bribing africa--AIDS money for oil

[skjpm]

All I did was think of the most cynical, sinister reason why Bush is in Africa, and the truth came to me! He wants the oil, they need AIDS money. So, he bribes them. This also explains why he shows so little interest in countries not connected with oil.

[rainy]

1. Diamonds and Isreal

I heard today on c-span that Isreal controls 60% of world diamond trade. Are we going into Africa for Isreal and diamond profits? Also, isn't the WTO interested raping Africa's natural resouces and selling them off to huge corporate bidders at a cheap price.

[Character Assassin]

4. Who said that?

I heard today on c-span that Isreal controls 60% of world diamond trade.

Last I checked, a little company called De Beers sells about 80% or so of the world's diamonds.

Israel specializes in polished diamonds, selling 50 percent of all the stones worldwide and exporting $5.3 billion worth in 2000 (latest numbers I could find).

Israel relies almost exclusively on De Beers to obtain a steady supply of rough stones that are cut and polished for sale. However, a few years ago, De Beers started limiting the number of rough diamond clients in Israel. They wanted to start an international strategy focusing on mining and marketing, and this made it manifold times more difficult for small to medium-sized dealers to buy the gems in the first place.

[chesley]

2. AIDS money

for oil? Probably true, but if so, what is wrong for getting something for something? After all, as things now stand, Africa has no real use for the oil except to sell it. So why shouldn't they?

[mjb4]

3. eat these Genetic Modified foods

and we will give you AIDS money. Then you will need money to get rid of what the GM causes. WHy do the media types gloss over this item and the fact that the money is for abstinence programs

[cosmicdot]

5. Caveat Emptor - Beware of Bu$h Bearing Gifts

Money is the modern-day Trojan Horse

15 billion over 5 years ("internationally"), or $3 billion a year, if that's the final amount, is a drop-in-the-bucket considering the costs of AIDS http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19851-2003Jul7.html?nav=hptoc_eo

"The statistics of HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa make shocking reading. In Botswana, as in many countries in the region, roughly one in three people between the ages of 15 and 49 is infected. One in three. In some places, the rate of infection among those in their 20's goes up to 50 percent. I went to speak to children at a school. The average age of my audience was about 14, and as I spoke with these young people, and enjoyed their humor and wit, I could not rid myself of the thought that many of them would not make it to 35."

http://www.iht.com/articles/101884.htm

really a token amount considerting the Pandemic involved, to be headed up by corporate good ol'boy former Eli Lilly & Co. boss
Randall Tobias


"In his budget for fiscal 2004, Mr. Bush requested only two-thirds of the $3 billion anticipated for a first-year installment. And it's not certain Congress will approve all of that.

The president recently told a group of African leaders and American business people that $2 billion is the amount required for 2004, and urged Congress to "fully fund this life-saving initiative." But backers of the program in Congress and in outside advocacy groups question why the administration isn't taking a more urgent approach to get the initiative going."

http://www.sunspot.net/news/opinion/bal-ed.aids07jul07,0,6517971.story?coll=bal-opinion-headlines

Beware of Bush Bearing Gifts
Louise Richards

07 July 2003

"To start with, only $10 billion of Bush’s pledged $15 billion is new. Second, as ActionAid has pointed out, there’s no guarantee that this money will be spent over the next five years. The US Congress has to sign off the funds each year, and recent history is littered with aid initiatives that slid into the sand. A recent joint report from US think-tanks the Center for Global Development and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that as little as $45 million of Bush’s money to fight AIDS will be spent in 2004.

There is also the question of whether the funds will be tied aid – a hallmark of US official development assistance. Revealingly, the USA has said it will deliver only one third of pledged dollars through the Global Fund, with the remaining money coming as bilateral aid. The Global Fund was set up specifically to be free of the conditionality associated with tied aid and it champions the purchase of the cheaper generic drug treatments central to fighting HIV/AIDS in the least-developed countries.

The USA has in fact opened its taxpayers’ chequebook to safeguard the patent rights of its powerful pharmaceutical lobby. The Bush plan states that 2 million sufferers of HIV/AIDS will be provided with drug treatments. This could be a bonanza for US drug corporations whose AIDS drug sales in Africa account for just 0.2 per cent of turnover.

If other US aid programmes are anything to go by, contracts to supply treatments will be offered to US pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, which reportedly rakes in profits of more than $1 million an hour. Yet overseas manufacturers of generic treatments can massively undercut the price of Western drugs."

http://www.oneworld.net/article/view/63007/1/4281

"In the industrialized world, many patients are treated with a "cocktail" taken from a list of 15 or 20 anti-retroviral drugs. Each "cocktail" is tailored to meet the specific needs of the patient, and can cost as much as $15,000 a year."

The * people advocate and support protecting pharmaceutical companies' brand names.

"In Africa, where there are 4 million new cases each year, the term "treatment" scarcely applies. With few exceptions, a positive test for HIV in Africa is a death sentence."

"Sophisticated treatments are available only to the wealthy in Africa, and most Africans are desperately poor. In the United States, which has a population of about 274 million, about $10 billion in public and private money is spent each year on research, treatment and prevention of AIDS. The nations of Africa -- total population 543 million -- spend only $165 million."

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/aids/stories/treatment/


Bush's Surreal AIDS Appointment
Millions Die, But Big Biz Still Rules
By JIM LOBE

"The appointment of a former top executive of a major U.S. pharmaceutical company and major Republican contributor as President George W. Bush's global AIDS co-ordinator has stunned and outraged AIDS experts and activists. Bush's choice of former Eli Lilly & Co. boss Randall Tobias was announced at the White House on July 1, just a few days before Bush's first trip as president to Africa. The U.S. Senate must confirm the nomination."

http://www.counterpunch.org/lobe07042003.html