With all the attention the Toronto AIDS conference received this week, one wonders why this didn't receive the widespread media coverage it merits.
Well, actually, one doesn't wonder.
Progress is being made in the fight against AIDS in Africa, thanks in no small part to the president's aid program. But that's not what some people want to hear.FIVE YEARS AGO, in Jos, Nigeria, a city on the country's central plateau, Dr. John Idoko regularly made rounds in a hospital packed with people dying from AIDS because they couldn't pay for the antiretroviral drugs necessary to keep them alive. Three years ago, as the price of the drugs plummeted, the Nigerian doctor was able to deliver the life-extending medication to 700 patients-until his government's supply ran out for several months.
Today, the change for the better is astonishing: Idoko now treats nearly 6,000 HIV-positive patients. He has expanded his clinic three times in five years, and his waiting room once again is too crowded. ``Now, we are eyeing an abandoned building nearby," he said last week, chuckling.
The major reason for Idoko's success is the Bush administration's AIDS program, which in the last three years has sent billions of dollars to Africa and helped save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. When I moved to Africa three years ago, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, was just getting off the ground. As I return to Washington this month, the $15 billion program is just hitting its stride, and many Africans believe it has become the single most effective initiative in fighting the deadly scourge.
``The greatest impact in HIV prevention and treatment in Africa is PEPFAR-there's nothing that compares," Idoko said.
Only you wouldn't know it in America-or Canada, or Europe, for that matter-given the tenor of the AIDS debate in Washington and the nature of the international media coverage.
h/t
When an issue is politicized, truth is the first casualty. That's what is happening with AIDS activists, who have their own agenda that seems more and more out of touch with reality. AIDS is no longer a homosexual male issue, but they can't get over their own ideology. To them Bush=bad, Harper=bad, Religion=evil. Don't even mention abstinence to these people. Pointless to talk to them. My $$ support now goes to fight diabetes, and the Heart & Stroke society.
Now, you don't really expect The Usual Suspects to ever give any credit for anything to Chimpy Bushitler and The Great Satan, do you?
AIDS activists are extremist idiots not worth giving your attention to. They're just a bunch of Kos Kids.
...strange how there isn't concerts for "Africa Malaria".
I think someone stated thousands die annually from that disease in Africa, and around the world.
Michael Coren had a good article on AIDS and Malaria.
One is preventable via drugs and treatment, the other via abstinence.
http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Coren_Michael/2006/08/19/1764549.html
Instead of DDT the left is shipping mosquito netting to Africa. They absolutely cannot cure a disease, their whole belief system centres around treating the symptoms.
Mixed messages from http://liberal.ca/default_e.aspx
The IT/Mole at liberal.ca has uber/uomo Willy Graham in a banner at the top of the page with a young Lebanese (?) girl on his knees. Willy is all smiles. (no feathers)
Below the story is:
Conservatives missing in action on AIDS. ...-
It does not hold with the agenda of the left to credit success based on hard work and honest effort.
You will only see vilification from the MSM for those who dare to take a path not in step with the screed of the trough hogs at the UN.
from CBCpravda
Adult male circumcision could prevent millions of new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa, but circumcised men should not cease practising safe sex, researchers told the International AIDS Conference in Toronto on Thursday.
CBCpravda is dead set against female genital mutilation but I am surprised they havent encouraged full Johnson removal. that would drop HIV transmission to almost zero. so far in Africa they havent even convinced them to vulcanize their johnsons.
anyone know the proportions of the AIDs conference budget devoted to "arts" -condom dresses-, performance arts - "grannie dancing for aids". lobster bisque? Bill Clinton- "lessons on morality" or - "hints for removing DNA"
re rebararian's comment, "They [the left] absolutely cannot cure a disease, their whole belief system centres around treating the symptoms."
That's right. And why? When a cure involves anything those on "the right" are backing--like abstinence and faithfulness in a relationship--even though these tactics are known to work and save lives, the left, like spoiled, me-centred children, scream and yell and drown out the chorus that is saying: "Things are vastly improving, because people are learning to abstain from sex and when they're having sex, it's with one partner, not a variety."
What AIDS activists are really saying is, "We want to have our sex and enjoy it, too--AND, when we get sick, because of a fun lifestyle we have chosen which sometimes has unfortunate consequences, we expect YOU, the taxpayer, to cover all of the costs."
These guys need to come out of that Alice and Wonderland Rabbit Hole they've jumped down and start being responsible and accountable for their behaviour. The rest of us have to be, why not them?
They're doing their cause irreparable harm by their cry-baby antics, not to mention the effects their la-la land perspective is having on individuals, especially innoncent carriers of HIV/AIDS, who are sick and dying of the disease.
They call themselves ACT UP. I'd like to suggest, instead, that they GROW UP.
My feeling is that the Left has appropriated AIDS and made it a basic 'plank' in their ideology. That essentially means that AIDS absolutely cannot be cured, for that would harm the Left political platform.
