>>> Max Sawicky <sawicky at epinet.org> 03/15/00 01:24PM >>>
>
>Meanspirited, maybe, but is it a conservative argument to say that
>African health problems arise out of poverty? Is it a radical argument
>to say that, no, AIDS is responsible?
I've been thinking about this, and I don't see why it's an either/or
thing (something I find myself saying a lot these days). Why are an
AIDS crisis and a general public health crisis mutually exclusive?
Why can't TB be rampant in both HIV+ and HIV- people?
Doug
>>>>>>>
Thing always get dicey when anyone tries to prioritize among compelling needs, such as alternative allocations for pervasive life-ending diseases, of which Africa has more than a couple. Even though it would be possible to provide plenty of additional aid to a variety of such causes, choices would still need to be made. People don't like to confront these choices.
I would wager that Africans are less excited about AIDS in particular than a variety of poverty-based plagues, some of which would be relatively cheap and easy to ameliorate, if not wipe out, relative to AIDS.
*************
CB: Oddly , I kind of agree with all commenters here. One of the best ways to attack the AIDS crisis in Africa is to attack the poverty.
However, I take Michael Perelman's word that this particular writer has some bad ulterior motive , though it doesn't seem to be directly obvious in this particular article.
CB