A fairly well-balanced article on AIDS, money, and the decision of the Bush Administration to bypass international organizations in the fight against AIDS. Some facts omitted by other media:
PEPFAR is offering a total of $15 billion, of which $9 billion is new cash, over the next five years. One-fifth of the fund is to be spent on campaigns to prevent the disease from spreading, the rest on treating those already infected and looking after the bereaved—especially children.
While deploring the lack of U.S. focus on condoms, they concede that
All these problems should go away in time—though that time will cost lives. Generic drugs will get FDA approval eventually, and American officials will no doubt come to terms with local health ministries. Equally, the money spent on abstinence will probably be wasted, but it is only one-fifteenth of the total and if its failure is manifest, then there will be pressure for change. But the American attitude of “my way or the highway” may be a symptom of a wider breakdown—a growing dissatisfaction with the way things are being done at the moment.
[Italics mine.]You would think most people would realize that that is a very good thing indeed.
