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Netters
This is a very intresting reading on how we look on
Africa's problem from a very shallow way.
I wish for example, the writer would tell me a
nation which spends more on health that its military, I wish he could tell me
that, but for the sake of creating those scenes again we face day today to
express in our faces of how Africa has failed he has made his number one to
stress it. Africa spends more on Military than on health.
It is true wars are fuelled by developed countries,
but not only to sell their weapons, actually developed countries get more from
Africa by looting our resources than by selling weapons to Africa. And if any
one took the time to look on figures you would find that we know Great Britain
has increased the amounts of small weapons they sell to Africa, but we do not
know the figure of how much they take by the looting of minerals for example.
Developed countries do not sell weapons to Africa to fuel civil
wars. For they get nothing out of Africans who are dead. They create those wars
so that they maintain the dictator in power for he has allowed them to loot it
or in cases like Uganda for Museveni has allowed them to use Uganda to access
their loot in Congo. There is a very huge amount in monies that developed
countries collect out of Africa that is why they maintain the killers in
power.
Now Rwanda's case is very interesting, By this
posting some body out there is telling us that the Rwanda genocide of 1994 is
the one which has created a wound of hetrade? So let me get this straight.
Rwanda was a good nation with out a problem and with no hate of each other and
some one out of the blue started to kill other people? Well then may be we need
to go back and read the history of Rwanda and find out what caused this problem.
For I was born way back before 1994 in Uganda and we had Rwandese in Uganda
looking for refugee. What were they running away from? We know too that Obote
played a very vital role into seeing that Rwanda issues are settled in a
civil manner and it was due to Obote that we never got a genocide in Rwanda,
until when Museveni the Killer came into play. But that was way back before
1994.
Let us go on Angola. Why does Angola need to be
helped to developed? Angola is estimated to have more minerals than DRC, but
there is a part of equation that you are not mentioning. Today United
States is doing almost 90% of all businesses in Angola and they have been
doing so since time memorial, but their catch is that they are digging daily and
daily minerals out of Angola. In front of starving kids. The only way to help
Angola today is United States to get out of Angola. We as African must get the
strength to make that call. Yes we know they do not have hospitals yes we know
they do not have roads yes we know the land if fertile, but until when Angolans
are allowed to use their country, to use their resources, I am not going to sit
here and blame them, for we have blamed Africans for centuries but we fear to
tell the rest of the story. Let the Americans get out of Angola then we will re
assess the situation.
Let me Jump here to Sierra Leone. Who exactly do
you want to put money into health care in this country? This country is under UK
Belgium France you name it, let me tell you straight that those are the people
you must ask those questions not the amputees.
Listen look here, on all countries that you are
listing, what is common? It is minerals in all of them. All nations you are
listing, have minerals in them or access to countries with minerals in them,
that is why you have these killings. May be we must move this argument a step
further and wonder why when ever any African nation has minerals or access to
minerals we have these wars in which millions of our people die day and night.
Secondly can we look to see who is in this war and funding it, for we can not
state that rebels are the ones who fund these wars, surely there is a developed
country which funds that war as it is getting access to the minerals. So the
first move before we even think a little about health is to stop the looting of
minerals in Africa. For those are the recourses we will use to run those
hospitals.
And the way you will do it is to do what we did on
Elephants when they were being porched out of Africa. We set up an embargo on
Elephant tusks. Countries like Japan which were surviving on Africa tusks
stopped to use them, and found other technologies to use. Let us not fight this
war on piece by piece. Let us call for an all out embargo on Africa minerals for
10 years. Africa minerals are maintaining life styles in developed countries.
Children in Congo are walking naked although United States and Belgium are
flying out loads and loads of minerals. So this embargo will not affect
them. Let us stop these resources from being stolen in day light. In the
mean time we again as Africans will use that time to clean up our houses, for a
leader will not have money to maintain him self in power, he will be in power
for he has votes. And will leave the same way. It scares me if you ever thought
that fighting in Sierra Leone will ever end when developed countries are still
looting inside. It is as well laughable to think that you can build any
functioning hospital in Sierra Leone when UK is pumping guns into this nation.
And until when we look developed countries in their eyes and we tell them to
move as Robert Mugaabe has done in Zimbabwe we will count millions and millions
of our people as dead every day, for we have been doing so every day and no
body cares. But tell them to move from the African assets then you will hear the
rumble.
