well RON I just popped in to see what was brewin'.What in the #*CK is he thinking,what was wrong with this stance??
BARCELONA, Spain, July 11 (AFP) - President George W. Bush was given a roasting Thursday at the International AIDS Conference here, where his approach to the global AIDS epidemic was attacked as timid and penny-pinching.
Graca Machel, wife of former South African president Nelson Mandela and a veteran campaigner for African issues, said the United States' financial contribution in the war against AIDS fell far short of what was needed.
"The United States claims to be the leader of the globe today," she told a press conference.
"To be a leader, you have to show by example that you meet your responsibilities and your obligations."
Only four rich countries -- Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden -- have met a pledge made 30 years ago to commit development aid equal to 0.7 percent of their annual gross domestic product.
"(Only) these ones are really exemplary," Machel told a press conference.
The UN has set a target of providing an additional 10 billion dollars a year by 2005, from all sources, to help fight AIDS and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in poorer countries. So far, less than a third of that has been mustered.
AIDS militants, meanwhile, maintained their propaganda barrage against Bush, issuing a declaration to "indict" the United States for "inhumanity."
It singled out the United States' contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, saying it should kick in 1.2 billion dollars a year to the new fund rather than the 500 million dollars announced by the White House.
And the declaration accused the White House of siding with pharmaceutical giants by threatening developing countries that want to produce cheap copies of patented anti-HIV drugs.
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