[Vision2020] Foodbanks and birth control

Wed Jun 4 08:44:46 PDT 2008

RE: Donovan "What the world needs is more birth control and education not to have more children they cannot afford to raise."

The world was trying this till your not-really-elected president got in the way, par for his course.

Re: private food banks-does this make as much sense as allowing private prisons to operate and lobby by those who have something to gain by more people being incarcerated.  What do private food banks do to educate and help alleviate poverty?  Is there profit being made by a private foodbank?

Published on Tuesday, February 19, 2008 by Foreign Policy in Focus 
Bush’s Out-of-Tune AIDS Plan
by Michael Swigert and Sena Tsikata

President George W. Bush is already grabbing headlines with his latest self-congratulatory album, PEPFAR: True Leadership, and his accompanying farewell promotional tour across Africa. Between February 15 and 21, he will travel to the countries of Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, and Liberia to promote this musical swan song - a concept piece that highlights his supposedly groundbreaking leadership in the fight against global HIV/AIDS. As with Bush’s previous productions, this latest record will frustrate music lovers with serious lyrical flaws that illustrate the ineffectiveness of the U.S. response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa.
In his plucky first single, My Plan, President Bush reminds listeners of how he chose in 2003 to create his own unilateral program, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), rather than pledge full U.S. support to the already established and internationally acclaimed multilateral initiative known as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Bush’s catchy lyrics fail to mention how PEPFAR created a duplicative bureaucracy grounded in an emergency response mentality that challenges its sustainable effectiveness. Equally absent from the liner notes is any acknowledgement of the low levels of PEPFAR’s overall funding relative to the scope of the global HIV/AIDS crisis, of which Africa remains the epicenter.
President Bush touts his favored abstinence-until-marriage HIV prevention strategy on the album’s second single, “A.U.M“. The melody here is simply out of tune. As a result of an earmark in the PEPFAR legislation that privileges abstinence-until-marriage programs, the distribution of U.S. global HIV/AIDS funds has undermined access to life-saving condoms. African community organizations that implement PEPFAR funded prevention and treatment programs have been frustrated by this ideological limitation, which restricts them from responding to the distinct needs of their communities. Uganda, held up as an African success story because of its success in reducing HIV rates over the past decade, achieved progress through a comprehensive national prevention campaign that promoted abstinence, being faithful and condom usage (the ‘ABC’ approach). Uganda currently risks reversing this progress because of the Bush-driven shift away from education on condom use.
In the upbeat Profits Versus Lives, Bush attempts to lift the tempo as he defends his administration against claims that they prioritize corporate profits over African lives. While the chorus declares that PEPFAR uses the most cost-effective medications available to treat HIV-affected individuals, Bush’s pithy lyrics don’t stand up to the facts. In 2006, brand name manufacturers produced 73% of the lifesaving anti-retroviral drugs purchased with PEPFAR funds, totaling 20% of all PEPFAR funding that year. While PEPFAR does not explicitly forbid money from being spent on generic anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs, the Bush administration refuses to accept World Health Organization (WHO) evaluations of drug purity, safety and efficacy, instead relying solely on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s screening process to choose which drugs are PEPFAR eligible. This unnecessary procedural bias means that few of the cheaper, internationally produced generic drugs can be purchased for PEPFAR treatment programs, reducing the efficiency of U.S. taxpayer dollars and placing fewer Africans on life-saving ARV-treatment.
Doubling the Dollar, a mid-album track, stands out only for its lack of creativity and disingenuousness. Bush repeats like a broken record the claim that his proposed $30 billion over the next 5 years represents a doubling of funding for the second version of PEPFAR. This simply isn’t true. In fiscal year 2008, the United States is spending around $6 billion on global HIV/AIDS programs. Do the math, and $30 billion over 5 years equals flat funding - an approach that fails to keep up with the expanding demand for treatment.
In short, “PEPFAR: True Leadership” is a painful clash of inconsistent and inefficient policy tunes which will have little chance of making it on any charts tracking true leadership in the fight against global HIV/AIDS. As with any lousy record, however, a chance for redemption remains. If the next U.S. president and Congressional leaders currently debating the legislative sequel to PEPFAR want to strike a more pleasant chord that resonates with the history books, they’d do well to follow the following recipe for success:
First, support the full U.S share of the Global Fund and increase overall funding to the levels public health experts agree are necessary: at least $50 billion by 2013 for HIV/AIDS programs alone. Use generic drugs approved by the WHO to maximize the impact of each dollar spent. Eliminate the unscientific abstinence-until-marriage earmark to give African partners the flexibility to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic based on the actual needs of their communities. Integrate programs that address gender-based violence into PEPFAR, and make sure that the program reaches the most-affected populations. Finally, cancel Africa’s illegitimate debt so that African countries can direct their own funds to build sustainable health infrastructure, train health workers and research affordable prevention technologies.
Michael Swigert is a Program Associate at Africa Action in Washington, DC. Among the issues he researches are trade, the recent elections in Nigeria and the DRC, and the 2008 U.S. presidential elections. Michael served as a volunteer teacher in Ho, Ghana. 
Sena Tsikata is a Development Associate at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC. A Ghanaian native, Sena has worked as a youth reproductive health educator using theater and media with Advantage Productions in Ghana.
Copyright © 2008, Institute for Policy Studies

