Originally posted by Autokrat
A pity Bush was such a moron in terms of contraception when it came to helping out Africa. How long did it take him to give condoms again?
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
In view of the scale and gravity of Achmat’s crime and his direct personal criminal culpability for ‘the deaths of thousands of people’, to quote his own words, it is respectfully submitted that the International Criminal Court ought to impose on him the highest sentence provided by Article 77.1(b) of the Rome Statute, namely to permanent confinement in a small white steel and concrete cage, bright fluorescent light on all the time to keep an eye on him, his warders putting him out only to work every day in the prison garden to cultivate nutrient-rich vegetables, including when it’s raining. In order for him to repay his debt to society, with the ARVs he claims to take administered daily under close medical watch at the full prescribed dose, morning noon and night, without interruption, to prevent him faking that he’s being treatment compliant, pushed if necessary down his forced-open gullet with a finger, or, if he bites, kicks and screams too much, dripped into his arm after he’s been restrained on a gurney with cable ties around his ankles, wrists and neck, until he gives up the ghost on them, so as to eradicate this foulest, most loathsome, unscrupulous and malevolent blight on the human race, who has plagued and poisoned the people of South Africa, mostly black, mostly poor, for nearly a decade now, since the day he and his TAC first hit the scene.
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...