need to add title here

America's Gift

April 4, 2010 5:00 PM

Bob Simon reports on an American program that provides affordable anti-retroviral medicines to fight HIV and AIDS to Ugandans.

America's Gift: Fighting HIV/AIDS in Uganda
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by arenaud333 April 6, 2010 9:24 PM EDT
i remember the Ed BRADLEY piece like it was yesterday. i especially remember the personal helplessness i felt at the time (that no doubt Ed must have felt too) being confronted with a tragedy on an inhuman scale that seemed programmed to decimate the entire adult population of that beautiful African country Uganda. i thought to myself at the time: it would take a humanitarian effort (and financial commitment!) on a colossal scale for that vision not to come to pass.
well, low and behold, it's President George W. BUSH, in the name of the American People, who pledged to rescue the seemingly damned AIDS victims of not just Uganda but Africa as a whole, in 2004 though the PEPFAR initiative, with an initial appropriation of a staggering US$15 billion.
i urge all America- or Bush43-haters to make a note of the fact that it was "the United States of America" who stepped up to the plate to help. not the Europeans, the Chinese, the Indians or anyone else: the U.S.A... to me, that generous spirit is still what the word "AMERICA" is all about
alan s. renaud
Montreal, Canada

P.S.: i really miss Ed Bradley. i never had the chance to meet him, but i felt like i knew him personally (having started to watch his reporting in the days of "Sunday Evening with Ed Bradley"); therefore i don't think that he would object to me calling calling him "Ed". because that's who he was for me... there was no one else like Ed, never mind what people say about nobody being irreplaceable. wherever there was injustice on a massive scale (as was the case in Africa in 2000) is where you'd find Mr. Bradley, informing us of it being perpretrated unbeknownst to most people, so that we might do something to start to change things.
it think Mr. Rooney already did a piece on the subject; but nevertheless i'll say it again (in the name of thousands and thousands of people, i'm sure) to his family and friends: we
miss (you) Ed so much...
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by nellab47 April 6, 2010 1:37 PM EDT
Thank you for the story about G. W. Bush's contribution to Africa. What I can't figure is why it took six years to come to light.
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by ugandaconcerned April 5, 2010 1:37 PM EDT
I am appalled by the commenters who do not see the wisdom and compassion in the PEPFAR program. If you need something more utilitarian, think of the allies created by the investment of billions in life.

The down side of the CBS Segment was the failure to note the threat to PEPFAR progress from a bill in Uganda that would put to death or jail for life homosexuals. the person quoted in the segment - Martin Ssempa -- is one of the main forces behind it. He preaches that HIV is spread by homosexuality more than heterosexuality even though as you said, this is not true in Uganda. If straight people think they are not going to get HIV by being straight, then what will happen to the HIV rate then?
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by fot1000 April 5, 2010 1:27 PM EDT
I have the opportunity to work among some of the families there in Uganda caring for the many children orphaned by HIV/AIDs. I also know many people who were orphaned as children who are now working in their community to educate others, to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS, and to help change the culture of polygamy and unfaithfulness that has contributed so much to the problem. AIDS kills people primarily aged 20 -40 who are the workforce and parents of a society. Could it be that the costs of this program are made up for by keeping parents alive to raise their kids and by keeping workers healthy - thus improving the country's economy and future outlook?
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by allanl1 April 5, 2010 7:38 AM EDT
I was surprised at the omission of the long term financial costs of this multi-billion dollar annuity to the drug companies who supply the drugs. Why wasn't this discussed?

I suspect that this was an inside deal to help the U.S. drug companies (and its licensees) as Cipla, an Indian company was producing generic versions of the AIDs cocktails for practically nothing. I have no doubt, that U.S. taxpayer is paying full price for these drugs.

It's hard for me to believe that Bush would do anything without a profit, or revenge motive.

Shame on 60 Minutes for only telling a part of the story.
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by slagboom April 5, 2010 7:37 AM EDT
I'm tired of my tax dollars being used to hand out gifts. Uganda created its HIV problem let them solve it themselves!
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by murphjax April 5, 2010 7:18 AM EDT
My first attempt at a comment was removed by overly sensitive censors even though there was no profanity, threats, etc. just a comment that the producers and journalists at 60 Minutes would rather not hear. So let me try again.

It was a cruel and dehumanizing piece of "reality-TV-like" journalism to have the HIV-AIDS results for real people revealed to them on camera and to then go ahead and air these deeply personal and devastating moments as if they were somehow "newsworthy". While I'm sure someone signed some document allowing for the broadcasting of the test results, I doubt that this consent was truly "informed" (e.g., about the size of 60 minutes' viewing audience) and, more importantly, I doubt that the news team made any kind of arrangements for psychological counseling services for those individuals who they filmed and who discovered the awful news. These are real people - would you do this to Americans?? - Have you no sense of what is right and wrong. The AIDS crisis is tragedy enough, how does shaming these people - particularly the woman whose husband was leaving help us to better understand solutions to why she got infected and how such infections might stop spreading? Its shock value for the sake of selling air time - not journalism as Murrow and Friendly knew it.

In short, it really was one of the most unethical news stories that I have ever seen broadcast on television and I hope the news team thinks carefully about the damage they've done both in terms of the individuals who were involved and in terms of the negative and simplistic stereotypes about Africans the story continues to propagate.
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by RichardNTexas April 5, 2010 4:04 AM EDT
The Republicans who voted against Universal Health Care for Americans must be really sick. Here is a classic story of Americans providing billions of dollars for free health care to foreigners and seeing Republicans voting to deny Americans health care coverage, affordable coverage, and improved coverage.
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by norsim April 5, 2010 12:02 AM EDT
As usual, you have given us intelligent information that we are able to relate to...We are doing a mitzvah for Ugandians....Why are we fighting health care for Americans?...Somehow we find the money for many foreign countries and reach out to them but when it comes to our own citizens we have battles to improve the health care of the nation.
Is a puzzlement for me.
Norm
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by chamool April 4, 2010 11:17 PM EDT
Unfortunately, this segment does not fully provide the historical context of the "gift." Uganda was one of the first countries in Africa to drastically drop AIDs cases and they did so by using the original Uganda ABC approach, introducing one-day HIV testing, and encouraging HIV testing by reducing stigma through the national testing of all government workers. In Uganda there was no judgement, all people were encouraged to abstain when possible, be faithful and use condoms. Only when the US adopted the ABC approach was the strategy corrupted, with judgement: single people abstain, married people be faithful, and condoms for those of questionable morality. The US approach categorized people and sent different messages to different groups, and furthermore funding or the "gift" was not allowed for transgender, homosexuals, sex workers, or IV drug users. This is a real shame, to see Uganda dependent on US Bush Policy that hurts the very parents of many of the HIV+ children shown in the video: sex workers. Even the video demonstrates that Musevi has butchered the original ABC approach. The irony is in the last segment of the video when the Uganda pediatrician says she feels bad blackmailing the American people... she has it backwards.
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