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Friday 24 October 2003

Clinton revisited; the Right Stuff(TM) [brit]

For many, President Clinton will forever be known as the man who got caught out by 'that' dress, and 'that' incident with a White House intern; like many influential figures, digressions tend to overshadow their otherwise ground breaking political achievements - in the case of Clinton, his revival of the American economy will always play second fiddle to anything involving Monica Lewinski.
However, unlike many of his predecessors, the man garnered an enormous amount of respect and indeed still has the clout and drive to continue delivering on what in retrospect were unfulfilled promises made during his terms in office - possibly one of the most important is his work to get much needed AIDS medication to Africa; a continent blighted by tribal squabbles, corruption and outstanding ignorance.
It was only very recently that President Mbeki (South Africa) acknowledged that there was an AIDS problem. Recent memory serves incredible reminders of how ignorant people can be - despite hundreds of thousands of his people dying from this disease, he (and his counterparts in other countries) refused point blank to see the truth.
A fantastic bit of news has hit the wires today however that offers some significant hope to those in desperate need of inhibitive and regressive drug therapy - denied them for decades through no fault of their own (a combination of war, drug cost, illiteracy, and political grandstanding has seen hundreds of thousands die before now) - that Clinton has secured a deal with AIDS drug companies to release such drugs to those that need them for less than one third of the cost.
The financial side of things that made this happen are undoubtedly hugely complex, but the important thing is that it has happened; and who knows, maybe now that it is clear that there IS a problem (from the point of view of those who deem themselves worthy of leading such countries) men like Clinton can put their talents to the best use; and help those who cannot help themselves.
Which for my money, is the whole point.

1 comment:

  1. It hardly helps that the Catholic Church is still stopping people in these same countries using proper 'protection'. Instead of the hand clapping going on at the moment about how wonderful the pope is as he slips into senility, he should be under arrest for murder.

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