US ends funds for African Aids programme

[papau]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/aids/story/0,7369,1030583,00.html

US ends funds for African Aids programme

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Thursday August 28, 2003
The Guardian

The US government has cut off funds to an Aids programme for refugees in Africa - six weeks after President George Bush toured the continent promising to fight the disease - because it objects to the activities of one of the aid agencies involved, Marie Stopes International.

A state department official said yesterday that US law prohibited the funding of organisations that support China's repressive population policy - a definition sufficiently elastic to include Marie Stopes, which runs family planning programmes there. However, organisations that work on reproductive health and Aids argue that the decision betrays the Bush administration's wider hostility to abortion. Its commitment to a rightwing Christian agenda has led it to promote abstinence as a strategy against HIV-Aids in preference to condoms, they say. The present funding cut is curious because Marie Stopes is just one of seven agencies involved in a project to promote HIV-Aids prevention and awareness in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Sudan, as well as in Sri Lanka, Asia. The other partners are the International Rescue Committee, Care, the American Refugee Committee, the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, John Snow International and Columbia University's department of population and family health.

News of the cuts emerged barely six weeks after Mr Bush toured five African states to launch a $15bn (£9.5bn) Aids initiative. It was later cut back drastically, with Congress approving just $2bn of the $3bn sought in the first year. A state department official yesterday conceded that the consortium was doing good work. Last year, the state department gave $1m to the consortium, formed eight years ago, but it decided to end aid this year. <snip>

At no point has the state department accused Marie Stopes of abetting forced abortions and sterilisations. It appears to be implicated by its association. "Marie Stopes has a relationship with the Chinese government and its birth limitation programmes that has caused a legal impediment," the official added. Marie Stopes argues that its work on contraception in China is intended to halt the need for abortion. <snip>

In July 2002, the White House overrode Congress to block a $34m award to the UN Population Fund for its work. UNFPA works with Marie Stopes and other agencies in China.It did so despite compelling evidence. UNFPA confines its activities to 32 counties in China, selected because they agreed in 1998 to abandon targets and quotas for abortion, according to a spokeswoman for the agency, Kristin Hetle. <snip>

[pw]

1. More mush from the wimp

Every time Twit makes headlines with some gesture of compassion, his people turn around and take the money away just as soon as the spotlight is off.

[papau]

2. I bet this does not make the 6 o'clock News - on broadcast or cable

Indeed if it makes page A17 in tomorrows papers I'd be surprise.

And they wonder why folks say our media is RW controlled - or at least acts like it is Right wing GOP controlled.

[mjb4]

3. like someone said --if they visit watch out

you are on the list to be screwed next.

[Wwagsthedog]

4. Bait and Switch

Same tactic it has been using in the USA since January, 2001. it knows the how short the majority attention span is here so it continues to get away with it. Hope things change in January, 2005.

[atreides1]

5. Wasn't This....

One of Powell's pet projects. Assistance to the agencies in Africa fighting HIV/Aids, was something that Powell was all for. But I guess
now that Bush has snipped his testicles, it won't matter to Powell.

If he resigned because of this it would show that there was hope for him, but Powell lost all credibility at the UN, when he made his big
speech.

[Generic Other]

6. I told them not to cash the check

Why did I just know this money would be the first to go?

[Philosophy]

7. AIDS prevention keep pharmaceutical companies from getting rich

from *'s favored plan to use our tax dollars to buy AIDS drugs for Africans. That's what he's really interested in - the "rightwing Christian agenda" is just a conventient cover.

[MaineDem]

8. Awful!!!

This administration is appalling!

I don't have words to express how I feel right now.

[Samuraimad]

9. So more lies in the State of the Union

that was all the talk for a couple of days, about how he was going to fight aids in africa...blah....blah...bullshit.
More Ammo for whoever wants to fight him in '04.

[aquart]

10. I thought that AIDS talk was odd.

George don't do nuthin' for no one what can't write a check.

Whore.

[hang a left]

11. I knew they would never see

one dime of that money. I am nauseated.

[SoCalDem]

13. Bait & Switch...

The press was all over the "Pledge" and how magnificnet he was for "addressing the Aids issue"..but will we hear about when he pulled the rug out from under them??? Don't bet on it :(

It's the Summer of Ahhhnold :(

[Kool Kitty]

12. No surprise here.

Just another broken promise from this bunch of thugs.

[RMJ]

14. Well, I'm shocked.

Shocked that anyone thought one thin dime of that money would ever make it to Africa.

You'd think by now, all of America would have noticed that Bush* lies every time he opens his mouth.

Saw this on a bumpersticker: If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention.

[oasis]

15. Money for education, money for aids in Africa. Photo op pResident.

This is the fucked upest administration of all time.

[Oilwellian]

16. Bush doesn't like the population policy?

What complete and utter horseshit. Remember Poppy's population control programs in the late 60's and early 70's while he was a congressman? Remember his programs to sterilize the retarded and blackmail those on welfare to be sterilized or else risk losing their benefits? Does it make any sense to cut off AIDS programs that will help stem the deaths of millions? Sounds to me like Bush is taking up where his daddy left off, only in a more gruesome manner. What better way to control the population?

[mediaman007]

17. Is this a response to with the World Trade Organization's decision

to offer low cost AIDS drugs for sale in Africa? I think Bushies appeal to two support groups: right wing fundamentals and American pharmaceutical companies.

The only reason we probably were going to give money to Africa for AIDS was that any money given would return to the drug companies. In fact, some of the money would come full circle and be donated to the Shrub's reelection campaign.

Does it surprise anyone that every tax break they give, or every dollar they spend enhances the fund raising resources. Combine the wealthy, the selfish and the ignorant and you have Shrub's base.

on edit:

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/08/28/aids.medicines.africa.reut/index.html