Elizabeth Pisani, London Times, May 4, 2008
After researching HIV for over a decade, I know that we now have the information, the tools and the money required to eradicate Aids in most of the world. But we’re not doing it—and that makes me very angry.
To be fair, Britain has been a world leader in sensible HIV prevention. Under Margaret Thatcher, we were the first country to fund clean needles for drug injectors at a national level, and to make methadone widely available so that heroin addicts could stop injecting. The result: fewer than one in 75 drug injectors in Britain is infected with HIV, compared with one in two in Indonesia, for example.
For all its sensible policies, though, Britain won’t give out needles in prison. Yet two-thirds of all injectors in Britain have been to prison at some point; and nearly a quarter of all male injectors in prison say they’ve shot up while inside. Meanwhile, taxpayers fund needle-exchange programmes in prisons in other countries through the Department for International Development. But in Britain, the Home Office dictates what happens in prison, and denial rules.
I call it the Three Monkeys approach to HIV: we close our eyes to people injecting drugs, to people buying and selling sex, to people getting plastered and getting laid. We close our eyes, in short, to all the things that do the most to spread HIV.
Yet we can’t close our eyes to the fact that nearly 60m people have been infected with a preventable, fatal disease. About 25m of those are already in their graves. It’s also hard to ignore the fact that two-thirds of people with HIV in the world are Africans. Yet few people ask why.
HIV is largely a sexually transmitted infection, so there must be something different about sex in Africa. Yet you can’t say that without appearing to be racist. So campaigners have come up with other reasons that HIV is worse in Africa: poverty, ignorance, men having more power than women. All politically correct, but not epidemiologically correct.
The truth is that a society in which many people have two or three partners on the go at any one time will produce a bigger epidemic than a society where people may have 10 partners in five years, but only one at a time. And it’s a fact that in parts of Africa, it’s more common for both men and women to have two or three simultaneous relationships than to have serial partners. Do people behave in this way because they are poor and ignorant? Not in Bangladesh, or Bolivia, or dozens of other countries where incomes and literacy are low. Indeed, in Africa, the incidence of HIV infection is highest in the richest households and the richest countries.
In east Africa, HIV spread first among people who had lots of partners—in other words, men and women who traded sex for money or favours. Had condom use in commercial sex been pushed to very high levels at the time—as happened in Thailand—the epidemic would have been contained.
But most African leaders played Three Monkeys. So a miner infected a prostitute, who infected another client, who went home and infected his wife, who infected her regular boyfriend. Suddenly, HIV was everyone’s problem.
In Africa. Outside the continent, most people infected with HIV are men who have anal sex with other men, people who inject drugs and people who buy and sell sex, as well as their lovers. Indeed, it was these groups that first surfed into public consciousness. Early in the epidemic, the virus was treated as a sign of wickedness, a black mark for bad behaviour. But voters don’t care for the wicked; ergo, politicians don’t care for the wicked. Ergo, no money for HIV.
God knows, we needed it. When I started out in this business in the mid1990s, the world was spending just $250m a year on HIV in poor countries. Later, as African infection rates soared, HIV was repositioned as an affliction of the innocent. The cash started to roll in and, last year, the world spent $10 billion on HIV in poor countries.
When the funding pie was small, HIV prevention meant doing helpful things for sex workers, gay men and drug injectors. Now that the pie has grown to 40 times its original size, and HIV has been painted as almost exclusively a matter of poverty, youth and “innocent victims”, everyone wants a bite.
The UN agencies were the first to jump on to the growing pile of funding, each finding a way to link the blood-borne virus to its own mandate. Other agencies dealing with children, development, economics, labour and agriculture all suddenly found that HIV was fundamental to their work. But the trail of funding hasn’t always taken them in the right direction.
It’s true, of course, that HIV has become a generalised problem in east and southern Africa, where, frankly, it is hard to know what to do about it except pray for better leaders. But what is true of those areas is simply not true for the rest of the world—where the “Aids is everyone’s problem” approach can do a lot of damage. A couple of years ago, I received an e-mail from Save the Children UK, asking for a reference for someone who had applied to be their HIV adviser in Indonesia. I asked why they needed an HIV adviser when only one in 22,000 of that nation’s children suffer from HIV—and most infections are in adult men. The charity would have been better off working on routine health services, education, even sanitation, I suggested. But no, Save the Children would do HIV in Indonesia, come hell or high water, because it was a corporate priority.
I felt like sending them to see Lenny Sugiharto. Lenny had come to the HIV prevention group I worked with, looking for funding for an “information, education and communication” programme for transgender sex workers (waria) in Jakarta.
