both suck, although bush has two on top of obama, dissolving magna carta and trying to militarise space. theyr both much the same to the wrest of the world.
__________________ Land of the free, home of the brave...
Do you think we will ever be saved?
In this land of dreams find myself sober...
Wonder when will it'll all be over...
Living in a void when the void grows colder...
Wonder when it'll all be over?
Will you be laughing when it's over?
Of course if by "important" you mean "good" then his work and aid to Africa completely eclipses anything done by any other country or American president.
When he 1st came into office only 50,000 Africans with aids were on anti retroviral drugs. Now 1.5 million are because of GWB.
He cancelled $34billon of debt. He increased aid spending by nearly $6billion not to mention the $1.4billion of food aid.
His work has halved number of deaths from malaria in 15 African countries.
Even Bob Geldof (Live Aid organiser) praises Bush's commitment and work in Africa.
Todd Moss who is a senior fellow at the Centre for Global Development said "I don't think it's too strong to say that President Bush's Africa policy is the most distinguished foreign policy legacy of the administration"
Some African leaders say his commitment to aid/food and medical initiatives has saved millions of lives in Africa.
So yeah...People really need to actually learn a bit about the US's role in the world during the Bush administration before making generally ignorant statements.
He gave them plenty money. They could've bought their own condoms.
The problem is that many African countries are still steeped in Catholic beliefs from the missionaries started during European colonialisation. This obviously means that there's already a pressure from the religious leaders on the people to not use condoms anyway.
Not to mention there are people actively lobbying governments with massively misleading information on AIDS (particularly in South Africa). People such as Matthias Rath
I read the article above while I was on a flight coming back from holiday and was totally astounded at the bit about Zackie Achmat. Achmat is the founder of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) which is a small volountary organisation fighting to get anti retroviral treatment to people in South Africa. He is black, gay and is HIV positive and refuses to take the medication until it is widely available to all despite being begged by Nelson Mandela to take them to save his own life so that he could work to save others.
Matthias Rath sells herbal and vitamin pills and claims that they are more effective at treating AIDS and HIV than ARV's are. Which is completely and utter nonsense but his company's power and wealth is so large that when Achmat criticised their operations he was sued and Rath's team sent a letter to the international criminal court at the Hague trying to have Achmat indicted. Here's what it said
Utterly shocking and disgracful way to treat a man who tirelessly campaigns to fight against AIDS.
It's very difficult to combat problems when countries are being lobbied with such misleading rubbish from one side and people are being pressured from their religious leaders on the other.
So yeah. Not giving condoms out (knowing that many people wouldn't use them anyway) on one hand but saving millions of lives on the other...I'd say he came out on a positive with regards to Africa.
Odd that you never hear about any of this in the mainstream press though eh?...Must be some sort of government conspiracy...Oh no wait...That doesn't work does it?...Must be Obama's fault...
You know, one of the things I've struggled not to do is fall along the lines of the new atheists, but I swear it becomes nearly impossible when I look at all this religious gunk and dream of a society free of delusional nonsense.
That being said, I'll give Bush credit for Africa even if I will admit, I don't care about Africa. Maybe its just a problem with my personality, but whenever I try to induce feelings of horror and disgust at what goes on in Africa, I can't seem to feel the way everyone else does. I can oppose on principle, but I don't feel anything.
That's probably best. You'd go crazy if you truly cared about all the wee children starving to death. It kinda makes me depressed thinking about them.
... nah.
__________________ Recently Produced and Distributed Young but High-Ranking Political Figure of Royal Ancestry within the Modern American Town Affectionately Referred To as Bel-Air.
I don't get particularly angry or annoyed by the bad things happening in many African countries but I do get annoyed when good work goes unrecognised.
I realise Bush was far from a great president. I do wonder what any other president's reaction would have been in the wake of 9/11 though. Bush is regarded as a war monger but is it realistic to think that the American public would have backed a decision to take no real action or even the limited bombing of Al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan?
Did he come across as an arrogant moron a lot of the time?...Yes...His smirking and leaning over the podium when addressing serious questions annoyed me no end.
Has the post war been generally a **** up?...Yes...But it's not a president's job to plan and execute a war/peace. It is his job to put up the money for it and he did that.
I do find it highly ironic that many people consider the media machine as a tool to cover up the government's corruption and make them look good yet there was virtually no press coverage of the work carried out in Africa by the Bush administration.
KMC Community Forums
Feb 24th, 2010 01:58 PM
