March 04, 2005
Lift A Finger, Why Doncha
AIDS Set to Infect 90 Million Africans by 2025, according to a UN report.
The report makes an interesting point regarding why the campaign to stop HIV is coming up short:
"If by 2025 millions of African people are still becoming infected with HIV each year, these scenarios suggest that it will not be because there was no choice," the report said. "It will be because, collectively, there was insufficient political will to change behaviour at all levels from the institution, to the community, to the individual and halt the forces driving the Aids epidemic in Africa."
That's really what it comes down to. We could be doing a lot more on our own, there's no question about that. But aid for AIDS would come much easier if more African leaders really had the interests of their peoples in mind. If more African leaders made this issue their international rallying cry-- oh wait, taking the moral high ground would mean they'd have to stop stealing from everyone around them. Oops.
Posted by Ben at 02:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 11, 2005
The Willing Host
The administration is hiding $40 billion in defense spending.
We're also building a new stealth fighter, five more submarine-based nuclear missiles, a new destroyer class, another nuclear submarine, and another aircraft carrier. And that's just the things that the Pentagon can't keep a secret from everyone by using their classified budget.
The military-industrial complex is a parasite, a tapeworm sucking out our innards. Why weren't these things the first to go when we realized we were going to be in debt? When will we realize that our insatiable hunger for weaponry is putting our economy at the mercy of bankers here and abroad? Is it already too late? If so I just hope I have steady employment lined up somewhere else when everything comes crashing down.
Posted by Ben at 02:53 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
December 26, 2004
"The Amish Problem"
Legal Affairs has a truly heartbreaking article on rape and incest in the Amish community.
From a legal standpoint the solution is obvious (more active policing and prosecution of these communities), but from a social one (preserving the traditional lifestyle) the answer is less clear. I need to read more about these kinds of communities before I'll really know what to think, but it is a difficult problem.
Posted by Ben at 07:44 AM | Comments (0)