Our information on HIV among waria was sorely out of date. So we did a study; and a week later, I went to the lab to pick up the colour-coded HIV test results—red for positive, blue for negative. The list was a quarter red.
To the embarrassment of the lab staff, I wept. And when I told Lenny the results, she went as grey as her Muslim headscarf. Then she drew up a new proposal for prevention and care. If only the policy-makers of the world were more like this transgender sex worker. If only governments, UN agencies, even big nongovernmental organisations could relate the science to the reality and do the things that make the most difference. Sadly, it doesn’t work like that.
Organisations raise money through appeals; and photos of orphans with big eyes set the registers ringing. Have you ever seen a flyer with a prostitute on it? Or a picture of a young guy about to inject himself?
Even Irish pop star Bono, so gifted at whipping up moral outrage, can recognise a losing battle when he sees one. Bono’s Product (Red) campaign, which allows people to feel good about buying gadgets because a fraction of the profit goes to “fighting Aids”, is very careful about what it funds. So careful that it actually breaks the rules of the Global Fund on Aids, TB and malaria, to which it gives the “red pound”.
The fund was supposed to make it easier to pay for the difficult stuff—such as needle exchanges, or clinics for sex workers. In theory, all the money goes into a single pot. Poor countries put forward proposals, a panel of experts vets each request, then millions are dished out to the most deserving.
Donors are not supposed to cherry-pick (“I’ll have the orphans, please; thanks, but no junkies”). Yet (Red) has ploughed more than $100m into the Global Fund—and every penny is earmarked for drugs to prevent pregnant women from passing HIV on to their babies, for treatment of the sick and for support for orphans.
In other words, (Red) has chosen the projects that consumers of iPods and Gap T-shirts can feel good about. Because nearly everyone feels good about treating sick people—but preventing them getting sick in the first place: well, that’s a lot more controversial.
In east and southern Africa, two decades of denial and mismanagement have allowed the HIV virus to hollow out whole countries. In the rest of the world, HIV continues to threaten men and women who inject drugs, buy sex or sell it, as well as men who have sex with one another. The lovers of those people are at risk, too.
Together, they add up to tens of millions of souls—so we don’t want funding for HIV to evaporate. We just want to be able to use more of the money doing sensible things to prevent new infections.
Original article
(Posted on May 7, 2008)
Comments
This is such a laughable take on such a serious problem that it’s ludicrous.
“Early in the epidemic, the virus was treated as a sign of wickedness, a black mark for bad behaviour.”
Well that’s because it is! Dieing of a very preventable disease does tend to show dumb behavior.
If I engage in any of those perverted and/or illegal behaviors it sure as hell is a black mark on me for bad behavior.
It won’t happen, though, as I had a physical for life insurance last month and the lab determined I had exhibited good behavior. No sweat!
Posted by Annoyed In Illinois at 6:07 PM on May 7
No, no, no…….AIDS was invented by Whites to blah blah blah blah
Posted by at 6:16 PM on May 7
Just like lions or freezing weather, AIDS has a positive side: to cull the herd. If you aren’t alert enough to spot the lion, or aren’t provident enough to prepare for winter, or haven’t the self-discipline to keep your pants up, the chain saw of reality will cut you down. Africa is a land of much potential, filled with people with little self-discipline, and therefore little potential. Our only legitimate interest here is to be prepared to seize the valuable territory when the Africans self-extinguish.
Posted by Schoolteacher at 6:52 PM on May 7
I can’t site the statistic, but I’ve read various places that the total population of Africa just goes up & up & up & up & up, even as AIDS “devastates” …. etc. etc.
Posted by WaitNow at 7:01 PM on May 7
I can’t site the statistic, but I’ve read various places that the total population of Africa just goes up & up & up & up & up, even as AIDS “devastates” …. etc. etc.
Posted by WaitNow at 7:01 PM on May 7
What a brilliant piece! I was wondering when someone was going to take on this double-standard.
I remember when AIDS first became an epidemic in the U.S. and the predominant population it effected were gay and bisexual white males. Nobody gave a rat’s butt about it. But when black athlete Magic Johnson became ill, suddenly AIDS was a “big deal” and everyone had to pull out all the stops and start pouring money into saving blacks like him from death.
Posted by at 7:26 PM on May 7
The truth is that evil people catch AIDS for the most part because their evil behavior makes them vulnerable.
The truth also is that we should not save those people and we couldn’t even though we will probably try.
Evil….in addition to many, MANY qualities that make it something forbidden for humans to engage in, is anti-life. Any society that indulges it to any great degree will eventually exterminate itself via the exact same behaviors. It is….unavoidable.
