No-one will complain at your genuine burst of anger - me least of all.
Read my reply to Pete, then comment again.
Malaria is a real scourge and particularly for Africans. I've dealt with this at other times.
I wrote my first paper on the nonsense of banning DDT back in 1973. At that time - this figure stayed with me - malaria cases in Sri Lanka were in the teens - below 20. Now they in the hundreds of thousands. Instead of the political banning of DDT, scientists should have been working on its replacement - for inevitably resistance to the chemical would be building.
But, the idiots were worried unnecessarily about birds eggs - and they became more important than people - particularly Africans, who suffer most from the disease.
And disease is the problem - not AIDS, but the list I placed in the post to Pete.
They are ordinary diseases - without doubt made more general and critical by lack of food, which you mention. But, there doesn't seem so much international concern about weakened people dying of chronic diarrhea, loss of body weight, fever, or persistent cough. But, AIDS is big business, an important source of funds to many people. People who have a vested interest in AIDS.
So, AIDS becomes a star and the money pours in. I've mentioned several times that after the expenditure of more than $92 billion on AIDS, not a single person has been cured. Doesn't look good for Africans does it?
The problem in Africa is that they are getting the diseases they have always got. Giving them a fancy western name doesn't change that. So the question becomes - why are they still getting them?
Why are people hungry when Kenya, I would imagine, could feed her people perhaps a dozen times or more? You mention in passing the corruption of government. That's a good place to start. At one point 49 of the 51 African countries were run by dictators, or army cliques. I don't know what it is now. However, even the "democratic" states have a history of political corruption - often including violence and racism.
And starvation.
Your central highlands have some of the best agricultural land in Africa. They used to be known as the "White Highlands" - for obvious reasons - and some 86% of the land was unused (but owned).
I've always considered Kenya to be a jewel in the African Crown. I was wrong. It isn't any longer. I would argue that your politicians are responsible - but let's compare Kenya with Tanzania next door. Tanzania has about 20% more people than Kenya.
Most of these figures are per thousand. They are all 2000 estimates.
Kenya has a lower birthrate and a higher death rate than Tanzania. The average Kenyan mother has 3.34 kids and her Tanzanian equivalent has 5.33. A Tanzanian has an extra life expectancy of 4.5 years over the Kenyan.
The population growth rate in Kenya is 1.15% - low. The growth rate in Tanzania is 2.6%, which is about the average for Africa and the basis for the vastly increased population on the continent.
The adult HIV/AIDS "Adult Prevalence Rate" is 60% higher in Kenya than Tanzania. Whereas 2.2 million people are living with AIDS (I suppose that means HIV) in Kenya, 1.3 million are is the figure for Tanzania.
The '99 estimate of AIDS deaths total 180,000 in Kenya and 140,000 in Tanzania, which remember has 20%more people.
Kenya is a mess. What happened?
Kenya has all the good land that is needed to keep her citizens fed - as I said some of the best in Africa. I think that lack of food, malnutrition, is a basic problem that leads to killing diseases. People like Duesberg suggest other causes, principally drugs are part of the highway towards AIDS. Though, I agreed that amyl nitrites used by homosexuals to maintain "performance" probably were significant, I didn't go along with general drug activity being a cause.
I'm beginning to move towards that view, because in the west there seems to be a relationship between drugs and AIDS.
What is the drug situation in Kenya?
What is the history of mortality rates in Kenya? And, if possible, any breakdown in the causes of death 10 or 20 years ago. These diseases which are supposed to be AIDS have been around for a while, but then they weren't called AIDS.
Also, it used to be that a persistent cough, or fever, or persistent diarrhea, would be specifically treated. If they are all treated as AIDS would that lead to fewer recoveries.
AIDS drugs seem mostly to be stop-gaps - intended to ease the passing. Perhaps if the diseases were treated directly, there would be some cures. I don't know. Meantime, it is likely that money is going to AIDS, when it would be better if it was spent on specific remedies.
When Kenya elected a Luo President of a Kikuyu majority, I thought this showed maturity. I was probably wrong. I hope the new President - who seems to be a good guy - will be able to pull you out of your doldrums.
Harry
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Joe wrote:
I read the post below with amazement. I couldn't believe my eyes. I thought the author was trying to put a retro logic point across. I thought it was a pathetic attempt at levity. But there was no punchline.I concluded, as one English gentleman said, that "being a gentleman, I would not say what I think of you, and my secretary, being a lady, would not type it, but you, being neither, will know exactly what I mean!" Mr Pollard is actually technically incorrect when he attempts to be technical. It is possible (and there are documented cases) of people catching infections from vaccines. AIDS without HIV isn't AIDS. Immune deficiency does occur congenitally and it is called (naturally) CIDS. There is no proof as yet to suggest that one can survive indefinitely with the HIV virus. But the phenomenally obscene assertion or implication that the AIDS problem is a scam designed to rob well meaning American and European taxpayers of their hard earned sympathy dollars is so disgusting I wonder if it merits the dignity of a reply. Get this Mr Pollard, we die of malaria in Kenya because we can't afford the full course of (one dose) treatment that costs less than one US dollar. More people die of malaria than of AIDS even now. And yet sixty (that's right sixty) percent of the patients taking up our hospital beds are AIDS patients. Not "people with antibodies," I'm afraid, but people who are skeletal, wasted and unlikely to make next month. We no longer "know someone who heard of someone" around here. We all have both friends and relatives who have died and are dying. It is a raging epidemic and Mr Lewis' fury and frustration are, to say the least, warranted. I am sure rural Africans would be surprised to learn that they need to be taught how to feed themselves. It just so happens that "market forces", as Mr Pollard describes them, have led to the phenomenon of farmers in our grain basket district of Uasin Gishu refusing to grow more maize, and thousands of tons of their maize rotting because they can't get a price that covers their costs, while two hundred miles to the south, other farmers sit in the dust waiting for relief food imported by WFP and distributed by the government which can't afford to pay for the Uasin Gishu maize. (Well actually they could but corrupt government officials have made that a whole new problem.) All we need is a revisionist armchair intellectual. Pretty soon he will prove that statistically, since Africans comprise less than one tenth of the world's population, AIDS isn't even a human problem. Car crashes in the west kill far more people. We need help here. This is not a scam. The solutions that people come up with from the comfort of a study in California may even be well meaning - (though quite frankly I don't see that in this case - I see a donor fatigued Westerner who probably never actually made a donation) - but they do not begin to deal with the fullness of a tragedy such as AIDS. I know this kind of heat is not generally recommended for a list like this one and I shall probably regret my rashness by the end of the day - in which case I seek your forgiveness and forbearance in advance. But right now, I'm really mad!! Joe Gichuki
****************************** Harry Pollard Henry George School of LA Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: (818) 352-4141 Fax: (818) 353-2242 *******************************
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