Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

QUICK TAKES

I see the Wintery Knight Blog has once again linked to some of my blog posts.  I can easily reciprocate.  As I have repeatedly said, I regard WKB a daily must read.  Here are some of his latest posts together with required links:

Sen. Tom Coburn [R-OK] takes a hostile question (video) at a town hall  [Me: And gives a smashingly good answer]

New CDC study says that gay/bisexual men 50 times more likely to be HIV-positive  [Me:  That can only be news because of prior politically correct brainwashing]

Six prominent Jews explain why most Jews are so liberal  [Me: I always find it sad that so many Jews don't understand that evangelical Christians are their best friends.]

AIDS, AFRICA, CONDOMS, AND POPE BENEDICT XVI

Travis Kavulla defends the Pope's position on condoms and AIDS in his article, "Benedict Has It Right."    Me: I find Kavulla's points weighty.  Kathryn Jean Lopez offers useful commentary as well.

PRESIDENT BUSH'S LEGACY OF HELP FOR AFRICA - (Mona Charen)

Though Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in California rightly awarded President Bush the “International Medal of Peace” for his humanitarian work in Africa, the Left has refused to salute President George W. Bush and his noble efforts.  Mona Charen says that if President-elect Obama continues Bush's policies, Obama will be given the Nobel Prize and canonized. But it is Bush who deserves the credit he rarely receives.  Charen writes:

From the beginning of his administration, President Bush has pushed for more aid to Africa. Motivated perhaps by his deeply felt Christian faith (relieving poverty in Africa has become a major charitable push among evangelicals), the president has pressed for greater aid to Africa across the board. The original PEPFAR legislation (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), which passed in 2003, was the largest single health investment by any government ever ($15 billion). At the time the initiative was launched, only about 50,000  sub-Saharan Africans were receiving antiretroviral treatment for AIDS. Today, 1.7 million people in the region, as well as tens of thousands more around the globe, are receiving such treatment. PEPFAR has also funded efforts to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the AIDS virus, provided compassionate care to the sick and dying, and cared for 5 million orphans. One aspect of the program has been to reduce the stigma of the AIDS diagnosis in Africa.

In July of this year, the president requested that funding for PEPFAR be doubled to $30 billion. The new funding will be used to train 140,000 new health-care workers. It would also address other illnesses, like tuberculosis, that often complicate AIDS.

WESTERN SEXUAL PROMISCUITY EXPECTATIONS WRECKING UGANDA'S HIV/AIDS PREVENTION PROGRESS

Why didn't HIV/AIDS "experts" take seriously Uganda's great progress against AIDS when that country stressed marital faithfulness?  The Rev. Sam. L. Ruteikara, co-chair of Uganda's National AIDS-Prevention Committee writes:

In the late 1980s, before international experts arrived to tell us we had it all "wrong," we in Uganda devised a practical campaign to prevent the spread of HIV. We recognized that population-wide AIDS epidemics in Africa were driven by people having sex with more than one regular partner. Therefore, we urged people to be faithful. Our campaign was called ABC (Abstain, or Be Faithful, or use Condoms), but our main message was: Stick to one partner. We promoted condoms only as a last resort.

Because we knew what to do in our country, we succeeded. The proportion of Ugandans infected with HIV plunged from 21 percent in 1991 to 6 percent in 2002. But international AIDS experts who came to Uganda said we were wrong to try to limit people's sexual freedom. Worse, they had the financial power to force their casual-sex agendas upon us. . . .

Read on. . .

UN's AIDS Statistics Inaccurate and Overblown

I have updated a previous post to reflect the latest admissions.

Scientists Acknowledge AIDS Crisis Is Distorted and Overblown

Update 11/20/07 - The popular press now carries the story.  Here are a few excerpts from the Washington Post's coverage:

The United Nations' top AIDS scientists plan to acknowledge this week that they have long overestimated both the size and the course of the epidemic, which they now believe has been slowing for nearly a decade, according to U.N. documents prepared for the announcement. . . 