For the western world to attempt to shield others from this, and further, to attempt to shield our own citizens from this, is immoral. It won’t work because it can’t work. All it will do is cause our own people to suffer as more and more resources are devoted to trying to do the impossible for very dubious, yet high sounding, goals.
Most people living in africa, the middle east, the ghettos in the US etc. are, quite frankly doomed. And they deserve their fate.
Posted by at 7:45 PM on May 7
I think everyone would agree that preventive measures are the key to stopping the spread of this deadly disease. However, Africa and its indigenous people is a whole different can of worms. Funding for education, construction, rebuilding, and other programs may produce imediate results, but in the longrun amounts to pretty much a whole lot of hogwash.
jay fresh
Posted by jayfresh at 8:23 PM on May 7
Construction? Rebuilding? They’re talking about a virus here, not a bombing blitz.
Posted by at 9:08 PM on May 7
There should no other aid sent to Africa but condoms. Otherwise their indiscriminant sexual habits will cause unbridled populationn explosions and rampant disease. This in turn causes famine, turmoil, civil wars and corruption.
Kind of like how it is right now.
Posted by Lucas M at 9:16 PM on May 7
“There should no other aid sent to Africa but condoms. Otherwise their indiscriminant sexual habits will cause unbridled populationn explosions and rampant disease. This in turn causes famine, turmoil, civil wars and corruption.”
Lucas M.
And, let me add: the invasion of our “western” countries by their pullulating masses.
Posted by browser at 9:50 PM on May 7
Lucas M right on…..I stopped giving any kind of overseas aid long time ago….no one (in this country or any other) ever helped any of mine or me…if they get AIDS then…I say….what goes around comes around…in other words…you reap what you sow…sleep with everyone and anyone and you get punished!!! Simple as that!!
Posted by lydia at 9:50 PM on May 7
“After researching HIV for over a decade, I know that we now have the information, the tools and the money required to eradicate Aids in most of the world.”
Forgive my ignorance on the subject, I could be wrong, but I was not aware that we have the capacity to cure AIDS. Is this so?
Posted by browser at 9:54 PM on May 7
Not one dollar of US taxpayer monies should be spent in the fight against AIDS in either Africa or South America. There is something profoundly wrong about forcing whites to subsidize their own elimination, which any and all aid to Africa is reducible to. Nor should any US taxpayer monies be spent through the UN in its peace keeping missions in black Africa. Aside from being totally ineffective, when it does work it only fuels overpopulation and its consequent evils like starvation and continued reliance on Western support.
Posted by at 10:06 PM on May 7
Oh God, I’m so tired of this.
It’s like we are not supposed to acknowledge that irresponsible actions lead to dire consequences. And that Africa is full of irresponsible people.
So they make it into a health problem.
We must have clean needles to inject drugs in our veins!
We must have protection when we have sex!
Our homosexual sexmates must be given a clean bill of health!
We need health experts, double-quick! Where are the health experts? Don’t you care about us? Then send health experts!
It’s your fault!
Posted by the Tired One at 10:07 PM on May 7
And its unspoken because liberals have made topics like these taboo.
They do more to ultimately harm non-whites than they would be happy to discover.
Saying the root cause of African HIV has to do with African behavior and not the HIV virus (I know the V in HIV is virus but it just doesn’t look right) has been effectively made off limits by liberals - thus another solution must be found.
So while the obvious answer is already known, the current political climate makes it impossible to discuss. Very similar to the Dark Ages in Europe when people were burned at the stake for contradicting the “accepted” views of those in power.
This is where liberal theories about the US Government come in to play…
Posted by Patrick at 10:14 PM on May 7
You know what I don’t get? I keep reading statistic after statistic about AIDS/HIV desemating Blacks worldwide and yet their numbers are increasing. How is that? Are they so prolific that even a plague can’t stop them from breeding?
Posted by Talley at 10:25 PM on May 7
“The result: fewer than one in 75 drug injectors in Britain is infected with HIV”
Don’t they know the comedy found in presenting this as an ‘advance’?
How about, ‘fewer than 1 in 10 sex offenders infected with HIV’! It’s unlikely that statistic would be bragged about. Wonder why that would be?
Posted by Dinosaur Hatchling at 10:47 PM on May 7
why send money to africa for HIV treatment, they have been very successful with their beetroot, muti and baby rape cures
Posted by at 10:58 PM on May 7
I for one hope they find a cure for HIV.
