AIDS & imperialism
Published Feb 23, 2005 10:59 AM
South Africa saw a 57-percent jump in reported deaths between 1997 and 2003,
with AIDS-related deaths contributing hugely to the increase, according to a
recently issued report by a group called Statistics SA. One in five adults in
the country is living with HIV/AIDS.
A statement issued by the Asian
Development Bank and the Joint United National Program on HIV/AIDS has stressed
that goals to reduce poverty in the Asia-Pacific region will not be achieved
without more funds being allocated to fight HIV/AIDS.
In the United
States, a case of a gay man who contracted a strain of HIV resistant to most
drugs and that progressed to full-blown AIDS within two months has renewed the
scapegoating and condemnation of gay men as the cause and source of the
epidemic.
This focus is coupled in the media with exposés on the
use of crystal methamphetamine in the gay community, which lowers inhibitions.
As usual with discussions on community drug abuse, the social factors that
contribute to that abuse, such as poverty and discrimination, are ignored. So is
the fact that crystal meth is itself an epidemic that is rampant throughout the
U.S., and is devastating rural as well as urban areas.
Meanwhile, the Bush
administration's proposed 2006 budget calls for cuts to the tune of $4 million
to AIDS prevention and surveillance programs. A $38-million increase is
earmarked for "abstinence-only" programs that have been proven to increase the
likelihood of unsafe sex.
This doesn't include Bush's call for a
$4.5-billion cut to Medicaid--the largest provider of medical care to people
with AIDS in the United States--over the next decade. The head of the National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has said that budget cuts proposed
for the National Institutes of Health could very well lead to a halt on some
AIDS vaccine research.
While Bush admits that communities of color have
been hit hardest by the epidemic, he proposes no extra funding for the so-called
Minority AIDS Initiative. And he proposes to cut the Housing Opportunities for
People With AIDS program by $14 million. While the Bush administration does
propose an increase in global AIDS spending, it doesn't even cover a third of
the estimated amount needed to counter the pandemic.
This is the
"morality" for which the Bush administration congratulates itself. The real
culprit for the spread of this pandemic is the capitalist system of
private
ownership, exploitation and greed that makes a planned, global effort to marshal
the necessary resources--human, financial and material--
so
difficult.
Let the demand ring out, loud and clear: Money for AIDS
research, treatment and health care, not war for imperialist empire!
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