The latest estimates, due to be released publicly Tuesday, put the number of annual new HIV infections at 2.5 million, a cut of more than 40 percent from last year's estimate, documents show. The worldwide total of people infected with HIV -- estimated a year ago at nearly 40 million and rising -- now will be reported as 33 million.

James Chin, a former World Health Organization AIDS expert who has long been critical of UNAIDS, said that even these revisions may not go far enough. He estimated the number of cases worldwide at 25 million.

"If they're coming out with 33 million, they're getting closer. It's a little high, but it's not outrageous anymore," Chin, author of "The Aid Pandemic: The Collision of Epidemiology with Political Correctness," said from Berkeley, Calif. 

Me: So what does this tell us?  It tells me that one has to be suspicious of U.N. statistics.  The estimate of AIDS patients in India was lowered by 50%, from six million to three million!! - What does that tell us about statistics and accuracy??  - One must also be suspicious of issues being politicized.   Certain groups have a vested interest in keeping  the money flowing into their coffers.   As James Chin said,  "They've finally got caught with their pants down."  Read the WaPo article cited above for sober comments of the same type.    

**
This two-part analysis needs to be studied carefully in order to get a true perspective on the AIDS crisis.  Part I is here.  Part II can be found here.   (HT: VirtueOnline) 

Stopping the Spread of AIDS in Africa is Failing Because of Multiple Sex Partners

The Washington Post has a June 20, 2007 article titled Spread of AIDS in Africa is Outpacing Treatment.  It's a powerful article, well worth reading.  An excerpt:

...  Doctors are not winning -- and probably cannot win -- the war against the epidemic, because it is spreading far more quickly than doctors are treating its victims. Even as billions of dollars are spent expanding access to antiretroviral drugs, the goal of controlling AIDS in Africa remains remote.

"At the moment, I just see a never-ending sea of disaster," said [Francois] Venter, 37, the dark-haired, long-limbed president of the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society.

Underlying his frustration are grim statistics: For every South African who started taking antiretroviral drugs last year, five others contracted HIV, the same ratio as on the continent as a whole, U.N. reports say. A South African turning 15 today has a nearly 50 percent chance of contracting the virus in his or her lifetime, research shows

What's the problem? There's been an insufficient emphasis on AIDS prevention. Instead, the emphasis has been on treatment, less on curbing behavior.  As the Post article says,

The problem is not the medicine, which is among the most

Two High School Freshman Girls Fight AIDS in Africa

My hat is off to Kim Cannon and Elise Bare, high school students written up in this newspaper article.

"We saw a three-minute video about AIDS in Africa, and by the end of it, we knew we had to do something, " Bare said.  "How can you know this exists and do nothing?" 

Kim and Elise are selling T- shirts to support World Vision's work with AIDS sufferers and their families.  The T-shirts say on the front:  "ONE LIFE"  and on the back:  " DO SOMETHING"

Elise points out the following:

    - 8,000 people in Africa die everyday from HIV-AIDS. 

    - 15 million children have lost one or both parents due to HIV-AIDS in Africa.  This is the equivalent of the total number of high school students in America. 

    - In three years, this number of orphaned children is expected to rise to 20.2 million.  Don't you think we should do something?

    - In the small country of Swaziland, 1 out of every 3 people is HIV positive.  Swaziland has a population of 1,138,000.  That's a lot of people with AIDS

    - World Vision is a U.S. government -supported program which provides food, health care, schooling, caring counselors, and education about AIDS to help children in Africa whose parents died of the disease.  Without World Vision, 12-year-olds are raising themselves--and their siblings.

   - Every 17 dollars raised by World Vision is matched by the government and can provide for a child for a year.  So for every 3 or 4 T-shirts we sell, a child's life is saved.  How amazing is that?

    Our t-shirts are $10 each, and half the cost goes directly to World Vision (the other half pays for the shirt!)