Posted by at 11:19 PM on May 7
This author may think she is being dramatic by stating Africans have multiple sex partners relatively simultaneously. But she didn’t really mention the behavior that further compounds the spread of Aids in Africa. That far more African heterosexuals and those of African descent engage in anal intercourse then in the western world. Granted my evidence is anecdotal but I believe it to be true. A very good friend of mine spent 6-months of peace keeping duties in Haiti. He learned that the most common method of birth control amongst Haitians was anal as opposed to virginal intercourse. He also explained there was a higher frequency of switch hitting. I have heard the same from other reliable sources that anal intercourse is extensively used method of birth control in the mother country as well.
Posted by Dead in Denver at 11:22 PM on May 7
When aids was first diagnosed in the U.S. it was called G.R.I.D.S, gays related immune defiency syndrome. That aptly named moniker,was unacceptable to homosexuals. Thus the current label. Some good advice, unclean objects should not enter parts of the human body, nor vice versa. One has to have a tremendous amount of sympathy, for the unfortunate ones who become innocent victoms, of the lowly purveyors, of these filthy lifestyles.
Posted by The Old Sage at 11:27 PM on May 7
Forgive my ignorance on the subject, I could be wrong, but I was not aware that we have the capacity to cure AIDS. Is this so?
The new AIDS drugs suppress HIV to such an extent that the patient no longer tests as HIV+ and has no symptoms. The problem is the latency of the disease. HIV hides in the nervous system where most of the immune system can’t touch it. That acts as a source for reinfection if, at any time, the patient stops taking their medication correctly. It is thought that, if you treat the disease long enough, it eventually “sheds”. A similar model is the current thinking with herpes. If you go ten years without an outbreak, you’ll never have an outbreak again. All particles of the pathogen have shed.
Likely, the process takes decades for HIV. Treatment simply hasn’t been around long enough to know for sure. Certainly, the current thinking is that a patient, who correctly takes his medication, will live a normal lifespan. They just don’t know if he’ll ever be able to stop. People who do stop become HIV+ again and now it’s often resistant to treatment.
The populations talked about simply do not have the discipline to maintain treatment for 3 or 4 days, let alone 3 or 4 decades. They are going to die, even though there is a likely cure.
Posted by at 11:37 PM on May 7
“The new AIDS drugs suppress HIV to such an extent that the patient no longer tests as HIV+ and has no symptoms. The problem is the latency of the disease…….
The populations talked about simply do not have the discipline to maintain treatment for 3 or 4 days, let alone 3 or 4 decades.”
Thank you for your information. Very interesting. And what is the cost of this treatment? (Astronomical, I suppose?)
Posted by browser at 1:22 AM on May 8
In east and southern Africa, two decades of denial and mismanagement have allowed the HIV virus to hollow out whole countries. In the rest of the world, HIV continues to threaten men and women who inject drugs, buy sex or sell it, as well as men who have sex with one another. The lovers of those people are at risk, too.
————-
Pfft.. Is there any African country that has experienced an actual population decline from AIDS? If you have 10 children per mother you can lose a few here and there to AIDS, hippo attacks and other African joys.
Posted by at 2:53 AM on May 8
“I for one hope they find a cure for HIV.”
They already have - it’s a procedure called “responsibility”.
Posted by Iain at 5:01 AM on May 8
Of course, the research of J.Phillipe Rushton offered an explanation for this.Rushton’s findings lead to the coclusion that black Africans are a hyper-sexualized population (ie having a much higher libido) than other ethnicities around the World.
This is the simple, single factor that explains all.
For his pains Rushton has been insulted, spat at and excoriated like no other scientist on Earth.
But the irony is, that if Rushton was taken seriously and heeded efective, tailored strategies could have been delivered to Africa, and millions of lives saved.
Posted by Kenelm Digby at 6:37 AM on May 8
Two quotes:
“The truth is that a society in which many people have two or three partners on the go at any one time…”
“But most African leaders played Three Monkeys.”
The “Three Monkeys” theme Might not have been your best choice of metaphors there, Ms. Pisani.
Posted by at 8:39 AM on May 8
Schoolteacher wrote: Our only legitimate interest here is to be prepared to seize the valuable territory when the Africans self-extinguish.
Allow me to express unbounded admiration for your optimism. I can’t share it, what with our economy sliding down the toilet and our last white president (such as he is) about to leave office, but I certainly admire it.
Posted by Gringo_Malo at 9:15 AM on May 8
There have been two news reports, here in Canada, where African immigrants were arrested for having multiple sex partners when the two men were fully aware that they carried the virus. One of the stories occured in Winipeg, Manitoba, and some of the victims were as young as fourteen. In both of these cases, the willing ‘victims’ were most probably White woman/girls.
