More depressing news from Africa, via the UN Wire:
HIV/AIDS has decimated Africa’s farming communities so badly that the amount of cultivated land in some countries has declined by nearly 70 percent, researchers said on Thursday.
About 80 percent of Africans derive their living from agriculture but the illness, which has infected more than 25 million people in sub-Saharan Africa, has left fewer and fewer people able to till the soil.
“African agriculture depends on labor. You can’t produce crops if there is nobody to work on the farms,” said Annmarie Kormawa, of the System-Wide Initiative for HIV/AIDS and Agriculture (SWIHA).
I took a number of comparative politics courses, African history, African politics, etc., as an undergrad, and you would be surprisd how many dedicated people worldwide are really doing everything they can to make Africa a success story. Yet still, every time you hear of Africa in the news, it is something heartbreaking like this.
over it
Though there is seldom ever any good news when it comes to the global AIDS crisis….I think this would qualify:
Good News
Krista
It IS depressing, isn’t it? People are working so hard, but it’s like two steps forward, one-and-three-quarter steps back. I was reading an article in Marie Claire last year, which was talking about the prevalent myth that having sex with a virgin cures AIDS, and how because of this, a lot of very young girls are being raped. This one woman had to go to work to be able to feed her 18-month old daughter, and while she was at work, a family acquaintance raped the baby. I try to keep hope that someday Africa will be able to rise above the poverty, disease and ignorance…and it does make me very happy to see how many peer counsellors and peer teachers there are there, who are spreading the word amongst their own. I think they have a much better chance of being heard and taken seriously.
Steve S
I just want to add a comment, commenting on the lack of comments. You post something about Africa, and you get no response… highlighting a general feeling of ambivalence to the issue.
over it
I would like to comment on the comment commenting on the lack of comments.
I would hope that it is not due to a general feeling of ambivalence….but more so because no one has anything to flame about. I would imagine that everyone here agrees that it is depressing and heartbreaking. How is one going to argue with that?
Again, that is my hope.
If it is the result of ambivalence….ya’ll are a sorry bunch.
Narvy
Rising to the challenge:
We certainly don’t want real education about AIDS, that would make them feel safe and would lead to even more promiscuity.
We certainly don’t want to give them condoms, that would lead to birth control.
We certainly don’t want to pressure Big Pharma into providing drugs at no or even low cost, that would lead to a decrease in profits.
We certainly do want to demand abstinence. That’s the only truly moral preventive.
So… are those flames hot enough?
Krista
Narvy –
Good attempt. Not feeling it, though. The people who DO basically spout that type of blather, though — do you think they actually believe it themselves? Are some people genuinely that deluded?
Stormy70
Africa suffers from too much governmental corruption. Aid goes into the pockets of the powerful, while the people suffer. Thus as it ever was there. I hope it changes soon, but what Western government has the balls to cut them off, and let them face the wrath of their own people.
demimondian
Stormy rises to the challenge…
Hmm. And why is it that the governmental corruption is tolerated
Krista
Stormy –
Would they suffer from the wrath of their own people, though? Or would the wrath be directed towards the evil westerners who cut off the aid? I agree that there is a huge problem w/ government corruption in Africa, but that’s why we can’t just blindly throw money at things. If money is invested in education and health programs, though, maybe the people will be healthy and educated enough to change things with their government. When you’re sick and hungry, you can’t really think of much else beyond that.
I could be wrong on this…I haven’t taken as many courses on this as John has. John, what do you think?
jobiuspublius
That’s what a physics professor of mine said. Makes sense. Democracy and good government is often common sense. I’m sure people can sort it out themselves with a little bit of smart help. IIRC, there are some low cost ways to get aid to Africa that do not require going thru corrupt governments. I bet sending a fleet or two to cruise around could help too on occasion.
Zifnab
The problem with Africa is that it’s really far away. We have enough trouble tackling famine, disease, government corruption, environmental destruction, and natural disasters in our own nation. Then look how much aid we extend to our southern neighbors. People starve in Columbia and Nicaragua and Haiti just like they do in Nigeria and South Africa and Madagascar.
We have trouble enough maintaining the status quo in the US. Maintaining good employement numbers, feeding and sheltering the homeless and the weak and abuses in America alone is a daunting task we still have yet to accomplish.
If we had a solution to poverty and STDs, I don’t doubt we would have exported it by now. But when the people who need our help the most are so very far away, it’s just that much harder. Harder to get through the diplomatic red tape, harder to move the supplies and the supply bringers, harder to establish yourself and organize your efforts.
We are throwing billions of dollars at a billion-dollar problem. It’s not surprising that the headway is sluggish. If we want to make more rapid, more significant progress, we will have to focus our efforts more heavily.