It is even very interesting that Uganda is not
among the list of countries with conflicts, that just amazes me and tells the
bias you have.
The greatest enemy of Africa, is her resources and
the sooner we protect them, the sooner these problems will go away. But if we
want to clean up in little by little we will be falling straight into the hands
of World Bank IMF and so on, organisations we actually do not need, for they get
our minerals turn them into money and then lend it to us at un
believable costs. Let us protect the resources.
Em
The Mulindwas communication
group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 5:26
AM
Subject: [Mwananchi] Military Budgets
Versus Decrease in Health Budgets in 3rd World countries
Military Budgets Versus Decrease in Health Budgets in 3rd
World Countries
By Malachi Opule Orondo
Peoples Health
Movement
Kenya National Coordinator
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
True facts
of events happening in African continent clearly show that
expenditure on
military and health in 3rd World are inversely propor-
tional in favor of
military expenditure, which has put Africa to its
knees.
All sorts
of problems are found in Africa, - wars & conflicts, which
kill, maim
& displace people, cause endemic poverty, hunger destruc-
tion of
infrastructure & public amenities etc. Wars, conflicts &
civil wars
- supported by the developed world at the expense of de-
velopment &
health. Conflicts are fuelled by developed world to sell
their weapons
especially Africa.
1. Example: - Rwanda genocide 1994 was well known by
the West even UN
and they did nothing to stop it. One million lives were
lost and now
it is forgotten. This conflict has taken Rwanda 10 years
backwards
and created a permanent wound of hatred that will not heal
easily.
2. Angola civil war has raged from 1975 - 2002 i.e. 27 years
and
killed 2 million Angolans. People were dying in large numbers
using
arms supplied by the developed worlds to the late Savimbi.
Savimbi
was serving his masters who were not willing to give him money
for
health facilities, food or development for his people. This civil
war
brought Angola to its knees totally that it was to depend on
foreign
aid up to now. Angola is one country endowed with a lot of
resources
like oil, minerals and rivers for power generation but nobody
is
willing to help them develop. Angolans are dying from hunger yet
the
country is very rich agriculturally.
3. Mozambique also suffered
a prolonged guerrilla war supported by
the west, which supplied arms to the
warring factions. This fighting
claimed so many lives in Mozambique and
development wise. Mozambique
is 10 years backward compared to what it could
have been had it not
suffered civil war. This conflict claimed 1.5 million
lives, created
massive poverty, which has made the country dependent on
donor fund-
ing. Such conflicts also create lots of refugees and human
displace-
ments in these regions. Such conflicts leave disasters like
land
mines, which take decades to remove.
4. Liberia fought a civil
war for nine years, which claimed lots of
lives and destroyed development
and health infrastructure, which have
never been replaced. Liberia is a
country starting life anew yet it
got independence in 1847.
5.
Sierra Leone has had the most devastating and agonizing conflict I
have
witnessed in the 20th century. The atrocities being carried out
by armed
rebels in Sierra Leone are the most horrible ones. Rebels
invade innocent
people and catch them by force most of them women and
children. They rape
the women, force children to join their rebel
factions. Those who refuse
are forcefully amputated in broad day-
light. These rebels enjoy this
horrible amputation act. They ask you
if you want long sleeves short
sleeves or sleeveless. A man then lit-
erally chops off your hand or leg
and you are left bleeding. Why is
it that there is money to provide arms
for such rebels yet no money
for health facilities & development?
Sierra Leone is full of amputees
and children soldiers with no development
nor health facility.
6. Sudan has had a long fierce civil war, which
has raged for 19
years and has claimed 2 million lives. At times you may
think that
some lives are not important. Probably that is why arms are
massively
supplied to sustain the fighting endlessly. Southern Sudan looks
like
a place without any human beings living there. The pictures we see
on
television occasionally show people living like wild animals. It
is
difficult to imagine if these people are human beings like
others
considering their health and general social life. Despite all
these
sub-human living conditions in southern Sudan UN has turned a
deaf
ear with its powerful organs like WHO, WTO etc. concentrating
their
efforts elsewhere.
7. Somalia's government collapsed in 1989
when Siad Barre was over-
thrown and up to now internal fighting is still
raging claiming many
lives daily. Somalis have fled their country to
Canada, US, Kenya,
Ethiopia etc.; nobody knows when it will have an
organized government
to organize its health & social infrastructure.
