the Greater Nomadic Council

Mandela, Clinton, and AIDS

Nelson Mandela had less strong words than Kofi Annan, but still conveyed his displeasure with the West in particular on the issue of AIDS relief. It's a bit disturbing to see Clinton at this thing, as my understanding is that his administration pretty much dropped the ball on the whole issue, doing such a bad job that even G-Dubs has been able to improve on it. I guess he's getting a Liberal Pass.

Here's a question - it's been stated again and again in the last few days that, while the U.S. is the greatest contributor to global AIDS relief in absolute terms, we are not putting in our fair share per capita. Is this a legitimate way to measure whether or not we're meeting our commitments?

To what extent is African AIDS a security concern to us, and to what extent are we responsible for the problem? I think that any force as aggressively destabilizing as AIDS will have inevitable security implication, particularly in the case of North African (read: Muslim) countries. But we aren't really culpable for the situation in Africa - the colonial rule of the English, Belgians and French are direct causes for the general chaos in the region. As recently as May 2003, the French contribution to AIDS relief was described as paltry. Apparently Chirac made some noise (fourth paragraph) about increasing EU contributions in 2003, but ran into some trouble.

I guess the broader conclusion that the situation brings to mind to me is that the U.S. has had much better results in taking care of its backyard and imperialist legacy than Europe has had with its own, and even the countries where U.S. businesses outsource cheap labor (read: run sweatshops) are in better shape than places like, say, the CAR. Certainly we have an overwhelming moral imperative to intervene in Africa, and the continuing obstinate refusal of the States to approve generic AIDS drugs under pressure from pharmaceutical corporations is a crime bordering on mass murder. But is it our responsibility to fund the programs themselves? Europe, I'm looking in your direction.

In related news, all proceeds from my garage sale this week will be going to the Global Fund. We'll be at 2318 LaFayette in Austin, and I will be drinking.