PHA-Exchange> Betraying the Sick in Africa

[Aviva]

From: Lenny Rhine <Lenny at library.health.ufl.edu>
 
Betraying the Sick in Africa
----------------------------
 
New York Times editorial September 4, 2003
Source:ahila-net at who.ch
 
September 4, 2003
 
There is an old joke about a man who kills his parents and then begs 
the court for mercy because he is an orphan. For such chutzpah on a 
global scale, consider President Bush's overseas AIDS initiative. In 
his last State of the Union address, the president announced a new 
program to fight AIDS in Africa and pledged US$ 15 billion over the 
next five years. But instead of using existing channels, Mr. Bush 
created a new bureaucracy. Now the White House and Congressional Re-
publicans argue that since the bureaucracy is not ready, dying pa-
tients must wait.
 
The Senate is scheduled to vote soon on an appropriations bill that 
contains US$ 2 billion for the AIDS initiative ­ only US$ 500 million 
more than this year's spending. The House has approved even less. 
This is the White House's doing. It is twisting arms to get Congress 
to cut its own program. The House and Senate had authorized US$ 3 
billion for next year.
 
This undercutting of trumpeted compassion initiatives is a habit with 
the president because of his devotion to tax cuts for the wealthy. 
But officials are arguing that AIDS money cannot be spent wisely be-
cause the office of the AIDS coordinator ­ and Africa ­ is not ready.
 
Both assertions are nonsense. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tubercu-
losis and Malaria is besieged with excellent vetted proposals from 
African nations desperate to fight AIDS. Multiple billions could be 
effectively spent on AIDS prevention and treatment and help for or-
phans. And countries that lack the ability to run good programs need 
money to build that capacity. But the Global Fund is too broke to 
help. If the administration cannot overcome its mysterious distaste 
for this organization, it could simply take some of the country pro-
posals and finance them directly.
 
Senator Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, is proposing to restore 
the full US$ 3 billion. The Senate should adopt this amendment, then 
prevail upon the House. Several top Republicans, including President 
Bush and the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, have recently been 
to Africa, where they hugged orphans and visited the dying. If they 
break America's promise on AIDS, they will be cynically using suffer-
ing Africans as nothing more than a photo opportunity.