Unfortunately, when you deficit spend in the hundreds of billions every year trying fix your own problems while you wage a War on Terror, the resources that could be going to noble deeds ends up going to shoring up a certain man’s political career.
Narvy
I’m amazed that you would ask that question. This bullshit is blathered from the rooftops every goddam day. There is no question that American fundamentalists and the Catholic Church (apparently with the exception of some American dioceses) together absolutely believe it.
Narvy
Tolerated isn’t really the right word. It is endured because the corrupt governments have guns and the people don’t. Except, of course, for the “rebel” armies, that fight to overturn the corrupt government so that they can install their own corrupt government.
Narvy
I don’t think Stormy is completely off base on this. (Omigod! Pigs are flying and the end of the world is at hand!) The western governments are financial enablers, along with Pat Robertson, well-known diamond trader, gay basher, and assassin-about-town. But cutting off funding won’t bring them down and isn’t even feasible. African nations have valuable resources, nobody is going to stop buying them, and charitable funding will always be diverted to the corrupt officials.
Narvy
Well, we sort of do. It’s called money and pharmaceuticals. But the corruption being discussed here gets in the way, and I agree that the people who need help are too far away to register on our little personal GPS radars. Not too mention that they are a really unfashionable color.
If you want an interesting fictional take on part of the problem, go see The Constant Gardener. It would be a really entertaining thriller if it didn’t reflect what we’re discussing so realistically. (Actually, it is an excellent thriller, but very disturbing.)
Narvy
I don’t believe there are any ways to do this. The corrupt governments determine who can enter their territorial waters, who can land at their airports, and who can walk around in their countries. Unless you mean sending in a liberating army, which sort of fits with our current penchant for fixing other countries’ problems, but isn’t low cost.
Steve S
The most lucid explanation I heard for the problem of AIDS treatment in much of Africa was simply this. A doctor explained that the drug regimine they presently use requires you take so many pills at set intervals through out the day… like ever 4 hours, every 12 hours, etc.
He said there’s one big problem with implementing this in much of africa.
They don’t have clocks.
Steve S
On the condom thing. You know, I think we need to end-run the stupid Federal govt and pay for the condoms ourselves.
scs
I’m wondering is there is too much patronizing when it comes to Africa with the Western World always wringing their hands. Maybe the way they live is okay with them. Did you know that Nigeria is supposed to be the happiest country in the world, according to a survey? Why do they have to be like us to be considered a success story?
goonie bird
And malaria is ravaging africa all becuase of the eco-freaks thing against DDT
Narvy
A bit off-target, but then subtlety doesn’t seem to be your long suit. DDT has been proven to be injurious to animals and humans and has been banned in the US for quite some time. And there has been resistance to other countries’ using it. But hard to believe as it may be, at least part of the eco-freak conspiracy is acknowledging that there is a cost/benefit issue to consider and that in some places the damage inflicted by malaria may (in my eco-freak opinion, does) outweigh the damage that would be inflicted by use of DDT. And I don’t think it’s the eco-freaks who are making it too expensive to implement a DDT program in some areas.
I don’t know how it will play out, but the world I live in seems to be a bit more complicated and changeable than the one you inhabit.
tioedong
In Africa, most agriculture workers are women with hand hoes cultivating gardens carring babies on their backs…men do plow fields. Slash and burn is still the method of choice for clearing fields.
What’s wrong with this picture?
HIV is killing people, but the deaths from Malaria are higher…
The good news is that if you get rid of the tse tse fly and start irrigating, Africa could be a bread basket…
David
This is what Africa needs, but very likely will not have in the near and distant future:
1. God. They need a true faith to turn around their lives and control their behavior, especially the sexual promiscuity, and rape and looting and pillaging.
Abstinence works every time its tried, and you don’t get AIDS.
2. Free market, which provides the most goods and most services to most people than any other economic model. They have socialist systems, and the state owns and/or controls whole industries and sectors.
Further, don’t give them fish, teach them how to fish.
3. The Rule of Law. The set of laws that protect private property and individual liberties (religious, political, etc.). Africa is corrupt to its core. Nobody would invest in Africa, for fear of losing your investment. The politicians loot their own people and the foreign aid designed for the poor people.
4. Well, if everything fails, you can always invite a few aging and pathetic rockers and try to
“Export Rock and Rap To Save Africa – with G8 Live 8”
5. This is true, and very weird – Blair and Putin trying to
African Aid To Cannibalism” How did the media fail to pick this up, beats me.
6. And make sure race-monger Jesse jackson and al sharpton are as far away from Africa as possible.
Narvy
I don’t have time to write a real response to your post, but I feel compelled to point out that if you look at the URL in item 5, and maybe even take the trouble to go to satire.myblogsite.com, repeat satire.myblogsite.com, you might want to rethink