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Archives for January 2003

Bush’s State of the Union address

January 29, 2003 by Michael Boyle

Bush’s State of the Union address

was mostly predictable, but the important new proposal about AIDS in Africa was striking. Trouble is, though, at BEST it’s dishonest policy misdirection at the expense of dying Africans, at worst an outright lie.

Compare and Contrast the following…

From the text of Bush’s speech last night:

…to meet a severe and urgent crisis abroad, tonight I propose the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a work of mercy beyond all current international efforts to help the people of Africa. This comprehensive plan will prevent 7 million new AIDS infections, treat at least 2 million people with life-extending drugs and provide humane care for millions of people suffering from AIDS and for children orphaned by AIDS. I ask the Congress to commit $15 billion over the next five years, including nearly $10 billion in new money, to turn the tide against AIDS in the most afflicted nations of Africa and the Caribbean.

From a Salon article last December entitled, Bush’s drive for global abstinence

Dewey stated unequivocally that the U.S. would seek to block the passage of any international family planning policy that permits abortion or promotes contraception for adolescents. “The United States supports the sanctity of life from conception to natural death,” he said. “There has been a concerted effort to create a gulf by pushing the United States to violate its principles and accept language that promotes abortion.”

U.S. delegates maintained that phrases present in the conference’s proposed policy — such as “reproductive rights” and “consistent condom use” — were euphemisms for abortion and the approval of “underage” sex — policies far out of line with the current Bush administration, which advocates abstinence outside of marriage and opposes abortion.

So we have on one hand a major policy intiative to combat AIDS in Africa, but on the other hand a senior US official striking any mention of condoms from the text of any UN policy designed to combat the issue. More than a little contradictory – more than a little disgusting. Bush should be ashamed of trying to garner support for his little war with Iraq on the backs of sick and dying Africans.

Tags: International Affairs

While we’re all concentrating on Iraq

January 28, 2003 by Michael Boyle

While we’re all concentrating on Iraq

and other big global issues, the Canadian government has been working on deporting refugees back to Algeria. These deportations will happen despite such warnings as the following from the UK: “Alongside the violence committed by the Islamic armed groups over the last decade are numerous documented allegations of human rights abuses by the security forces and state-armed militias [in Algeria], including the enforced disappearances of at least 4,000 people, abductions, torture and extra-judicial killings.”

There’s more and MJ Milloy has the story: One of these things is not like the other. To really figure this out though, we must look at motivations. Obviously the government is trying to provide a reasonable back-story for some other initiative with Algeria – a trade deal or something most likely. They’re trying to deport people so that later on they’ll be able to say, “no, everything’s fine there, look we didn’t even have a problem deporting people!” Find the second generation motivation and you find the way to deal with the issue.

Tags: Canadian Politics

Matt Taibbi poses some pointed questions

January 27, 2003 by Michael Boyle

Matt Taibbi poses some pointed questions

about the Washington protests the weekend before last. Mostly about how the media so drastically underreported the crowd – saying 30K while witnesses thought it was more like ten times that much.

Tags: US Politics

Check out this oddity:

January 27, 2003 by Michael Boyle

Check out this oddity:

the other day I went to see 25th Hour, Spike Lee’s recent film starring Edward Norton. As I often do, I went to Salon to read the review after having seen it. So the article loads and instead of waiting, I start to read before the photo appears. By the time it does, I’m at the end reading, “Lee is a pro, and he knows how to work with reference, allusion and metaphor: There’s a “Cool Hand Luke” poster in Monty’s apartment…” and then 20 seconds later I scroll to the top, only to find that the photo I skipped should feature that very poster – but it has been blanked out! And blanked out artfully enough that if you weren’t looking for it you wouldn’t know that the photo was NOT true to the film itself. This isn’t that big a deal, but it does make you wonder how widespread this practice is.

Tags: Media

I haven’t read it all yet,

January 27, 2003 by Michael Boyle

I haven’t read it all yet,

but it looks like the whole Survey of the Internet Society in the Economist is worth a look. The Economist has for a long time featured surprisingly good coverage of these sorts of issues – it looks like this survey is no exception.

Tags: Media

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