I really have mixed feelings on this issue…
Posted by Louis from Montreal at 10:21 AM on May 8
Just sheer fantasy on the part of the author. A recent Lancet study claimed that Westerners were more promiscuous than Africans.
Furthermore, the AIDS thing is a huge hoax—given that Africa has the fastest growing population in the world. Even Uganda and South Africa, both suppposed “ground zero” for AIDS incidence in the world have experienced strong population growth during the so-called “AIDS era”.
The point is that the tests for AIDS test only for CD4 T cell count—low count could be derived from any number of ailments or conditions—and not for the presence of the HIV virus per se.
Posted by OCCAM at 12:05 PM on May 8
COSPECIATION folks. It means fornicating with a creature outside your species.
Cospeciation explains two things: how africans got AIDS in the first place (having sex with green monkies (and eating money meat)), first, and secondly, why africans as a race are 40 to 60 thousand years behind other races the world over (their fondness for intercourse with lower species stunted their evolution, if you will).
The World needs to know: in 1950, one third of the world population was european, while less than 10% was black african. By 2050, those figures will be reversed, with Africa destined to double in population from today (1.2b), to 2.4 billion hapless souls. This super artificially populous Africa will need help to be brought in (foreign aid), and will need to GET HELP BY GETTING OUT (immigration to Western nations).
That’s the Big Picture, people.
Posted by from nola at 2:46 PM on May 8
“The truth is that a society in which many people have two or three partners on the go at any one time…”
I can only speak from my own very limited experience, but some of the African students that I have known have had several sexual partners at a time. I can’t say that they had AIDS. In fact, I doubt they did. Nevertheless, AIDS can take a long time to manifest itself and people can be HIV positive for several years before developing the full blown disease.
Posted by Sardonicus at 2:46 PM on May 8
The white west should not send one penny to Africa or South America, let them wollow in their squalor and hopefully disappear. We have been sending billions to those countries for years and it winds up in a Swiss bank account for some warlord.
Posted by at 3:52 PM on May 8
Sounds to me like OCCAM is a bit embarrassed by his race’s dissolute behaviors.
“A recent Lancet study claimed that Westerners were more promiscuous than Africans.”
Westerners of Sub-Saharan African descent to be sure.
Posted by at 5:09 PM on May 8
There is something profoundly different about sex in Africa which leads to a much higher Aids infection, that something that the ignorant UN study which came to the conclusion that circumcision reduces transmission totally ignored. That something is in the air, everybody can smell it.
100 years ago the major cause of death was infection of one sort or the other. The germ theory of disease transmission was well understood and the Western countries
made a concerted to ensure adequate sanitation. Public sewers and baths were built
in every European country, I do not know about USA. Slowly infections declined, with it rose the life expectancy.
It is not only promiscuity that spreads Aids, but the fact the between those bouts of
promiscuity less that 5% of the population has water to wash , a full body wash is customary only on circumcision and marriage. I spent some 25 years in East and Central Africa, whenever I entered an empty elevator I could immediately smell who was in before me. I often chose the stairs, this is what I meant when I said the reason is in the air. That is also the reason that Muslim cultures have far less HIV and Aids, firstly the all chop of part of their prick, they do not have this warm, moist
and isolated bacteria breeder, big mo also told them to wash their prick after sex.
Posted by ciccio at 5:11 PM on May 8
It is generally accepted that responsible populations of the world should continue to provide the cost of medical help to the irresponsible populations of the world.
Question: If the irresponsible populations remain irresponsible, repeatedly ignoring advice to improve their behaviorial safety to stop spreading the very diseases that are killing them, at what point does perpetuating this cruel cycle in itself become inhumane?
At what point do we admit that we are subsidizing suicidal behavior among people who will never behave any better?
Posted by Gary at 5:29 PM on May 8
“I for one hope they find a cure for HIV.”
If you’ve personally been affected by this disease, either yourself or someone you know, you have my sympathies. However, we’re not talking about Leukemia here. HIV is mostly transmitted by shooting up with dirty needles or engaging in promiscuous and/or unnatural behaviors. Getting it through a transfusion is relatively unheard of anymore in the US. The only innocent victims in this are the poor babies born to crack wh*res.
Posted by at 7:58 PM on May 8
Of course the smartest thing bill gates could do to help the world is train 2 million Americans to be doctors, but we know that is too conservative of an approach.
Posted by Lars at 8:39 PM on May 8
That is also the reason that Muslim cultures have far less HIV and Aids, firstly the all chop of part of their prick, they do not have this warm, moist and isolated bacteria breeder, big mo also told them to wash their prick after sex.
Strict Islamic morality probably has a lot to do with it as well.
