Aids in Africa: Part 2

Forty million Africans are infected with HIV or AIDS. Overwhelmed with hunger and warfare, the continent has not been able to deal with the AIDS crisis. For hundreds of years, Western civilization has been benefiting from African resources, but we are not doing enough to help them in their dire need.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, or so the proverb goes. Non-governmental organizations are working hard to educate Africans about AIDS prevention. For example, they are rewriting the words to well-known religious and anti-apartheid songs to teach about safe sex. This is good news, but it’s not enough. Currently there are 3 condoms per year per sexually active male available in Africa. I don’t know too many men who only have sex three times a year. As for female condoms, there is only one available for every 250 women. Some organizations don’t believe in contraception at all, while others simply don’t want to promote premarital sex. While I respect their beliefs, I think it’s time for these organizations to reconsider their policy regarding condoms. Is this one moral issue more important to them than the lives of millions of people?

Much of the money meant to help with the AIDS crisis is spent on the wrong sorts of things. According to Oxfam Canada, last year in Mozambique, 350 million dollars was spent on consultants. These consultants were mostly white males from the West, and they included people from organizations such as the World Bank. Only 74 million dollars was spent on public systems that would directly help the people of Mozambique. There is so little money in African health systems that a large percentage of African medical health professionals are relocating to countries such as Canada and Britain. Even in places where they have drugs to available, there is a grave shortage of trained medical staff to administer them.

In May 2004, Canada passed a bill that was known at the time as “Jean Chetien’s Pledge to Africa,” but now it’s called “Canada’s Access to Medicines Regime”. The idea was that Canada would produce cheap generic medication to and send it to Africa. This was a progressive and proactive new plan and I remember being happy to hear about it at the time. After two and a half years, the number of cheap generic pills that have made their way from Canada to Africa is zero. Click here to read an article outlining the reasons for this inaction. Bureaucracy seems to be a big part of the problem, and perhaps greed as the process to get permission to make genetic versions of drugs is being delayed.

One problem with government aid is that governments change. While our past leaders didn’t exactly work miracles for the AIDS situation, at least they were talking about the problem. The international AIDS conference was held in Toronto in August, and the Harper government was not represented, nor did they make any public statements that week. A couple press conferences were made and cancelled throughout the week, while NGOs and the press harshly criticized the Tories for their silence. Finally Harper announced that there would be no announcement. He said that the situation was too politicized. As the elected Prime Minister of a nation, I would think that every situation he is expected to attend to is politicized. Such is the life of a politician.

We can't all rush off to Africa to administer drugs and help in safe sex education. What we can do is give money to NGOs like Oxfam and the Stephen Lewis Foundation. If you don't have any money there is still something you can do. You can also write to your MP and Harper demanding that they do something. Remember, writing to a federal politician doesn't even cost a stamp.