EDITORIAL
AIDS & poverty
More than two decades into the AIDS pandemic, with more than
20 million lives having been lost worldwide and the disease
spreading most rapidly wherever there is deep poverty and
social instability, the countries hit hardest are in Africa.
Why then did some of the U.S. media choose the occasion of
World AIDS Day to focus in on the government of South Africa as
the villain in the epidemic and accuse the people of that
country of being promiscuous, irresponsible, sexually predatory
and uninformed? That was the message of feature articles in
many prominent U.S. newspapers.
This is a classic case of shifting the burden of guilt from
those who are ultimately responsible for the toll that AIDS is
taking in South Africa onto the backs of its victims.
The pharmaceutical giants bear direct blame for pricing AIDS
drugs out of the reach of most African workers and poor. In
fact, United Nations figures show that anti-retroviral therapy
alone would cost countries like Bangladesh, Nigeria, Uganda and
Zambia roughly 30 percent of their respective gross national
products.
But the drug companies have not acted alone. The government
in Washington has been their closest ally. When the South
African government tried to make cheaper generic AIDS drugs in
an attempt to save many lives, the drug companies dragged its
officials into court. And let no one forget that it was
Democrat Al Gore--chair of the United States/South Africa
Binational Commission--who acted as point person for these
greedy imperialist goliaths.
Only after a worldwide outcry did the U.S. government and
the pharmaceuticals relent somewhat and "allow" South Africa to
import cheaper generic drugs from India.
These pharmaceuticals are a part of the class-riven economic
system that has ravaged the African continent and helped lay
the basis for a public health crisis that hits people with AIDS
the hardest.
Essential for the health of all individuals--especially
people with AIDS--is access to clean water and good nutrition.
Yet 50 percent of the people in sub-Saharan Africa do not have
clean water and 32 percent of children under five years old are
malnourished. How can they afford AIDS medications, or even
condoms?
This poverty is not universal. Even though apartheid has
ended and the African National Congress presides over the
government, privileged whites still own 87 percent of the land
in South Africa. The same bankers, mine owners and
industrialists still control the reins of the economy.
For decades, South African miners have been forced to live
in hostels far from their families, while they dig out the
precious gold and diamonds. These are then ostentatiously
displayed in ads in the same magazines and newspapers here that
accuse the men of that country of not displaying appropriate
"family values."
Colonialism, apartheid and now economic subjugation to U.S.
imperialism have resulted in a system of low wages and intense
exploitation. These combined conditions make it very difficult
for the South African government to meet the needs of the
masses of workers and poor.
Put the burden of guilt back where it belongs: on the
poverty resulting from more than a century of oppression.
Racist articles like those in the U.S. press add vicious insult
to injury. The banks and corporations that have grown rich off
African labor and resources owe a massive debt of reparations
to South Africa and its sister countries. Imagine how much
easier it would be to deal with a public health crisis if that
obligation were paid in full.
That's not likely to happen without revolutionary changes
here and in Africa. But that would be subversive of Bush's New
World Order, wouldn't it?
Reprinted from the Dec. 13, 2001, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
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