The Questions That Never Get Asked

no kidding. its all feel good nonsense. even at generic cost hiv drugs cost 1 dollar per day pe patient. while hiv prevention programs cost MUCH MUCH less. its about most effective use of dollars avaliable. not to mention creating a huge population of hiv positive drug takers will lead to super strains of drug resistent hiv as they continue to have sex with one another. it is inevitable.

and yes, just tossing money and aid at corrupt regiems only legitimizes the power of the corrupt in those countries. the people see their corrupt leaders and government recognized by the western states and know their power has become entrenched..supported by the misguided good will of do gooders.

its just more liberal white guilt, political correctness, and the new white mans burden.

Let us not forget that a lot of the money the US is fronting to fight AIDS in Africa is tied to "abstinence education programs". If any mention is made of using condoms as an alternative to abstinence, that money gets yanked.

Just like in the eighties when the Reagan administration could have nipped the spread of HIV in the bud with a sensible education program, the W administration is too parochial and prudish to deal with the reality that people are going have sex, even if you tell them not to. Maybe if we permitted people to talk about condoms and paid for something more sensible than an "abstinence education program", people would be more likely to use condoms.

All Americans bear the responsibility and guilt of this pandemic and the deaths and suffering associated with it. We will continue to heap more guilt upon ourselves every day we continue to wear the blinkers of our born-again fundamentalism.

Well, at least the money going to abstinence education programs isn't supporting corrupt politicians and bureaucrats.

<<The real tragedy of AIDS in Africa is that it's probably the first pandemic in history that could have been almost completely prevented, simply by altering cultural behavior. Demanding personal responsibility, however, is not a hallmark of leftist thinking.>>

You are totally off the wall. Personal responsibility is certainly part of leftist thinking. In fact, it is left wing groups that push for the use of condomes whereas conservatives thwart such efforts. Personal responsibility doesn't mean killing your neighbour to take his money and thus become rich. Personal responsibility is taking care of your neighbours.

As is often the case when people are faced with problems the tendency is to look for who to blame rather than what to do to correct the problem. So, for those inclined to do so you can point fingers in a number of different directions.

For several centuries Western nations have used and abused the people of Africa. If the former colonial powers, who at one time ruled the people in most African countries, were to provide 1% of what they stole from these countries, many of the problems could be solved.

The "leaders" of many of these countries are nothing more than thugs who learned how to suppress, then live off of, the people in their countries by following the example set my their former colonial rulers who used the same strongarm methods to subdue those people.

As is often mentioned, but seldom taken seriously, many of these countries have nothing that would benefit the Western powers. Therefore, we (I'm an American) have avoided, for the most part, getting involved in the problems that plague these people. (See Hotel Rwanda, for example) I would guess that the CIA has probably had as much to do with the state of affairs in Africa as anybody.

As for the use of condoms... well, here in the US, there are many "educated" people who have contacted AIDS through sexual contact because of failure to use protection. What would you expect from a group of (largely) uneducated people who have no medical personnel to advise them about the dangers of unprotected sex?

This movie is called, in some postings I read, propaganda. Does it serve an agenda? Possibly. But what is wrong with wanting millions of people to be able to live a life, in full, without worries of starvation or being murdered in your home. The only painful feelings I could relate to the movie were the ones that some of the G8 attendees seemed to be experiencing because they knew that what she was saying was, basically, right. If these people are more concerned about what the public will think about their decisions, rather than how they might solve the problems, then they don't belong in positions of such responsibility.

I personally enjoyed the movie. Make the setting a convention of accountants and the story of these two people is still compelling, to me. When I watch Bill Nighy it's hard to see him as anyone but the faded rock star from Love, Actually but in this movie he really paints a picture of a shy, aging guy whose life is his work. And Kelly Macdonald is great as this, seemingly, plain and uninteresting young lady who, suddenly, finds herself in the middle of a world she has never imagined, let alone aspired to. What's important here is not what question didn't get asked but what is to be done about the ones that are asked.


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Emperor: Tell me how he died.
Captain Algren: I will tell you...how he lived.

True, but assuming that poor women in lousy male dominated societies can insist on the man using a condom is just dumb. Improving the status of women so that they can protect themselves and their children is essential to solving the problems of the poorest people.

For those of you who think that this is propaganda, what movie isn't?

In your typical Hollywood propaganda, the message is to forget about everyone else in the world but yourself, to ahead and buy an Escalade, drive at ridiculous speeds to the top of a mountain at 8 miles to the gallon with 10 cup holders and a 16-speaker sound system and to hell with poor people, they're hardly worth cleaning off your 26-inch spinner rims.

What's wrong with standing with the millions of people who, by the accident of having been born in Africa, Asia or South and Central America, die needlessly every year? And don't sing me your boring old song about the white mans' burden. I know how desperately some want to frame those of us who give a damn about anyone other than ourselves as creating a culture of dependency or some such nonsense, but the fact is that there is a direct relationship between meaningless lives in one country and meaningless deaths in another.

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Hell, I thought I read that many Africans believe that having sex with a virgin will cure AIDS. Idiots. It's not easy helping people who won't help themselves. It might be brutal, but I could care less if these people get help. The answer is not just in us, but it is in them as well.

As for the movie, the facts are powerful, but the intent would crumble if both sides were properly represented. Personally, I'm not left or right. I believe political parties - any type of group, really - weaken the mind of the individual. But keep in mind I'm not a libertarian. I like forward-thinking and action, but there's something regressive about me that's hard to put into words.

So I think the movie does make one strong point: many men in great positions haven't the backbone to be great themselves.