Neo-colonialism, ABCs, the American way....

Amongst the highlights from the XVI International AIDS Conference, dubbed “Time to Deliver”, held this past week in Toronto, Canada was the keynote speech to open the conference which was delivered by Bill Gates. I have my issues with Microsoft’s monopoly and doubts about Gates’ sincerity or “goodwill” being more than a way to protect business interests, potential customers and get positive PR. Yet in light of his comments this past Monday I might be seeing a Gates who I appreciate more. Gates was critical of the main approach employed, promoted and financed by the US at home and abroad to “fight” AIDS which is abstinence. The ABCs, abstinence, be faithful and condomize (use condoms) is a popular method being used in many places to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS. The US places the added emphasis on abstinence which sounds good in theory and goes well with many religious people, especially Christians, but it is not really in line with reality. Most women, especially in Africa and other parts of the world where HIV is spreading so rapidly don’t normally have an option with husbands and lovers about when, how and if to have sex to tell women to abstain from having sex with their partners is ridiculous and often their objections cause distrust, violence and worse. Is it better for two people to not use a condom because their church or society prohibits it and infect each other or become pregnant with a child that might get HIV or to use a condom and save lives? Read this article from the Guardian about Gate’s words at the conference for more.

Another person who I have been gaining respect for these past few weeks is Stephen Lewis who is the UN Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS a man who takes his job very seriously and now I see doesn’t pull his punches when he sees that words can have great impact. Lewis was also at the conference this past week and made some critical remarks of the US policy on AIDS saying that the US was practicing "incipient neo-colonialism" through the way it has chosen to fund HIV/AIDS work in particular in Africa. The US Global HIV Policy makes it mandatory for at least 33% of its prevention funding to go to abstinence only programs. Once again, great in theory if you believe people should have sex before marriage but this keeping your head in the ground like an ostrich tactic isn’t proving beneficial. There are claims that Uganda, which has done a great job in battling HIV is losing ground thanks to this US policy as money that once went to provide condoms as well as teach how to safely use and dispose of them is going to abstinence programs which are proving less effective. Top-down pie in the sky programs do not work and we need to wait up and see the reality of the situation of the problem and attack it in a way that is realistic and as effective as possible. See this article at BBC to find out more as well as this one with a bit of a different twist from AllAfrica.com.