India’s HIV infection rate is eight times Pakistan’s.
Posted by qwerty at 9:12 PM on May 8
Unless you are born a hemophiliac, AIDS is probably the most preventable and avoidable disease in the world, assuming you use a reasonable level of common sense and proper impulse control.
Posted by at 9:14 PM on May 8
If you’ve personally been affected by this disease, either yourself or someone you know, you have my sympathies. However, we’re not talking about Leukemia here. HIV is mostly transmitted by shooting up with dirty needles or engaging in promiscuous and/or unnatural behaviors. Getting it through a transfusion is relatively unheard of anymore in the US. The only innocent victims in this are the poor babies born to crack wh*res.
Posted by at 7:58 PM on May 8
Unless you are born a hemophiliac, AIDS is probably the most preventable and avoidable disease in the world, assuming you use a reasonable level of common sense and proper impulse control.
Posted by at 9:14 PM on May 8
Not so fast there!! Google “Sunday Adeife” and read about the African psych worker who raped a teenaged patient here in California. Hopefully, he does not have AIDS, and he should be THOROUGHLY tested to see if he does. He is facing eleven felony counts and should not be here in the first place. Rape victims who get AIDS or any disease from their attackers should have our sympathies, and those of us who can speak out or participate without fear of losing our jobs should be in court supporting the victims. Please Google this “man’s” name and find out what he did. He is a horrible person with NO excuse.
Posted by at 10:22 PM on May 8
qwerty, you are full of it! There is strict Islamic morality, it applies only to women.
There is no prostitution in Iran (officially) but by Shia custom a man can marry for as little as a few hours. Adultery is against sharia law, it does not apply if the woman is a kaffir, which is why a few hundred thousand have been raped in the Sudan. In Sweden, where those misbegotten leftist that run the country have thrown the doors wide open to those poor oppressed Samosas, or Somalis, call them what you will, a white girl is scared to go out alone at night, the incidence of rape has gone up eightfold since the advent of multiculturism. I am aware that India’s incidence of HIV is much higher, it
is too a large extent due to the same causes as in Africa, when you have no sanitation,
circumcision is the best cure.
Posted by ciccio at 11:02 PM on May 8
“I for one hope the find a cure for HIV.”
Don’t hold your breath. Since HIV is an RNA virus, it is fundamentally incurable. Herpes is the same in this respect.
One factor that aggravates the spread of HIV in Africa is that Africans are also likely to have other, untreated STDs that leave open sores.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 11:34 PM on May 8
Schoolteacher wrote: Our only legitimate interest here is to be prepared to seize the valuable territory when the Africans self-extinguish.
Allow me to express unbounded admiration for your optimism. I can’t share it…
Posted by Gringo_Malo
— — — — — — —
Nor can I. I too have to marvel at such “optimism.” The fact is that — Ebola, AIDS, etc. all to the contrary — Africans are doing anything but self-extinguishing. Quite the reverse, even despite these setbacks, they are multiplying exponentially and are invading our lands by the millions — soon to be in the tens or hundreds of millions.
Posted by browser at 1:58 AM on May 9
Why should I fund the treatment of people who know full well that their lifestyle is high risk?
If you do bad things then bad things happen. Its an evolutionary fact.
Why is it that by and large only gays, africans, users of prostitutes and drug abusers get Aids?
Because their behavior is WRONG.
Decent, clean, law abiding and straight Westerners shouldnt have to pay for their mistakes.
Posted by G Miller at 3:53 AM on May 9
Wait now is correct. The population of all African countries continues to rise, though barely even one of them can even feed their own people, much less provide any other services more or less necessary for life. Even South Africa and Zimbabwe have growing populations.
Posted by Robert Lindsay at 4:12 AM on May 9
“I keep reading statistic after statistic about AIDS/HIV desemating Blacks worldwide and yet their numbers are increasing. How is that? Are they so prolific that even a plague can’t stop them from breeding?”
It is partly that, but it is also partly because it is a disease that often kills only after the suffer has already had children. This is a big problem in Africa where HIV/AIDS has wiped out a large percentage of young adults, leaving children and the old. Of course this makes the problems of underdevelopment and poverty worse as it is mainly people of working age who are killed. In many places the old people, who don’t have much strength left for farming, are left behind to bring up their grandchildren.
As for the needle exchange issue, few people seem to consider that by providing clean needles one may very well reduce the infection rate but you may encourage drug addiction too. Is it better to have 10 injecting drug users with half infected, or 100 injecting drug users with 5% infected?
