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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: E who wrote (22056)	8/14/2001 10:36:42 PM
From: E	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

This is from a year and a half ago. It's worse now: Already 10 Million AIDS Orphans In Africa cnn.com 12-7-99 (CNN) -- A United Nations report shattered notions that the AIDS epidemic is subsiding worldwide and raised an even more alarming specter: the effect of the disease on children and implications for the future in parts of the world. The report contains dire predictions, particularly for Africa, where experts say the impact, present and future, of millions of children orphaned by AIDS and abandoned is tearing at the very fabric of the entire continent. According to the new report by UNICEF and UNAIDS, Africa has been overwhelmed by AIDS orphans -- more than 10 million. The epidemic has yet to peak, and the numbers are expected to grow massively. In Zambia alone, more than 360,000 children -- one in 10 of the total population -- have lost either their mother or both parents to AIDS. With resources already stretched to the breaking point, many of these Third World countries -- with the focus in eastern and southern Africa -- have been forced to leave millions of these youngsters to fend for themselves. Poor, malnourished, uneducated and unwanted, they represent a social plague yet to come. Impact on children worse than decades of war Sources say the social indicators for infant mortality and malnutrition in many of these countries is equivalent to countries that have been at war for 10 or more years. The U.N. report said 33 million people worldwide are currently living with AIDS. The overwhelming majority are in Africa. Subsequently, this is where the majority of orphans are found. With nowhere else to go, thousands, for example, have flooded the streets of Zambia's capital Lusaka. Typical is the hopelessness of 14-year-old Simon Kapampa, who scrounges the streets of Lusaka in quest of survival. "We don't really like staying here," he said. "and now that the rains are about to come, it's tougher. Sometimes you have older children coming at us with screwdrivers, threatening violence. So whatever money we have, we got to give them. It's not a good life." U.N. officials believe the plight of Kapampa and millions like him is a time bomb. While sub-Saharan Africa is the focus of current fears, it is not the only part of the world that last year registered an increase in HIV infections. The highest rate of growth was said to be in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where the number of people infected this year jumped by one-third. [This is from two years ago. Worse now]: wsws.org

To: E who wrote (22056)	8/14/2001 11:13:39 PM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 82486

Hello, E; haven't seen you in way too long. I expect that sooner or later the white population of these countries will simply have to leave. I'm frankly surprised that it's taken as long as it has. I'd have expected something more like what happened in Indonesia, where the white population was forced out within months of the fall of white rule. It didn't matter if they supported independence, it didn't matter that they had badly needed skills, it didn't matter if they were born there. They were white, they were gone. It amazes me that whites are still allowed to own property or businesses in South Africa or Zimbabwe. I'm not saying this is "right", mind you. I'm not saying it's fair, or desirable, or that it is in the long-term interests of the native population. I'm saying that given the historical, economic, and emotional climate, it is practically inevitable, and the only thing anyone can do about it is to provide shelter and a new start for those who are forced to leave. It is a very grim situation, all around. It is very sad that the innocents today are still reaping the grim harvest planted by ancestors who believed that it was their mission to colonize the world, but they are, and likely will be for many years to come.