Whether Mbeki is justified in his explosive retort against racial slurs is not the point. Every word he utters simply loses him more credibility in his leadership position. He already lacks credibility when it comes to dealing with the welfare of his people, especially if the issue is AIDS related.
Mbeki is oblivious or chooses to ignore the peril of his nation.
- South Africa has the largest HIV+ population in the world
- 1 in 5 adult South Africans carry HIV
- 1 in 4 pregnant women are HIV+
- Over 600 die each day from AIDS related illness
- 40% of deaths in the 15 - 49 year age group are AIDS-related
- A 15-year-old only has a 20% chance of reaching 60 years
- By 2010 life expectancy will be less than 40 years.
- By the same year 6 million would have died as a result of AIDS
Bleating about racial slurs and condemning whites for focussing on the need for HIV treatment and prevention will not raise the dead or cure the sick. Mbeki is an ignorant man who does not recognise the link between HIV and AIDS. His legacy will be the death of millions more in South Africa.
P.S. [28 Oct 2004] Some good references:
One side of the story
The other side of the story
AIDS focus in South Africa
The United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
I think you might be giving Mbeki too much credit in being able to come up with such a fantastic straw-man offence/defence.
ReplyDeleteOccam's razor points to him being simply a dangerously ignorant man.
What you suggest is an international conspiracy to misquote Mbeki, to attack his credibility and subsequently to perpetuate a program of disinformation among the people of South Africa.
ReplyDeleteSuch a vile conspiracy is nothing less than genocide. I love a good conspiracy, but this one I cannot contemplate, perhaps my mind is ashamedly closed to the idea.
I defer to Occam's razor once again, unless you have something to back up your claim.
I don't dispute the issue of the availability and cost of drugs to treat HIV/AIDS. Nor do I think that South Africa's economy is strong enough to sustain a western-style health budget.
ReplyDeleteMy point remains, and I don't think you have adequately addressed it, that Mbeki does not accept the link between HIV and AIDS nor does he recognise the transmission of HIV through sexual intercourse. If the media have twisted his words, he sure as hell hasn't argued, let alone refuted the reports.
He consistently brings the cause of HIV back to poverty. While I recognise that HIV is spread faster within a poverty stricken nation, it has more to do with health education than poverty. Albeit that education is a product of wealth, being poor does not give you HIV/AIDS. Having unprotected sex or being born to an infected mother gives you the virus that leads to, if not directly causes, AIDS.
Mbeki and his government need to address the reality of the virus and how it is spread as an equal, if not greater, priority to securing cheap, effective pharmaceuticals.
If South Africa can contain the pandemic and drastically reduce the number of new infections then it wins the battle for future generations. If the nation only manages to treat the symptoms of the rapidly spreading virus, they merely prolong the deaths of millions and condemn the nation to even higher rates of infection.
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