Why not eliminate AIDS?

Annan: 'We must do far, far more' against AIDS By Ellen Wulfhorst [In my opinion, I'm wondering why people aren't concerned about AIDS. After all, it is killing millions of men, women and children all over the world - is anything worse? You may read Ellen's article below, but first..... People were upset on 9/11 when terrorists destroyed the twin towers in New York City despite the fact that many if not most people don't even like New Yorkers! The whole world was willing to pitch in and help defeat terrorism - and in fact, if not for Iraq, with the world community's help, it probably would have been defeated by now! The world's people were in fact afraid that they could become the victims of terrorism in all of its imaginable forms! So why isn't most of the world concerned about AIDS? Well, you can point fingers at the Catholics who don't believe in people using condoms or any other form of contraceptives. You can point your fingers at Christians who think homosexuality is a sin and God, whoever He is, is merely meting out his punishment to the fallen few. You can point your fingers at those who consider black Africans as super apes who have been reproducing like rabbits and dying like rats for centuries and are really of little consequence in the ascent of man. You may even point your fingers at those who feel the world is grossly overpopulated in the first place and that this is nature's way of ‘thinning the herd'. And you can point your fingers at perhaps the majority who know for a certainty that they will never get AIDS and that it is too bad but at least it is one disease they know with a certainty they will never get. If you don't believe me, consider the news reports of the slow but sure advance of the dreaded bird flu which is predicted to kill millions. But millions have already died of HIV which receives only luke-warm attention. However, bird flu is getting everyone's attention! Why? Because the bird flu has nothing to do with ‘bad' sex nor does it have anything to do with God - but it does have something to do with all of us - we are all vulnerable - and we could die! We are born, live for awhile and finally die. It has always been so whether we started in a cave or a mud hut somewhere or in a palace built upon the backs of slaves. We huddle together in our small groups joined into larger societies only for our mutual protection. We do this, not for altruism or real personal care for the group, but for our own personal individual security and insured survival. It is a mutual but very selfish bargain we all make with the other members of our group. That is the reason we refuse to disband our armies even when we have, or could have through negotiation, no enemies. An army is our social ‘blankie' we have to have it to sleep at night because it has always been this way - it is in our survival programming. So what does this have to do with AIDS and the horrible death of millions of the unlucky? Why? It is very simple! We are not threatened by AIDS. We will never get AIDS. We may feel some passing compassion for those who are dying of AIDS but lets face it, compassion is not our primary business in surviving and is generally reserved for our own families - certainly not ‘them'........... AG] NEW YORK (Reuters) - Around the globe, leaders, activists and victims used World AIDS Day on Thursday to send the message that far stronger action is needed in the battle against the disease that kills millions of people every year. The United Nation's special envoy for AIDS in Africa proposed big business dedicate a portion of profits to the fight, French President Jacques Chirac suggested schools install condom vending machines and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called on people to talk openly about safe sex. The number of people living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has reached its highest level with an estimated 40.3 million people, UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot said. Nearly half of them are women. "We must do far, far more," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said. "It is time to recognize that although our response so far has succeeded in some of the particulars, it has yet to match the epidemic in scale." Others, including U.S. President George W. Bush, noted what progress had been made. Speaking in Washington, he said U.S. efforts were helping 400,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa get treatment. With just over 10 percent of the world's population, sub-Saharan Africa is home to more than 60 percent of all people infected with HIV. Africa saw about 3.2 million of the almost 5 million new infections recorded in 2005. "These countries, and many others, are fighting for the lives of their citizens, and America is now their strongest partner in that fight," he said. The 400,000 getting treatment, he said, was up from 50,000 two years ago. However, critics including senior U.N. officials say Bush's emphasis on abstinence-only programs has hobbled efforts by playing down the role of condoms. Taking up the cause of promoting condom use to prevent infection with the HIV virus that causes AIDS, officials in Buenos Aires covered the city's most famous landmark, the obelisk, with a giant pink condom. "It seemed like we could have the biggest impact by putting a condom on the most important symbol of the city," said Sandra Castillo, an organizer of the campaign. AIDS killed 66,000 Latin Americans in the past year, according to a U.N. report. From Vatican City, Pope Benedict said programs based on promoting abstinence and marital fidelity were seeing success, saying "statistics taken in several regions of Africa confirm the results of policies based on continence, the promotion of faithfulness in marriage and the importance of family life." But the pope did not specify the regions or the statistics, and he avoided a specific mention of the Roman Catholic Church's controversial ban on condoms. "The international response to HIV and AIDS was woefully slow. This is one of the scars on the conscience of our generation," said U.N. General Assembly President Jan Eliasson in remarks prepared for a ceremony in New York. "We cannot turn back the clock. But we must ensure that, when historians look at the way the world responded to HIV and AIDS, they see that 2006 was the year when the international community finally stepped up to the mark," he said. "This vast human tragedy is all the more unacceptable because it could have been avoided." AIDS FUND IN "TERRIBLE TROUBLE" In New York, activists stood by City Hall and solemnly read the names of deceased AIDS victims aloud. The Empire State Building, typically lit in bright holiday hues of red and green at this time of year, was set to go dark for 15 minutes to mark World AIDS Day. Stephen Lewis, the U.N. special envoy for AIDS in Africa, called upon on major corporations to contribute 0.7 percent of pretax profits to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS. The fund "is in terrible trouble" after increases promised by the Group of 8 industrialized nations in July failed to materialize, he said. "We need a new source of dollars," he said in a statement. "That source must be the private sector." The United Nations has long called on wealthy nations to donate 0.7 percent of gross domestic product for development aid every year. African AIDS patients criticized politicians for failing to take adequate measures. "Money earmarked for HIV/AIDS has gone into everything else but AIDS," said Meris Kafusi, a 64-year-old AIDS patient in Tanzania who only recently began receiving life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs that are widespread in the West. "Organizations that say they are dealing with AIDS are always in seminars or workshops. They should be buying food for widows and orphans ... Is this fair?" Lobby group Africa Action targeted pharmaceutical companies. "The prices charged by pharmaceutical companies, and the policies pursued by rich countries at their behest, continue to keep life-saving treatment out of reach for those most affected by HIV/AIDS," said Salih Booker, Africa Action's executive director. TALKING ABOUT SAFE SEX Politicians say taboos need to be broken to tackle AIDS. In India, which says it has 5.13 million people with HIV/AIDS, the second largest number after South Africa, Singh called on people to shed the inhibitions that keep them from talking about sex. "This, quite obviously, has to change if we are to succeed in creating awareness of the hazards of unsafe sexual practices," he said. (Additional reporting by Irwin Arieff at the United Nations, Louise Egan in Buenos Aires and Andrew Quinn in Johannesburg))