The Left is not interested in the health and welfare of a population; it has one interest and only one interest. Power. It wants not simply political power but social and ideological power. Everyone must think as they do. Remember the ads of the Liberals - if you think in any other way than 'Liberal', then you are 'unCanadian'. Dissent, questions, analysis - none of that is allowed.
That includes AIDS. No questions, no dissent are allowed. And no other disease is of interest. The reason that the Left is not interested in the well-being of people affected by cancer, malaria, polio, leprosy etc, is because these diseases do not have a behavioural causality. AIDS is not merely viral; it's behavioural. And the Left can move in, to claim ideological ownership over this behaviour.
It used to be behavioural within the sexuality of the gay community. Then, within drug addiction. Now, it is behavioural within the larger community - but- it remains primarily a sexual disease. The Left has appropriated this behaviour, defined sexual and addictive behaviour as not relevant and rejected tactics that control this behaviour, such as abstinence, morality, condoms.
The Left has moved causality out of social and therefore controllable behaviour and moved it into the innate or psychological. AIDS is now located within 'male aggression'. It's due to the aggressive behaviour of men over women.
This new location of causality, within the psychological nature of men, will do nothing to reduce the numbers of AIDS victims. The tactics of treating AIDS are first, scientific, which the Left is not interested in; and second, behavioural control and constraint, which the Left is not interested in. This new causality, within the genetic nature of the male psyche, will ensure that the disease remains strong. The Left now has firm control of the disease and will ensure that it remains a strong plank in their platform.
President Bush did more to combat AIDS in his first term than Clinton did during his entire Presidency, Bush did much more - and recieved not one ounce of gratitude from 'activists' or anyone else. He shouldn't have bothered.
President Bush did more to combat AIDS in his first term than Clinton did during his entire Presidency, Bush did much more - and recieved not one ounce of gratitude from 'activists' or anyone else.
Well, celebrity activists Bono and Geldof did tip their hats to him, but I doubt this was widely publicized...
The irony of this whole post is that it's a topic none of y'all give a whiff about except to score political points. Just like those you criticize.
"The irony of this whole post is that it's a topic none of y'all give a whiff about except to score political points. Just like those you criticize."
I take exception to this statement. How do you know what I care about. I know people tha have died of this scourge. The post is directed at media coverage and its' bias against Bush and Harper. I care deeply about this issue and feel that PMSH and Bush (who I give a sh** about) have been given a bum's rush here. They both know that no matter what they do, the media and our left contingent will ravage them based solely on the fact they are consevative, yet both have dealt with this in a direct manner and continually pour funds into research, and, as has been shown, at a higher volume than previous governments. The conference in Toronto was a joke, nothing more than a disguised G8 protest. PMSH was correct in not attending to get blasted by ingnoramuses like yourself because you and people like you have a perception problem.
Ah" The Politics of health care in Canada. Canada health 2000, 5300 deaths from breast Cancer, 4200 deaths prostrate Cancer, 36 deaths from HIV/Aids in the first six months. Tell me who makes the most noise and demands the most money?
Tomax7 writes: "...strange how there isn't concerts for "Africa Malaria".
I recall reading once that the major killer in Africa remains diarrhoea, which Canada has had some success in fighting. Would it be too much to hope that Stephen Lewis could be named, after his AIDS post goes to someone else, as the UN Special Envoy on Diarrhoea?
just try and find out from a lieberal mp what mechanisms are in place to follow up and assess the effectiveness of aid programs from canada to anywhere in the world.
I tried the entire length of the martinet regime, a whole year and a half. plus other topics too, about 12 or 15 questions in total including farm subsidies and organ transplant policies.
he didnt answer a single one.
in december 2005 the tactic changed to denying they were even asked, so I started to recite them then and there in the constituency office and the strategy changed yet again. this time the c* office manager threatened to call the cops because I wouldnt shut the * up with all the questions.
I still dont know what is done to make sure foreign aid money is spent where it is supposed to be AND that it has the desired impact.
Even though the US programs are saving lives, many more are being lost by the day. It is hard to comprehend the emotional and physical loss in faraway Washington, or even at the Toronto AIDS conference. But in any African village, everyone feels it. That's why the breakdown of efforts such as Search for Common Ground seems so tragic to many.
Last month, in the town of Livingstone, Zambia, my driver, Jefferson Phiri, and I were stuck in one of the town's daily funeral processions. For 20 minutes, we inched along. The dead man was a local police officer; no one was talking about the cause of death.
``People don't live too long here," Phiri said. ``I'm 34. I'm an old man. I have 15 friends dead already. Fifteen! Our situation is an emergency.
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from the article, fucktards
A reminder that there are rules here governing profanity. If you can't avoid the use of four letter words and their derivatives, then avoid commenting.
