rich country creditors. There is
no prospect of them ever paying off this debt. But they do send billions in
interest payments to rich country financial institutions.

The bottom line of this collective global failure: The World Health
Organization estimates that 6 million people in the developing world need
AIDS drug therapy immediately -- and face certain death if they do not get
it. WHO set a target of 3 million to get treatment by 2005 ("3 by 5"). Less
than 8 percent of the 6 million are getting treatment, nearly a third of
them in a single country, Brazil.

And the epidemic continues to spread, and intensify.

As bad as things are, they could be worse. Activism and generic 
competition has dropped the price of lifesaving treatment drugs dramatically, 
from $10,000 a year per person to $140. The resulting lowered costs made it
possible to talk about provision of treatment in developing countries, and
created the conditions in which billions of dollars could be mobilized in
aid.

The list of things that need to be done to improve the situation is very
long. But the top priorities in rich countries are clear, and achievable, if
enough people demand they be met:

* Getting sufficient funding to the Global Fund;

* Stopping trade agreement provisions that extend drug company 
monopolies and delay generic competition; and

* Canceling the debt of the poorest countries -- something that is now
actually on the agenda of the G7 group of rich countries.

Concludes Brook Baker of Health GAP:

"People with AIDS and their allies have moved from the outrage of nothing
being done to the miasma of things being done far too slowly and poorly to
boot. Whatever specific campaigns that activists mount to expand and 
improve the global response, we must not do so without referencing the 
larger
picture. The paucity and ineptitude of the global response is an indictment
of a world order where businesses set global policy, where governments
neglect social obligations, and where multilaterals and international NGOs
curry favor from stingy, domestic-policy-crazed donors.  The message on
World AIDS Day 2005 is one of shame and of determination -- shame at our
collective inability to raise the world from its lethargy and determination
to show more pragmatic solidarity with the individuals, communities and
nations wracked by this lethal plague."


[Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime
Reporter, http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com. Robert Weissman is 
editor
of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational Monitor,
http://www.multinationalmonitor.org, and a member of Health GAP. They are
co-authors of On the Rampage: Corporate Predators and the Destruction of
Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press;
http://www.commoncouragepress.com).]

(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

Focus on the Corporation is a weekly column written by Russell Mokhiber
and Robert Weissman. Please feel free to forward the column to friends or 
repost the column on other lists. If you would like to post the column on 
a web site or publish it in print format, we ask that you first contact us 
(russell at nationalpress.com or rob at essential.org).

--------

 
December 1st is World AIDS Day

Today, World AIDS Day is being commemorated across the globe. 
HIV/AIDS is one of the largest threats to human security in the world, taking 
more than 20 million lives over the past 20 years and leaving 38 million 
people infected today. While some progress has been made, sustained 
commitments by governments, along with the resources to match, are 
urgently needed to halt the spread of this global killer. 

Facts about HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS affects the poorest, marginalized, and most vulnerable in 
society.  Developing countries bear the burden of the epidemic ? where 
more than 50% of those infected are women and over 50% of the people 
infected are below the age of 24. Today, there are over 12 million AIDS 
orphans in sub-Saharan Africa alone. By 2010, experts estimate that the 
total labor force of the worst affected countries will shrink by 20% and by 
2015 by 30% to 40%. 

Many of the countries with the highest incidence of HIV/AIDS are also 
highly indebted countries. In many cases, developing countries must 
spend more money servicing their debt than contributing to health care and 
education costs vital to reducing the spread and impact of HIV/AIDS. 

War creates conditions that lead to community breakdown, failing health 
care systems, massive displacement, increased sexual violence, and more 
orphans. The effects of deadly conflict have created a climate that is 
unsustainable for development and a breeding ground for HIV/AIDS. 
HIV/AIDS and poverty must be addressed as critical issues of human 
security and an integral component in the peaceful prevention of deadly 
conflict. 

The resources and technology exist to treat those currently infected 
and prevent new infections.  Generic anti-retrovirals (ARVs) drugs, drugs 
to prevent mother-to-child transmission, and education campaigns are 
available to alleviate the effects of HIV/AIDS. Many are working to make 
these resources universally accessible. One health worker reminds us: 
"When you propose testing and you don't have availability of treatment, you 
are giving someone a death sentence."

U.S. policy -- money with strings attached.  The current "omnibus" 
appropriations bill moving through Congress includes $2.9 billion for 
HIV/AIDS--a number falling short of President Bush?s $15 billion (over 5 
years) pledge in 2003 and which includes conditions that hamper the 
effectiveness of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.  Moreover, by spending 
$420 billion annually on military programs plus $180 billion for current wars, 
the U.S. is making a clear statement about its spending and policy priorities. 
More resources must be redirected to address the world's most pressing 
threats to human security. 

What You Can Do
Take action at Africa Action?s web site: 
http://capwiz.com/africaaction/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=6702426
Learn more with these resources:
FCNL Fact Sheet on HIV/AIDS 
http://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=1162&issue_id=97 
UNAIDS http://www.unaids.org/ 
The Global Fund http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/
The Right to Health Campaign http://africaaction.org/campaign/index.php
Read the new HIV/AIDS report by UNAIDS and the World Health 
Organization (WHO) http://www.unaids.org/wad2004/report.html
A global view of HIV infection 
38 million people [range: 35-42 million] living with HIV as of end 2003

Image Source: WHO/UNAIDS 


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Action is the antidote to despair.  ----Joan Baez
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