Arms are still being
supplied to fighting factions but No Food Nor
Medicine.
8. Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire) has had a long civil
war
since 1996 which has killed 2.2 mio People. Arms are being
supplied
but no health facilities to support the citizens! Nobody knows
when
this civil war will end either. While this fighting and loss of
life
is going on schools, health facilities and other infrastructure
are
completely destroyed. It is nobody's business to mind of DRC
prob-
lems. Ask many people in the west of DRC problems will tell you
they
have not heard of such a country in this world, but ask them
about
Kosovo, Kuwait, Timor or Afghanistan and they will tell you
every-
thing about them. Why? Because those are countries which matter
to
the developed world and determine the worlds resources and
determine
destiny.
9. Up to now civil war still claiming lives in
Burundi & Rwanda but
very little is done or said about
it.
AFRICA
Africa is the most disadvantaged continent in this world
we live in.
The conflicts I have mentioned have moved the continent
backwards in
health & development several years. The results of these
conflicts
have been horrible to the mother continent.
1. 80 % of
world refugees are Africans. In the refugee camps living
conditions are
sub-human. There are no adequate health facilities to
cope with such
refugee influxes. Children and women die of prevent-
able or curable
diseases like diarrhea, measles, TB, malaria etc. In
war situations like we
have in Africa even running schools is a prob-
lem. So the bigger
population of Africa is becoming illiterate. In
those countries where armed
conflicts have been on for long, no chil-
dren's have been to school. Some
children are left to fend for their
brothers and sisters after their
parents are killed.
2. These wars have brought a lot of shortcomings to
Africa, like mas-
sive poverty, maiming of citizens, hunger, psychological
and mental
diseases and worthlessness. Africans have been reduced to
sub-human
beings - always looking inferior or considering themselves
second
class compared to people from other parts of the world.
3.
HEALTH
Health care, which is a right and a basic necessity in the
developed
world, is far above the reach of an ordinary African! In Africa
there
is no Government Hospital, clinics or Dispensary adequately
stocked
with the most basic requirements for an outpatient. While we have
no
basic medicines like panadols, etc. the west can afford the money
to
support armed conflicts in Africa. A lot of money is going into
waste
to develop unnecessary things like nuclear weapons, space
exploration
etc. which could do a lot to improve health in Africa.
Expenditure
from the west to Africa on arms versus health is at a ratio of
8 to
2, which is very biased.
4. Africa has the largest number of
conflicts in the whole world, but
yet they are the least covered by the
western media when you watch
CNN, BBC, SKY or the Deutsche Welle TV news,
you only see the good
news of the west and Middle East and Afghanistan.
Africa is never in
the focus. This media black out is very much working
against Africa
in terms of development and support in health amenities.
Very few
people in the west know of the armed conflicts I have mentioned
above
and their atrocities. So the western media should change their
atti-
tude and start reporting the truth on these African
conflicts
5. HIV/AIDS PANDEMIC
Apart from the mentioned armed
conflicts HIV/AIDS is more rampant in
sub-Saharan Africa than any other
part of the world. Out of 34 mil-
lion HIV+ people in the world, 75 % are
in Sub-Saharan Africa. Every-
body in the west is aware of this fact that
by 2010 if the rate does
not drop, African population will start
decreasing. However, the re-
sponse from the concerned organizations and
the west is not commensu-
rate to the HIV spreading rate. The symposium
needs to take this is-
sue seriously and give it the right consideration.
Grassroots NGOS
campaigning on HIV/AIDS awareness lack even the most basic
facilities
like PC computers, videos, video machines, public address
systems,
transport means to reach the rural grassroots' poor communities
which
need the information most.
Anti-retroviral drugs available in
the western world are still not
available for the common man in Africa. If
they are available then
those who need them most cannot afford.
The
HIV/AIDS pandemic is creating more complicated problems, which
may be
difficult to handle, if not checked now. It is adding more or-
phans to the
streets and affecting Africans economy by killing the
able bodied
people.
This symposium should consider items mentioned in this article
as a
matter of urgency for survival of Africa.
By
Malachi Opule
Orondo
Peoples Health Movement
Kenya National
Coordinator
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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