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This is an
example of how a combination of human factors, persistent lobbying and
geopolitics of the moment coincide for a surprise change in policy. It gives some
hope to others trying to make their voice heard where the door has been shut
previously, inspite of the political undertones at work here, meaning that in
this dramatic gesture Bush may be trying to ‘do a Bill Gates on trial’
influencing the court of world opinion at a time when we need some good press. KWC Excerpts: Unlikely Allies
Influenced Bush To Shift Course On AIDS Relief
By Mike Allen and Paul Blustein,
Washington Post Staff Writers, Thursday, January 30, 2003; Page A01 1…The announcement
represented a marked
change from
the position shortly after Bush took office, when a top official publicly
questioned the wisdom of trying to save the lives of Africans who had
contracted HIV. Officials said
then that money should be spent on preventing the spread of the disease in
Africa but would be wasted on expensive anti-AIDS drugs because African health
systems were not equipped to dispense the medicine properly. Now the president is
proposing that Washington spend lavishly on the AIDS pandemic in Africa and the
Caribbean, supplying drugs to 2 million HIV-infected people and caring for 10
million others, including orphans whose parents died of AIDS. Authorities on the
disease said those figures may be overly optimistic unless the price of drugs falls. Even so, Jeffrey Sachs, a Columbia University economist who
is the AIDS adviser to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, said: "This is
an enormous breakthrough. It's the
first time in the history of this pandemic that we are seeing a commitment for
anything on the scale that is necessary." Few people outside Bush's inner circle knew of the president's growing interest
in the issue, and his aides said that to keep his surprise, they deliberately avoided consulting many people outside
the White House. Officials said
that, in fact, the policy had percolated for months at the higher level of the
administration, fueled in part by quiet lobbying from evangelical Christians
and AIDS activists, special interest from key Bush advisers
and a push from the new Senate majority leader, Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). Administration
officials said the AIDS
epidemic has become a major cause for evangelical Christians, a crucial part of the president's
political base because so many of them are affiliated with missions in Africa.
Conservative politicians' concern about the disease has risen steadily over the
past year as they became convinced that AIDS in the developing world is a
massive humanitarian crisis that in most cases has nothing to do with the morality of the
victims. 2…Administration
officials said politics was not the major reason for the AIDS initiative but
acknowledged there could be beneficial ripple effects, especially in helping
burnish the country's image abroad. The AIDS announcement could also remind
moderate voters of Bush's claim to be a compassionate conservative at a time
when his administration is tacking right on economic policy, judicial
nominations and other issues. A senior
administration official said yesterday that the pledge "far outstrips
anything that has been done in the past by any government" in AIDS
treatment. Bush told an audience
in Grand Rapids, Mich., yesterday that he views the project as a chance for
"a moral nation" to use its wealth and ability to help "solve
unimaginable problems, to help the people who are needlessly dying." "We can make a
huge difference," he said. "I want people to step back at some point
in time and say, 'Thank God for America and our generosity, as lives were
saved.' " Bush's plan calls for
spending $2 billion in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. About $10 billion of the $15 billion
total would represent new commitments. Bush designated just $1 billion of the
total for the Geneva-based Global
Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Some AIDS experts
complained that the administration's desire to control most of the money undermines the purpose of the fund,
which is to assure that donations from rich countries are channeled in a
coherent and cost-effective manner.
Anil Soni, adviser to the Global Fund's executive director, said that
Bush was "taking
a unilateral approach"
that could hamper efforts to care for victims across all borders. Nevertheless, Steven
Radelet, a scholar at the Center for Global Development, echoed many
specialists in the subject when he said, "The administration has come a long way in the last two years." A big factor
behind its new approach, he said, was mounting evidence that AIDS treatment can
work in Africa. 3…Several
administration officials have become friends of Bono, the lead singer of U2,
who said in an interview from Dublin that Bush's announcement shows how the
world has changed. "If you think back just six months or a year,
conservatives, especially religious conservatives, were very skeptical about
this, and we had to explain that if you can't get the drugs, why would you
test, and if you don't get people testing, we can't control the virus,"
Bono said. "All
these points have sunk in." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63428-2003Jan29.html Outgoing mail
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