A new free-trade deal between the EU and India may block access to generic antiretroviral drugs (ARV), the drugs needed to control HIV. Currently a years supply of generic ARV's cost $137 per person, per year. The spread of HIV is somewhat on the decline in Africa, and UNICEF has released a report stating that an HIV-free generation is possible if mother-to-child prevention drugs (which prevent the disease from being transmitted from a mother to her unborn child...obviously) are made accessible. So why are 1,000 babies a day in Africa still being born with HIV? With 22.5 million people in Africa living with HIV, this is an achievable goal. That's less then the populations then Canada, and we all get free healthcare, which is a hell of alot more social spending then $137 a year. But how to go about advocating for it? Canada has committed 1.7 billion towards maternal healthcare...to provide each person with ARV drugs for a year it would cost about 3014000000, which is 3 billion if I'm counting the zero's correctly, and using a calculator correctly. Only twice as much as Canada committed. And all together the G8 committed 7 million. So where is this money going.
Thoughts? Ideas?
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/kenyans-rally-against-eu-india-deal-on-aids-drugs
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/hiv-free-generation-achievable-unicef/
Friday, December 10, 2010
Thursday, December 2, 2010
December 2nd
“After all, the preferred definition of ‘lead’ is to ‘show the way to’; only the secondary definition is to ‘cause to follow’. Likewise, the preferred definition of leadership is ‘the position or guidance of a leader.’ Only the secondary definition is ‘the ability to lead’. One can be a leader, at least in moral terms, without exerting controlling or decisive influence.”
(Forsythe, David. “Human Rights, The United States and the Organization of American
States.” Human Rights Quarterly)
It takes alot of pressure off to know that, by definition, to be a moral leader you should not be strong arming world leaders into being moral. That's sinking to their level.
(Forsythe, David. “Human Rights, The United States and the Organization of American
States.” Human Rights Quarterly)
It takes alot of pressure off to know that, by definition, to be a moral leader you should not be strong arming world leaders into being moral. That's sinking to their level.
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