There must be gross incompetence and/or extraordinary laxness in the management of prisons if significant numbers of prisoners are using drugs. Any decent security system would prevent drugs being smuggled in and spot drugged prisoners - but this is just liberal lack of will, or indeed rejection of the idea that it is even legitimate or desireable to prevent drug use in prison.
Posted by Ed at 11:08 AM on May 9
Reply to 10:22 PM POSTER:
You have not invalidated the original posts. Yes, I would add victims of sexual assault as innocent vitims of AIDS, like babies born with it and Hemophiliacs, but the point is the source of infection came from someone else’s irresponsible or in this case criminal behaviour.
Posted by at 12:40 PM on May 9
The one and only cause that unifies Africa, from Zimbabwe to South Africa, to Sudan…is hatred for whites. Zimbabwe will
descend into literal starvation before it will admit that
whites were the one productive force in the country that made
everything happen. South Africa will descend into total criminal anarchy before they admit that their black revolution was a disaster. So be it. Nothing can stop this level of self delusion.
Posted by at 12:40 PM on May 9
“…far more African heterosexuals and those of African descent engage in anal intercourse then in the western world. Granted my evidence is anecdotal but I believe it to be true. A very good friend of mine spent 6-months of peace keeping duties in Haiti. He learned that the most common method of birth control amongst Haitians was anal… He also explained there was a higher frequency of switch hitting. I have heard the same from other reliable sources that anal intercourse is extensively used method of birth control…”
Posted by Dead in Denver at 11:22 PM on May 7
The Urban Dictionary would seem to agree. See definition #2:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ooga+booga
WARNING: This site is NOT work-safe and may be offensive!
Posted by at 1:25 PM on May 9
As many other posters have pointed out at different times, Africans would not have multiplied so rapidly had not the White man brought his magic to them. We see that as the last Whites are driven from Zimbabwe, for example, food shortages appear in their place. The First World infrastructure of South Africa is corroding as the only people capable of maintaining it, the Whites, no longer do so. The Africans continue to have children they can’t take care of, and Western nations continue to send them aid. Can you picture the howls of contrived anguish in the MSM were we to cut them off? Millions starving, tribal warfare at an all time high, and skinny kids with protruding bellies looking out at you from posters, begging and demanding your resources.
The professionally compassionate will stamp their feet and scream, but for how long will an impoverished America, faced with a declining currency, accelerating debt, a shrinking industrial base, and swarms of disruptive aliens, carry Africa on its back? And assuredly, nobody else will. And when famine engulfs the Dark Continent, the U.S., morally strengthened by the purges of alien elements and their White enablers, will be able to cherry pick the best parts.
Posted by Schoolteacher at 1:37 PM on May 9
“Why is it that by and large only gays, africans, users of prostitutes and drug abusers get Aids? Because their behavior is WRONG. Decent, clean, law abiding and straight Westerners shouldnt have to pay for their mistakes.”
Posted by G Miller
Mr. Miller: This decent, clean, law-abiding person, who is also “gay” [how I dislike that term!] does not have AIDS, and furthermore has no possibility of ever getting it. Some gay people do; some gay people do not. I do not. Ditto with “straight” people. I agree that all people should behave responsibly. But do not assume that you know things about other people’s alleged “behavior” when you don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t entertain lurid speculations about your behavior; don’t you speculate about mine.
Posted by No AIDS Here at 1:46 PM on May 9
More than 70% of the South African National Defence Force are HIV positive. One of the best armies the world has ever known is reduced to an Aids hospice.
Posted by at 3:11 PM on May 9
OCCAM: “Just sheer fantasy on the part of the author. A recent Lancet study claimed that Westerners were more promiscuous than Africans.”
Yeah, sure, that’s why 70% of blacks in the US are born to unwed mothers.
“Furthermore, the AIDS thing is a huge hoax—given that Africa has the fastest growing population in the world. Even Uganda and South Africa, both suppposed “ground zero” for AIDS incidence in the world have experienced strong population growth during the so-called “AIDS era”.
The fastest growing population in the world, and you are boasting about that? What benefit is that when blacks are at the bottom of the ladder concerning intelligence, advancement, and everything else, especially since they can’t even feed themselves and have to be given aid packages by the entire world? If I were black I’d be ashamed to admit that the world’s biggest failures are breeding the fastest. Are these the same blacks you claim are behind whites regarding promiscuity?
“The point is that the tests for AIDS test only for CD4 T cell count—low count could be derived from any number of ailments or conditions—and not for the presence of the HIV virus per se.”
Posted by OCCAM at 12:05 PM on May 8
So aids is not really at epidemic proportion in Africa, eh? Well, then I guess we can stop sending them anti-viral cocktails, because they aren’t bright enough to manufacture their own medicines, can’t we?