Germ, read the whole article and get off your self-righteous high horse. Bush is helping the fight against AIDS, you twit.
jwp, I am truly sorry for your loss, as I have also lost a friend to AIDS, but you prove my point. I can't remember the last time I saw a positive story posted here. What could have been a straight, good news post about the good that is being done about AIDS in Africa has to be twisted into a media-is-out-to-get-Bush-and-Harper mantra session. Harper himself could have silenced his critics at the AIDS conference by showing up and reciting some of these facts. As for your shot at me regarding my "perception problem", I think that's a bit off the mark. I made the point that many who post here to kvetch about the vast liberal media conspiracy don't care a bit about AIDS but are happy to use it in the context of their harangue on politics and the media.
Steve Lewis's legacy is shot... No vaccine, Steve.
It's heresy, Steve. Give it up, Steve.
The only way now is to find/fund a "groups of sero-discordant couples", Steve. You know any, Steve?
The bafflegab is astounding. ...-
Analysis: Time to quit on AIDS vaccine?
Excerpt:
However, despite the fervent calls for vaccines, the last two decades have only seen vaccine failures. At the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto last week, the frustration over the lack of a vaccine let Jules Levin, a long-time AIDS activist, and executive director and founder of the New York-based National AIDS Treatment Action Project, to utter what some in the AIDS movement would call 'heresy.'
'We are not going to find a vaccine for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). There will never be an AIDS vaccine,' Levin told United Press International. 'We are only wasting a lot of resources. It`s time we stopped spending this money on the vaccine and start looking at other forms of prevention.'
Heresy, indeed, said another long-term AIDS activist, David Scondras, the Boston, Mass.-based editor of the treatment and action newsletter 'A Search for the Cure'.
'I don`t think Jules` comments represent what most of us believe. We cannot give up on a vaccine,' he told UPI. 'Instead, it`s time to test all these different ideas that people are coming up with all the time. We don`t need huge cohorts of people to do these tests, either.'
Scondras said groups of sero-discordant couples could be recruited to be the test candidates. A sero-discordant couple consists of one person who, in this context, has been infected with the HIV virus and a partner who is HIV-negative, or not infected. ..-
http://www.paulding.net/bin/url.cgi/13382.6
Jonesy: "I made the point that many who post here to kvetch about the vast liberal media conspiracy don't care a bit about AIDS but are happy to use it in the context of their harangue on politics and the media."
How could you possibly have a clue about those of us who blog on SDA, and whether or not we "care" about AIDS and those with AIDS? That's a really stupid statement on your part--and, untrue.
It is, however, a typical leftie stereotype of someone who doesn't share your political sensibilities. I guess you think that only you and your left-leaning cronies are warm and caring people. What a crock. Some liberals are wonderfully caring people, while others aren't, and some conservatives step up to the plate when others need help, while some don't...But that's not the point of this thread.
The point is that both President Bush and Prime Mnister Harper and their governments have done a great deal in the U.S. and Canada's fight against AIDS, but you'd never know it from from the MSM or the antics of the AIDS activists, booing and hissing Health Minister Tony Clements and dissing PMSH and President Bush.
That's what we're sick of, as Kate says, the activists and the MSM not giving credit where credit is due. It's simple, really, and I'm surprised that you don't seem to have grasped our point.
BTW, just because the individuals who perform in Monty Python are "leftists" doesn't mean that people of all political stripes can't enjoy their buffoonery. Those of us on the right have focused principles and broad tastes. I'm not sure the same can be said on the left, which seems to have fuzzy principles and narrow tastes.
George W Harper and his evil George W Bush don't care about aids because most victims are poor. black or hispanic and drug addicts. Or in Canada Native. Also Gay men but less than before. We in Canada have made a big mistake letting Harper and his cronies run the country. He's a monkey for the organ grinder bush. The American people do not have a lot of choices to vote for. We a least have the NDP who have a little more sympathy for the grunt workers. The Liberals and Tories here pretend to be different from one another but they're the same.
Most people who are dying of something are not interested in the 'politics' of any situation. Lewis, Clinton et al are all hat, no cattle. They are yapping to watch their own gums flap. They make me sick with their revolting, patronizing, left wing weeping for the poor.
They are ALL multi millionares and are forgetting that they too will die of something; they maybe do not know that the Lord God will not be bought with empty words and money. It is DEEDS that count - and George W. Bush has DONE something about the situation.
Billy Clintion should not dare to show himself to the people of Canada considering the fact that he sold the Cretian tainted blood from Alabama prisons to pass on to innocent people in this country. Some people: In Canada, in cities, in hospitals, in the streets, are dying from the tainted blood he sold us and the Liberano government approved it, knowing that it was bad. Through no fault of their own, innocent people here are dying.
Were the actions the Cretian took in his past the reason that our former Liberano PM, Cretian, did not go to the AIDS thing during his reign? Good Question, I'm glad I asked it.
The only way to stop AIDS in Africa is to get black men to use condoms. And another thing Shamans tell their men to have sex with Virgin girls , it's supposed to cure AIDS. The women of Africa pay for the sins of their men. That is a tragedy.