Pandering in Uganda

In September of 2005, the BHC noted rising discontent within the UN over Bush's putative HIV/Aids funding for Africa when the UN secretary general's special envoy for HIV/Aids in Africa, Stephen Lewis, expressed dismay, not only with unmet promises of money, but the White House's strictures on the funding to be dispersed. The Bush administration had cut funding for condom programs and insisted that funding would be dependent upon adoption of "abstinence" education. As most health experts have repeatedly said, this was a doomed health policy, certain to result in increased HIV/Aids cases. White House officials were nonplussed by such warnings, insistent, as they have always been, on their faith-based approach to, well, everything: don't pester us with facts! We have ideas about how people should behave.

It was noted then that Uganda served as an excellent example of the efficacy of the condom program; the country had seen a significant drop in infections until 2001 (from 15% to 5% over ten years, 30% to 9% among pregnant women). At least, Uganda was a good example of this and promised hope to millions. Rather, there was hope until the expected effects of Bush's abstinence program kicked in. There are numbers now indicating Uganda's success in fighting the disease has been dealt a severe blow by this wrong-headed White House dogma, founded as it is in pandering to Dobsonian Christianist nonsense.

Esther Kaplan at Talk to Action has noted that Uganda is reporting that, in two years, HIV/Aids infections have nearly doubled, from 70,000 in 2003 to 130,000 in 2005.

Not only has Bush administration policy led directly to the deaths of tens (hundreds?) of thousands of civilians through their pre-emptive war strategem, health policy governing Aids funding to Africa is now on the verge of claiming thousands or more lives. So utterly divorced from reality as it is, yet another mindless White House policy is about kill again. These people must be stopped.