Let me guess, you’re claiming also that blacks aren’t infected with HIV more than any other race in the US as well, right?
Hilarious.
Posted by ice at 6:31 PM on May 9
Also don’t forget that while AIDS in Africa is bad, it’s not as bad as certain people would like you to think. The UN was recently caught with its figurative hands in the AIDS stats cookie jar, fudging them way upward in order to solicit money.
Posted by Question Diversity at 8:31 PM on May 9
“South Africa will descend into total criminal anarchy before they admit that their black revolution was a disaster. So be it. Nothing can stop this level of self delusion.”
Posted by 12:40 PM
I disagree with you only on this point: that, come hell or high water, they will NEVER admit their black revolution was a disaster.
Posted by at 11:08 PM on May 9
“far more African heterosexuals and those of African descent engage in anal intercourse than in the western world. Granted, my evidence is anecdotal but I believe it to be true. A very good friend of mine spent 6-months …in Haiti. He learned that the most common method of birth control amongst Haitians was anal. He also explained there was a higher frequency of switch hitting.”
Posted by Dead in Denver
A Latino friend of mine, who was gay and very promiscuous (thus knowledgeable), and was completely candid about it, told me the very same thing as above. He died of AIDS, and held nothing back. Like many Latin men, he was a compulsive sex addict, which ultimately killed him. It’s quite common there and considered no big thing. According to him, it seems that all those cultures touched in any way by Africa share the same peculiar tastes and practices. The mulatto countries do, the blacker the worse; on the other hand, mestizo countries do not. I take his word for it. Some sociologist should do a study in this area, but i’m sure the topic and the results would be utterly taboo.
Posted by at 11:30 PM on May 9
“… how long will an impoverished America, faced with a declining currency, accelerating debt, a shrinking industrial base, and swarms of disruptive aliens, carry Africa on its back? And assuredly, nobody else will.”
Posted by Schoolteacher
……………………………………….
Well, Europe will. But you make good points. I was standing on the platform of a suburban train station in Stuttgart and as I looked around me, reading the posters while I waited, I became aware that EVERY POSTER had the picture of some black child with big eyes and protruding belly (exactly as those described above). Every one! All the way down the platform. ALL of them beseeching aid for one Third World charity after another.
When will Europeans reach the end of their guilt complex and finally say “enough”?
Posted by ghw at 12:04 AM on May 10
“they will NEVER admit their black revolution was a disaster.”
Come what may, we can be sure that it will all be denounced as somehow being the white man’s fault.
Posted by at 12:09 AM on May 10
What about West or Central Africa?
Posted by Anonymous at 8:14 AM on May 10
OCCAM: [Just sheer fantasy on the part of the author. A recent Lancet study claimed that Westerners were more promiscuous than Africans.Furthermore, the AIDS thing is a huge hoax—given that Africa has the fastest growing population in the world. Even Uganda and South Africa, both suppposed “ground zero” for AIDS incidence in the world have experienced strong population growth during the so-called “AIDS era”.]
Every black that comes on this site, plus everyone we see on television talking about some black problem is delusional. Denying black populations the world over are rife with aids and HIV, will not make it go away, my uneducated friend.
http://www.courant.com/news/health/hc-hfdaids0505.artmay05%2C0%2C1034910.story
U.S. Urgently Needs AIDS Prevention Program, Expert Says
By DANIEL P. JONES
“Faced with an alarming incidence of HIV/AIDS among African Americans and Latinos, the nation urgently needs to begin a domestic program to curb the spread of the disease, according to a nationally recognized AIDS policy expert.”
Posted by at 2:24 PM on May 10
“A couple of years ago, I received an e-mail from Save the Children UK, asking for a reference for someone who had applied to be their HIV adviser in Indonesia. I asked why they needed an HIV adviser when only one in 22,000 of that nation’s children suffer from HIV. “
I would have asked why this British charity is funding an HIV advisor in Indonesia.
Posted by at 11:09 PM on May 10
Just think what could have been done with all the money, time, energy, medical resources that have been poured into the black sinkhole of AIDS and AIDS research. Just think of all the other sicknesses that could have benefited. People who get Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimers, etc, illnesses that were obtained through no fault of the person themselves, unlike the vast bulk of AIDS cases. Every dollar spent on AIDS was one less dollar that was not spent on other diseases. Every medical scientific researcher who devoted his efforts to AIDS was one less person seeking a cure or treatment for other illnesses. And it’s not like Africans are paying taxes to western governments.
Posted by at 12:05 AM on May 11