Published on Sunday, October 26, 2003 by CommonDreams.org 

Make War Not Love: Abstinence, Aggression and the Bush White House 

by Heather Wokusch

The Bush Administration's sexual prudishness is no secret - and neither is its love of war. Could the two be connected? 
The freewheeling "Oral Office" Clinton years came to an abrupt halt when Bush took over. Suddenly, abstinence became the White House mantra, and men whose religiosity seemed to preclude doing the nasty occupied the highest offices in the land. 
There's Attorney General John Ashcroft, who opposes drinking, smoking - even dancing - on moral grounds, and who ordered the "Spirit of Justice" statue covered up because he couldn't handle the sight of her naked marble breasts. There's David Hager, an OB/GYN who refuses to prescribe contraceptives to unmarried women (and believes the Bible is an antidote for premenstrual syndrome), as one of three religious conservatives Bush appointed to the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs. 
Then there's the "no sex is safe sex" youth campaign, backed up by "virgin pledge" programs for high schools. Reminiscent of Nancy Reagan's "just say no" approach to drug education, abstinence-only programs have seen their budgets explode in recent years, as Bush keeps an election promise to his conservative Christian backers. Similarly, funding for sex education courses has been cut, along with medical services providing contraceptives to teenagers. 
Not everyone is pleased with this new push to stifle open discussion about sex. The Institute of Medicine has called abstinence-only programs "poor fiscal and health policy," and former US Surgeon General David Satcher has argued that teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) cannot be fought without sex education classes which openly discuss contraceptives and other forms of self-protection. 
The Bush Administration's emphasis on abstinence has also made it something of a sexual pariah abroad. Citing objections about health workers being allowed to discuss condom use, last year the US voted against a United Nations resolution to fund global AIDS education and prevention. Intriguingly, the only others voting with the States against the UN resolution were Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Syria and the Vatican. 
Numerous studies have documented that "no sex" societies are often plagued by acts of rage. A cross-cultural investigation by American psychologist J.M. Prescott, for example, found that societies which punished premarital sex tended to have higher rates of crime and violence. Prescott also linked sexual repression to aggression, insensitivity, criminal behavior, and a greater likelihood of killing and torturing enemies. 
Of course, just as sexual repression can lead to aggression, a culture of war can equate intimacy with violence. So these days, it comes as no surprise that lethal weapons are often described in loving, phallic terms. 
Case in point: a recent exhibition in San Francisco, entitled "The Gun Show (Girls + Guns = Sex)," celebrated weapons as erotic art; a review of the exhibition said, "... as a nation, we have fulfilled the very definition of fetishism: we have transposed genital sexuality onto a non-sexual object-the gun. Obviously, there's a phallic element here somewhere, it's not exactly a giant leap for mankind to figure out what that shiny, steel shaft is supposed to be." 
When a macho view of weaponry and war becomes the norm, however, women often become "the enemy," with dehumanization and sexual abuse following close behind. 
The chilling recollection of a US service member who witnessed a gang rape during the Vietnam War is indicative. Marine sergeant Michael McCusker described what happened after a squad of nine Americans entered a small village: 
"They were supposed to go after what they called a Viet Cong whore. They went into her village and instead of capturing her, they raped her -- every man raped her. As a matter of fact, one man said to me later that it was the first time he had ever made love to a woman with his boots on. The man who led the platoon, or the squad, was actually a private. The squad leader was a sergeant but he was a useless person and he let the private take over his squad. Later he said he took no part in the raid. It was against his morals. So instead of telling his squad not to do it, because they wouldn't listen to him anyway, the sergeant went into another side of the village and just sat and stared bleakly at the ground, feeling sorry for himself. But at any rate, they raped the girl, and then, the last man to make love to her, shot her in the head." 
A brutal gang rape ending with murder is described as making "love." The line between sex and rage is blurred until it disappears entirely. 
In today's White House, that same line is being tested. Top administration strategist Karl Rove was caught at his ballistic best awhile back, making plans for a minor political operative who had displeased him: "We will fuck him. Do you hear me? We will fuck him. We will ruin him. text Like no one has ever fucked him!" 
Apparently for Rove "fuck" and "ruin" are synonymous; the implications speak for themselves. 
How does all of this bode for our future? 
When Bush was running for president, he promised to "build a culture that respects life." Of course, he was referring to fighting abortion rather than ending capital punishment or stopping war. Similarly, while the Bush White House has delivered impassioned speeches on the need to combat sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS, it has also deleted information regarding condoms from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention web site. More worryingly, AIDS programs supported by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have been singled out for funding review, and criticized if their content is too sexually explicit. No wonder Secretary of Health Tommy Thompson was booed and heckled when he spoke at the World AIDS Conference in South Africa last year. 
