Friday, July 11, 2003
I wouldn't be the guy to say whether this op-ed represents an accurate, factual viewpoint, but I can comment on how it reads to me. I'm sure the two authors, Paul Zeitz, "director of the Global AIDS Alliance" and Jeffrey Sachs, "director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University" are fine, well-meaning people, but they represent a certain shrill viewpoint that puts them in danger of having their important cause taking far less seriously than it should.
Reading this article, one gets the feeling that the Bush Administration has pledged billions, but since they feel it's not enough, and it's not coming fast enough, and it's not being spent in just exactly the way they want, that therefore America itself is responsible for the African AIDS crisis. In other words, they sound like whiney ingrates. And that's too bad, because this matter is far too important to be hurt by pettiness.
Oh, and gentlemen, if you want to have your thesis taken more seriously and not written off as yet another personal assault on The President, I recommend referring to Mr. Bush as "Mr. Bush," or "The President," or "President Bush"...not as just "Bush" as you do repeatedly.
Boston Globe Online / Editorials | Opinions / AIDS funds fall short
In January, Bush boldly proclaimed that ''in an age of miraculous medicine'' no person should be denied treatment for AIDS and announced that ''this nation can lead the world in sparing innocent people from a plague of nature.'' Recently he set the standard by which America's efforts against AIDS should be judged: ''We care more about results than words. We're interested in lives saved.''
Since that speech, a million Africans have died of the disease while Bush has dithered on the emergency. In fact, since Bush has come into office, about 5 million Africans have died of AIDS while the US bilateral assistance programs under the president's watch have provided antiretroviral treatment for only a handful of people.[...]
