Summits are all Well and Good, but action?
The Universe
(September 08, 2002)
It is truly a question of the haves and the
have-nots. The rich nations have the wealth to keep alive their AIDS suffers
while the poor cannot. So last year alone 2.2 million people died of AIDS in
Africa. In the
wealthy half a
million people are on the life saving anti-retroviral drugs and only 25,000
died. The shocking scandal is the low cost drugs can be available at low
lost but multinational pharmaceutical companies block them to boost
profits.
This paradox will confront the world leaders when the meet in Johannesburg this August 2002 to talk about sustainable development while 14 million Africans is dying in the worst famine in ten years. They failed miserably last June in Canada. Oxfam said they offered Africa "recycled peanuts". Yet they voted ten billion dollars to Russia to clean up its weapons of mass destruction in the coming decade.
There are as many as 40 million people infected worldwide with the
HIV- virus that causes AIDS and in 20 years that could reach 70 million. So
far, this deadly virus has outwitted the greatest medical scientists
equipped with the most sophisticated research equipment ever invented. The
processes of Nature are truly awesome.
In Botswana, 40% of the adult population is
HIV-positive. In Zambia nearly a million are infected.
In the Russian federation the rate of infection is doubling yearly and
in China the number of people infected is estimated to be 1.5 million and
could be as much as ten million by 2010. In Britain experts report there is
no let up in the spread of the disease.
Like famine this is a disease that could be both
prevented and controlled if there is true political will and generosity
shown by the
wealthy countries. Even a pinch of compassion in the hearts of the Tough
Tycoons of the pharmaceutical industry who make billions out of the sickness
of and misfortune of the victims would save many thousands.
The most vulnerable of all are the babies born to HIV positive mothers.
They have a life expectancy of five to six years, but with the control drug
they could live a much longer life. Famine adds to the disaster and
unimaginable human suffering.
More robust debt relief would greatly help the
poorest countries. Zambia spends 30% more money paying interest to rich
countries than on health. Malawi with one of the highest AIDS rates in the
world spends the same on debt relief as it does on health. Of the 26 poor
countries, most of them in Africa, that get some form of debt relief, at
least 13 of them are still paying
15% of government revenues to service foreign debts.
Well-used foreign aid could also alleviate the
problem by providing cheap drugs and an effective distribution system. Aid
from the rich has decreased in the past decade.
But once again the politicians play a contradictory role. The European
Union has billions of dollars worth of food in warehouses across Europe one
percent of which could alleviate the plight of millions of starving people.
But they fear a fall in European farm prices if they share it.
Zimbabwe refuses to accept US un-milled generically modified corn because of milling costs and it might be planted and damage the produce of their farms in the world market. The land grabbing Zimbabwean elite presides over a collapsed agricultural economy
And caused famine in neighboring countries. They
are looking after their
own interests no matter how many starve to death.
The EU has a foreign aid budget of almost 3.5 billion Euros but only a measly 38 % of that goes to the worlds poorest countries while the rest goes to better off countries where the EU is developing stronger political ties and markets and protecting it's own interests. Ten years ago the EU spent 70% of it's development aid on the poorest and most needy nations. Greed and self-interest rules the day. This is the sin of the world that we, as followers of Christ must continue to try and take away.
