Anger as Commonwealth slashes funding for Aids fight

[IndianaGreen]

Source: The Independent (UK)

Anger as Commonwealth slashes funding for Aids fight

Although 60 per cent of sufferers live in member countries, organisation has turned its back on the cause

By Daniel Howden, Africa Correspondent

Saturday, 28 November 2009

The leaders of Commonwealth countries meeting in Trinidad and Tobago were facing a scandal last night after it emerged that the organisation has withdrawn most of its funding for preventing HIV and Aids.

The Commonwealth of Nations is home to 30 per cent of the world's population but 60 per cent of its HIV victims, and the pandemic is acknowledged as a "Commonwealth emergency". Despite this, a decision was taken without public consultation earlier this year to stop funding the only Commonwealth programme that directly tackles the crisis.

Over the past four years, nearly £400,000 has been spent through the Commonwealth Foundation to create an international network of experts, activists and civic organisations working on HIV/Aids. The foundation, funded by taxpayers in the 53 member states of the Commonwealth, decided in April to switch the money from the Pan-Commonwealth HIV/Aids Network to cultural activities without informing its partners, according to confidential emails seen by The Independent.

A storm of protest followed behind closed doors in which the foundation was accused of "jumping ship" and its director, Mark Collins, was asked to explain the "abandonment". In an email exchange with Mr Collins in April, the Canadian scientist John W Foster, of the North-South Institute in Ottawa, wrote to express his "deep surprise and concern regarding the news that HIV/Aids is no longer a priority of the ... foundation".

He added: "This is particularly surprising given ... that the highest incidence countries are either current or former (Zimbabwe) members of the Commonwealth, many of them resource-challenged and least-developed states."

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/anger-as-commonwealth-slashes-funding-for-aids-fight-1829875.html

[WriteDown]

1. This sounds VERY UNish (to coin a new adjective)

(In September, confusion over the goings-on at the foundation deepened when Mr Collins abruptly suspended his own programme manager, Anisha Rajapakse, without explanation. Ms Rajapakse, who previously worked for the UN and the German government, is thought to have objected to moves to downgrade the importance of Aids work. Attempts to contact her were unsuccessful. The foundation refused The Independent's request to speak to her and would not discuss the grounds for her suspension, insisting yesterday that the matter was "internal and confidential".

When members of the Aids network, all of them recruited by Ms Rajapakse, demanded to know why she had been "silenced", several of them, including Dr Carr, were "disinvited" from the Commonwealth People's Forum – the main civil society event in the build-up to this week's summit of Commonwealth heads of government. )

[bobshin]

2. More fighting for not much...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsOlVF_7bRc

[ooglymoogly]

3. Your link to this abhorrent film is an insult to

any thinking person or even a sentient one for that matter. you are peddling a film that is a right wing Aids denial activists wet dream. Jerry Falwell must be cheering you on from his lair in hell. It is filled with half truths and idiotic innuendos. That anyone would take this evil film seriously is dumber than a bag of rocks.

For a NY Times review of this drivel go to

http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/movies/04house.html

bobshin; I can't believe you posted this bullshit on this site

[bobshin]

4. Actually as a thinking person not willing to believe the BS we've been fed

about this "disease" I take that as a compliment. But go on, label this film as right wing, when my idea of right wing is blindly following what you've been told, ironically by such buttholes as Jerry Falwell. As someone who has lived in the eye of the storm from the very beginning, I am more informed than most, but am open-minded enough to accept proof of the status quo belief. My personal experience has proven otherwise. BTW, the NY Times is THE rag of big Pharma, but nice try.

Actually, if this was so abhorrent, why bother responding to it? I know, I know, it's dangerous exposing DU'ers to a different point of view.

[ooglymoogly]

5. If you accept this flimsy film as Gospel

your mind is made of wormwood. Next time you go sailing make sure you don't go to far....folks like you have been known to fall off the edge into the abyss.

[bobshin]

6. Boy, it sure is interesting the way another point of view is handled around here.

You sound like a Sarah Palin junkie. Have you actually read what this film is about? It is asking questions that have yet- at this very late date- to be answered coherently. And I will reiterate, as you didn't read my post you replied to: I have been in the eye of this storm since its inception and my experiences strongly differ from the status quo lemming point of view. This film has not made a difference either way to my way of thinking. I do, however, welcome any vehicle that exposes people to a point of view other than that financed heavily by an industry that profits heavily from such BS. In this instance this BS has caused many important people in my life to die needless deaths, and many more to live in needless fear and the corporate symbol of that fear, the condom, coming between real intimacy with their partners. I must sure be lucky to have survived it all, living on the edge, ever since I was exposed myself to another point of view, that I, at the time, thought was criminally insane myself. However I could not sit helplessly watching friends expire without looking beyond the information that is readily available.

There is nothing to fear but fear itself, financed heartily by those who would profit from controlling even your bedmanners.

edited for spelling