paulking

CASTRO HLONGWANE, CARAVANS, CATS, GEESE, FOOT & MOUTH AND STATISTICS
HIV/AIDS and the Struggle for the Humanisation of the African

March 2002


Prelude

"And Conrad's stand-in, Marlow, (in Heart of Darkness), muses on how 'the
conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those
who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves,
is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much."

(King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild, Houghton Mifflin Company, New
York, 1998.)

***

"All the human race loves a lord – that is, it loves to look upon or to be
noticed by the possessor of Power or Conspicuousness; and sometimes
animals, born to better things and higher ideals, descend to man's level
in this matter. In the Jardin des Plantes I have seen a cat that was so
vain of being the personal friend of an elephant that I was ashamed of
her."

(Does the Race of Man love a Lord?, by Mark Twain, April 1902: Mark Twain,
The Library of America, 1976.)

***

"The failure of American AIDS to 'explode' into the general population led
the authorities to look for the phenomenon elsewhere. New AIDS cases in
the U.S. began falling before the introduction of 'protease inhibitor'
therapy, and from 1997 to 1998 dropped from about 60, 000 to 48, 000. Of
****agers diagnosed in 1998, only 68 were classified as 'hetero***ual
contact.' Among women, AIDS diagnoses fell from 13, 000 in 1997 to 11, 000
in 1998... If the very high AIDS spending by the U.S. government is to be
sustained, the emergency would have to be drummed up elsewhere... so
Africa beckoned."

(Inventing an Epidemic, The American Spectator, 2000, by Tom Bethell,
Washington Editor.)

***

"In money terms, first there is the pharmaceutical industry. If AIDS in
Africa is now a national security threat, as President Clinton has
declared, American money will be appropriated for the very expensive drugs
to spend in Africa – billions of dollars of potential profits. If
Washington doesn't appropriate funds, there's the fear that African
nations might buy generic, foreign-made copies of U.S. drugs. Then there
is the public health establishment. More billions can go for salaries,
offices, staffing, travel and long reports. The World Health Organisation
budget has skyrocketed along with African AIDS statistics. Many public
health officials are well meaning, seeing AIDS fears as the only way to
get money to help the misery afflicting so much of Africa. In America,
government AIDS money is spreading far and wide. Federal spending now tops
$10 billion and is increasing yearly even as case loads fall."

(AIDS Hype in Africa? No HIV Test Required, Disease Defined Differently
Than in U.S., by Jon Basil Utley, Robert A. Taft Fellow at the Ludwig von
Mises Institute, USA, April 30, 2000.)

***

"Africa Can't Just Take a Pill for AIDS"; New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com)
(07/06/00) P. A27; Goldyn, Lawrence.

"Lawrence Goldyn, a doctor who treats HIV-positive patients, writes in an
editorial that South African President Thabo Mbeki has frustrated AIDS
researchers with his decision not to promote the use of the drug AZT and
his consideration that HIV may not cause AIDS. However, in the light of
the country's poor infrastructure, these decisions are rational. South
Africa lacks the resources and pharmaceuticals to treat its growing
HIV-infected population. ****tail drugs cost up to $15,000 a year, not
affordable for most, and unavailable without the social, economic, and
medical structures needed to administer drug therapies. The complicated
treatments for HIV require full adherence and stability, and getting South
Africans to follow a drug schedule could be impossible, based on the past
failure of tuberculosis treatments. Transmission of HIV to newborns is
also an issue, but in a country where breast-feeding is the only option,
the infection rate is 30 per cent for infants born to an infected mother.
The best solution is an AIDS vaccine, but without research funds that turn
profits, it is years away. Mbeki is right to say that the Western way of
fighting AIDS will not transfer to Africa."

Current TB News: Week of July 10, 2000: Johns Hopkins Center for
Tuberculosis Research.

***

"As my journey through the pharmaceutical jungle progressed, (in which a
number of people were murdered, others killed with experimental drugs, and
governments and universities corrupted), I came to realise that, by
comparison with the reality, my story was as tame as a holiday postcard."

"The Constant Gardener" by John le Carre. (Author's Note): Coronet Books,
Hodder and Stoughton, London. 2001.

gmcarter

What a peculiar collection of crap that doesn't support the re line in
the slightest. Wow. Dude. I'm beginning to feel increasingly bad for
you.

You literally are foaming at the mouth to push HIV away and make it
all ok. But I'm sorry, it ain't. The way it works out in the end, we
die. It's inevitable, even though that is sometimes a frightening and
sad thought.

And I get the feeling your biggest fear is dying of AIDS. Which
denialism will not protect you from if you are HIV+.

I really earnestly wish you the best of luck whatever the case may be.
Life IS short. And often lived in quiet desperation.

George M. Carter

dmcanzi

Your title seems to indicate that you want to talk about mortality
in Africa, but you don't say a word anywhere about deaths in Africa.
Instead you talk about drug companies and various bureaucracies,
and their motivations... and you start off with a hint about racism.

Personalities are your main tool for spreading your beliefs.
Evidence and logic, if they show up at all, come far behind.

--
David Canzi "Nonconformists travel as a rule in bunches. You rarely find
a nonconformist who goes it alone. And woe to him inside a
nonconformist clique who does not conform with nonconformity."
-- Eric Hoffer