Unfortunately for Ashcroft and the rest, sexuality today is not as easy to cover up and deny as the "Spirit of Justice" statue's breasts. Not everyone who has sex is straight and/or married. STDs are rampant; AIDS has ravaged entire nations. Young and old alike are numbed 24/7 by images of gratuitous sex and violence. 
What's needed is a good long look at sexuality today - with all of its pleasures, diversities and dangers. Young people must receive information about self-protection in addition to abstinence. Contraceptives must be freely available. The societal line between sex and rage must be drawn firm and clear. 
Maybe then weapons wouldn't be idolized and women dehumanized. Maybe then governmental funding for creative, life-affirming programs would outpace that for weaponry and war. 
Heather Wokusch is a free-lance writer. She can be contacted via her web site www.heatherwokusch.com. This article is featured in the premiere issue of Stella magazine (www.stella-magazine.com)
> Message: 2> Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 18:08:26 -0700 (PDT)> From: Donovan Arnold <donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com>> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Economist Rankings of the World's Greatest> Challenges> To: Tom Trail <ttrail at moscow.com>, vision2020 at mail-gw.fsr.net> Message-ID: <510434.77785.qm at web38103.mail.mud.yahoo.com>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"> > Rep. Trail,> > Has anyone suggested teaching people living in third world countries that most of their starvation and malnutrition problems would go away if they would not be popping out 8 babies a piece?> > What the world needs is more birth control and education not to have more children they cannot afford to raise.> > Best Regards,> > Donovan> > Tom Trail <ttrail at moscow.com> wrote:> Visionaires: > > > Economists recently met in Denmark and ranked the world's greatest challenges.> Malnutrition and health problems dominated the top ratings.> > > Tom Trail> > > How to save the world: the verdicts are in from the experts and our readers http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4033472.ece From Times Online May 30, 2008 Spending ?30 billion> Economists battle it out to rank possible solutions for the great challenges in global stability and security > Copenhagen Consensus: the panel's verdict> 1 Micronutrient supplements for children (vitamin A and zinc) Malnutrition 2 The Doha development agenda Trade 3 Micronutrient fortification (iron and salt iodization) Malnutrition 4 Expanded immunization coverage for children Diseases 5 Biofortification Malnutrition 6 Deworming and other nutrition programs at school Malnutrition & Education 7 Lowering the price of schooling Education 8 Increase and improve girls' schooling Women 9 Community-based nutrition promotion Malnutrition 10 Provide support for women's reproductive role Women 11 Heart attack acute management Diseases 12 Malaria prevention and treatment Diseases 13 Tuberculosis case finding and treatment Diseases 14 R&D in low-carbon energy technologies Global Warming 15 Bio-sand filters for household water treatment Water 16 Rural water supply Water 17 Conditional cash transfers Education 18 Peace-keeping in post-conflict situations Conflicts 19 HIV combination prevention Diseases 20 Total> sanitation campaign Water 21 Improving surgical capacity at district hospital level Diseases 22 Microfinance Women 23 Improved stove intervention Air Pollution 24 Large, multipurpose dam in Africa Water 25 Inspection and maintenance of diesel vehicles Air Pollution 26 Low sulfur diesel for urban road vehicles Air Pollution 27 Diesel vehicle particulate control technology Air Pollution 28 Tobacco tax Diseases 29 R&D and mitigation Global Warming 30 Mitigation only Global Warming > > Content-Type: image/jpeg;> name="image001.jpg"> Content-ID: <image001.jpg at 01C8C489.7D544EE0>> Content-Description: image001.jpg> Content-Location: image001.jpg> > Content-Type: image/jpeg;> name="image002.jpg"> Content-ID: <image002.jpg at 01C8C489.7D544EE0>> Content-Description: image002.jpg> Content-Location: image002.jpg > > > > > -- > Dr. Tom Trail> International Trails> 1375 Mt. View Rd.> Moscow, Id. 83843> Tel: (208) 882-6077> Fax: (208) 882-0896> e mail ttrail at moscow.com> =======================================================> List services made available by First Step Internet, > serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. > http://www.fsr.net > mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com> =======================================================> > > -------------- next part --------------> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...> URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20080603/fff7bd3a/attachment.html > -------------- next part --------------> A non-text attachment was scrubbed...> Name: not available> Type: image/jpeg> Size: 8204 bytes> Desc: not available> Url : http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20080603/fff7bd3a/attachment.jpe > -------------- next part --------------> A non-text attachment was scrubbed...> Name: not available> Type: image/jpeg> Size: 3093 bytes> Desc: not available> Url : http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20080603/fff7bd3a/attachment-0001.jpe > > ------------------------------> > =======================================================> List services made available by First Step Internet, > serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. > http://www.fsr.net > mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com> =======================================================> > End of Vision2020 Digest, Vol 24, Issue 14> ******************************************
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