Africa

I posted previously about Uganda and the LRA here. From an article on bbcnews.com:

Uganda's government has dismissed as "ridiculous" rebel leader Joseph Kony's claims that his Lord's Resistance Army was not involved in atrocities. International rights group Human Rights Watch expressed surprise at Mr Kony's claim but said he must defend himself at the International Criminal Court. Thousands have died in a conflict in which the LRA targetted children… Former BBC correspondent in Uganda, Will Ross, says Joseph Kony may describe himself as a freedom fighter but the LRA has had no clear political agenda and freedom is the last thing that he has brought as his rebels have caused widespread suffering and fear. The rebels, claiming to be guided by the Bible's Ten Commandments, have caused insecurity in northern Uganda and southern Sudan. The LRA has kidnapped many thousands of children over the years. It turns the boys into fighters or porters and uses many of the girls as sex slaves.

From a Reuters article of the same title by Lesley Wroughton on Yahoo News:

The world's richest countries are falling short on pledges made last year to provide Africa with life-saving AIDS drugs, expanded trade and increased aid, said rocker-activist Bono… "They started out to climb an Everest but over the past year they got lost at base camp," Bono told Reuters in an interview after the release of a report by his lobby group Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa group, or DATA… The report said wealthy countries had delivered on their promise to cancel the debts of 19 poor countries, most of them in Africa, with 44 countries eligible under World Bank and International Monetary Fund programs… The report said relief from burdensome debt payments in Cameroon, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia has already swelled spending on education, health and AIDS… The report said much more was needed to provide access to drug therapy to fight HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Globally, AIDS funding has grown to $8.3 billion in 2005 from $300 million in the late 1990's. In Africa, the number of people being treated rose to 800,000 last year from 100,000 in 2003. DATA said, however, that donors were spending half of what was needed to meet the goal of getting AIDS treatment to at least four million Africans by 2010. The report commended the United States for leadership on AIDS programs in Africa, and Britain and France for their contributions to a Geneva-based global fund for AIDS. Canada, Italy, Japan and Germany were laggards, it said. "Breaking your promise is always bad but breaking a promise to people whose life depends on it is unforgivable," said Bono, who recently traveled to Africa. The report castigated the G8 for failure to reach a trade deal that would open markets for African products

Even more reason to be depressed about the plight of Africa. From an article titled "Liberia sex-for-aid 'widespread'" on bbcnews.com:

Young girls in Liberia are still being sexually exploited by aid workers and peacekeepers despite pledges to stamp out such abuse, Save the Children says. Girls as young as eight are being forced to have sex in exchange for food by workers for local and international agencies, according to its report. The agency says such abuse is continuing as people displaced by the civil war return to their villages.

Disgusting. From an AP article on MSNBC.com:

The U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Liberia, Jordan Ryan, said the survey was outdated because it was conducted nine months ago and much has improved since then. The camps that are the primary subject of the report are now closed, he said.

In a commentary with the same title, Kathleen Parker discussed the reports that...

...the Vatican is considering sanctioning the use of condoms among married couples when one of the partners is infected with AIDS. This move, though not yet a done deal, has been heralded as revolutionary and as a sign of hope for AIDS sufferers, especially in Africa, where some 6,600 people die every day of the disease. The Vatican has made clear that any endorsement of condom use to prevent the spread of disease should not be construed as a shift in doctrine regarding birth control. This highly technical exception, if approved, would be permitted only in the spirit of self-defense, not contraception.

The rest of the commentary discusses how senators, such as Rick Santorum and Richard Durbin,

...have been pushing Congress to donate ever larger sums to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. While such expenditures are consistent with President George W. Bush's pledge to fight AIDS in Africa, they are nonetheless controversial in some quarters, specifically to Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, who has been expressing disapproval and sending oblique threats to Santorum via the airwaves. Why? Because the Global Fund distributes money to countries and organizations, including some faith-based ones, that in addition to distributing drugs to AIDS victims also distribute condoms -- sometimes, possibly, to people who may use them for unapproved purposes, including prostitution. But condom distribution is a minute part of the work the Global Fund provides for, which includes antiretrovirals to more than 384,000 AIDS victims, care for widows and orphans, and treatment of more than 1 million cases of TB. Yet, in one of his radio broadcasts, Dobson used the word "wicked" to describe the Global Fund and to let Santorum know that he was on thin ice.

Dobson should get a clue about pragmatism. Surely fighting TB and AIDS (and reducing the occurrence of unwanted pregnancies and abortions) are worth taking the chance that distributed condoms might be used in ways Dobson wouldn't approve. This is the sort of battle Dobson would choose to fight?

What a mess there is in Africa. Something has to be done. From an article by Isaac Phiri in Christianity Today:

It still feels like last night to Newton Mudzingwa. Seven months ago, Mudzingwa, a security guard in an affluent suburb of Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, had a much-appreciated night off-duty. He spent the evening in one of the city's burgeoning slums, in the one-room shack he had rented-with him, his wife, and his two young children crammed into a single bed. It was to be their last night at home together. Around midnight, the blare of loudspeakers jolted them out of sleep. Police and military officers cheered by President Robert Mugabe's political activists swooped down on the slum to demolish "illegal" structures. Operation Murambastvina (meaning "Drive Out Trash") had begun. Mudzingwa quickly threw together whatever goods he could save. His wife bundled blankets around their children. As temperatures plummeted to biting levels, they rushed outside. The family then watched as bulldozers reduced to rubble the only home the children had ever known... The government says that only 700,000 people were relocated and that urban renewal was long overdue. Other reliable estimates put the figure at 1.7 million displaced people. Either way, the Mudzingwas were among tens of thousands of locals suddenly without shelter, proper food, and clean water... On the ground, away from the media, churches located in the slums felt the first brunt of the government's action. Thousands sought help... Churches responded by delivering food, water, and blankets, as well as by housing many of the displaced-at least until they, too, were forcibly moved. The government put many families into holding camps in remote areas... The government eventually succumbed to local and international pressure and halted the destruction. But by February, the beginning of the rainy season in Zimbabwe, thousands were still living out in the open or under plastic sheets. The government had promised earlier to build 200,000 new homes by the year's end. But the deadline came and went without much being done. Some media reports say the few houses that were constructed crumbled under the first heavy rains... Everything about Zimbabwe nowadays is bleak. Harare is gloomy. Potholes cripple the already rickety public transportation system. Water shortages occur daily. Power outages are frequent and will get worse. The utility company says it needs u.s.$9 million per month to pay its bills for imported power. People line up for basic necessities-food, gas, medicine-if they can be found, that is. Even cash is scarce. Banks run out. If you can get cash, you need a wheelbarrow to carry it home. Gideon Gono, the country's reserve bank boss, said inflation would be at 800 percent by March. "We are all millionaires," laughs a trader of foreign currency outside a Harare bus stop. He offers 1 million Zimbabwean dollars for u.s. $10. Pessimism reigns. In Mbare, a high-density slum township near Harare, the poverty is glaring. Garbage gathers. Burst sewage pipes gape and spill. Street children roam. Residents struggle to make ends meet by peddling anything and everything.