NYTimes: "Crumbs for Africa"

[understandinglife]

President Bush kept a remarkably straight face yesterday when he strode to the microphones with Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair, and told the world that the United States would now get around to spending $674 million in emergency aid that Congress had already approved for needy countries. That's it. Not a penny more to buy treated mosquito nets to help save the thousands of children in Sierra Leone who die every year of preventable malaria. Nothing more to train and pay teachers so 11-year-old girls in Kenya may go to school. And not a cent more to help Ghana develop the programs it needs to get legions of young boys off the streets.

<snip>

Since then, Britain, France and Germany have all announced plans for how to get to 0.7 percent; America has not. The piddling amount Mr. Bush announced yesterday is not even 0.007 percent.

What is 0.7 percent of the American economy? About $80 billion. That is about the amount the Senate just approved for additional military spending, mostly in Iraq. It's not remotely close to the $140 billion corporate tax cut last year.

This should not be the image Mr. Bush wants to project around a world that is intently watching American actions on this issue. At a time when rich countries are mounting a noble and worthy effort to make poverty history, the Bush administration is showing itself to be completely out of touch by offering such a miserly drop in the bucket. It's no surprise that Mr. Bush's offer was greeted with scorn in television broadcasts and newspaper headlines around the world. "Bush Opposes U.K. Africa Debt Plan," blared the headline on the AllAfrica news service, based in Johannesburg. "Blair's Gambit: Shame Bush Into Paying," chimed in The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/08/opinion/08wed1.html?hp

Bush and the neoconsters efforts to elicit hatred and ensure perpetual war are on a steady course. Their ultra-rich corporatista buddies are delighted. Eisenhower's worst expectations of a military-industrial America have become reality.

"America" ceased on Dec 9 2000 when one person stopped the vote count. Ever since, the Bush neoconster regime has accelerated their unrelenting greed and their maniacal drive to dominate the world. Of course they could care less how many folk die of disease and starvation, just means they have more money to spend on pilotless killing machines.

Indict and prosecute them.

Peace.


www.missionnotaccomplished.us

[eleny]

1. More empty promises

[kysrsoze]

2. It's a far cry from Bush's initial lie promising $15B for AIDS assistance

Remember that joke? I knew they wouldn't get the money. They just got a bunch of preaching about abstinence - which does not work when grown men promise to pay for schoolgirls' education if they'll have sex with them, or tell them they will get diseases unless they have sex.

I don't know if Africa needs water or AIDS assistance more. It's a horrible situation and these @ssholes don't care.

[DeepModem Mom]

3. kick

[understandinglife]

4. Scoop: "Debt Relief Bread for Iraq, crumbs for Africa"

"Debt Relief Bread for Iraq, crumbs for Africa"

It is clear that an investment in human development is an investment in a more peaceful and secure world, yet the continued debt crisis shows that the poorest countries are being prevented from doing this by their rich creditors. After the Second World War 50% of Germany’s debt was written off, and there the ratio of debt to government revenue was never more than 5% as a result. The explicit point of doing this was to avoid the situation after WW1, where punitive debts and reparations had led to the collapse of the German economy, and the rise of extremists and state terrorism. In contrast, the government of Senegal will spend 15% of its revenue on servicing its debt this year, compared to 6% on health.

More at the link:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0406/S00103.htm

Peace.


www.missionnotaccomplished.us - We support Apian's goal of 10,000,000 signatures on Congressman Conyers letter by June 21, 2005; make it happen! http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/6/6/214643/6438

[understandinglife]

5. Yahoo: " G8 finance heads seen offering Africa little action"

G8 finance heads seen offering Africa little action

By James Macharia
1 hour, 14 minutes ago

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Africa can expect compassion but little action when G8 finance ministers meet this week, as no real commitments on slashing debt, doubling aid or making trade concessions will be on the table, analysts said.

<snip>

"Both Bush and Blair claim a commitment to addressing Africa's challenges, but the sad reality is that their current agenda promotes compassionate showmanship over sea-change in Africa policy," said Anne-Louise Colgan, a policy analysis director at the U.S.-based Africa Action.

<snip>

"What Africa really needs is not just more aid or debt relief, it is a question of market access in Europe. This is the biggest problem. This is the only way to guarantee growth."

Yahoo link: http://tinyurl.com/bnmko

But, of course, we can afford extensive military exercises in Africa, ostensibly to 'deny terrorists lines of communication.' If we spent those funds on actually reducing debt, structuring market opportunities, enabling real communication, then we might find that the hatred and dispair that fuel the 'terrorist infrastructure' would dissipate.

Of course, the real reason for our presence in these areas has to do with protecting the one 'line of communication' our neconster and petro-corporatistas are truly interested - the flow of oil to their SUVs.

To wit:

U.S. Begins Military Training in Africa

By TODD PITMAN, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 32 minutes ago

DAKAR, Senegal - A weekend raid into Mauritania by Algerian Islamic militants illustrates why north Africa needs the U.S.-led joint counterterror exercises launched this week, a U.S. military spokeswoman said Wednesday.

The training exercise began Monday in Chad, Mauritania, Mali, Niger and, for the first time, Algeria,....

Yahoo link: http://tinyurl.com/8vgkp

Peace.


www.missionnotaccomplished.us -