Did you write Paul O'Neill yet?

[Sherry Darling]

OK, Durbin-Specter lost. Damn! Bush wants to start his own program, and it doesn't start until 2004. We need to raise hell about this being totally inadequate and ridiculous. Both my senators voted against Durbin-Specter; I've written them and told them I don't like it. Let's raise hell and STOP GLOBAL AIDS!

Amen Verte! I've been away a coupla days at the beach...did anyone find out any news? I hear Bush signed 500 mill to fight AIDS in Africa?

Great suggestion, we should all find out how our senators voted! I'll do that now!

Guys, we still need letters sent! If you've sent one, thank you! Enlist a friend or two! If not, if you've been meaning to but just haven't or are thinking about it, remember please this is being debated NOW and the G8 Summit is soon, if I'm not mistaken! Let's not let this chance slide by! Here's the letter again for your cutting and pasting purposes!

Mr. Paul O?Neill
United States Treasury Secretary
1500 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20220

June 2, 2002


Dear Secretary O?Neill:

I am writing to express my congratulations and gratitude for the time you recently took to travel through rural Africa to learn more about what can be done to help. Your focus on providing clean water, for example, impressed me. I was excited to hear you describe that task as ?possible? and then express that it would be ?unforgivable? that 40 million Ethiopians go without it! I could not agree more!

As a citizen of a powerful and prosperous country, I believe it is crucial to do all I can do to help. It?s my hope that our aid to the world?s poorest nations will be increased, that their debt will be dropped and that trade laws will change to ensure a fair market.

Again, congratulations and welcome home! I wish you the best of luck as you continue the fight!

Sincerely,


SD

 

[verte76]

Bush has proposed $500 million for the fight against AIDS. There are so many bills and proposals all over the place that it's confusing. The Senate nixed Durbin-Specter's $500 M but kept $200 M. However, he originally proposed $5 billion! This is more like it. The Stop Global Aids site should have the info on it. Now's not the time to stop writing those notes--we need to keep it up! STOP GLOBAL AIDS!

 

[hotpepper]

This was on today's front page of SF Chronicle. Bottom line - Bush's new plan doesn't cut it! I'm going to write him and tell him so.

There was an interesting tidbit that I read on the DATA website yesterday that really shook me up. Apparently, our country's leaders don't think this whole thing is a very important issue to the American public because they don't hear about it from us. OMG is all I can say! In that case, our letters are even more important.

Remember: it's so easy to send an electronic email from

http://takeaction.stopglobalaids.com/

:idea:

 

[Sherry Darling]

President George W. Bush
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

I am writing with concerns about the recent $500 million pledged for AIDS relief in Africa. While I am pleased, proud and grateful that the White House is giving this issue attention, clearly more is needed. This amount of money is not adequate to meet the medical, housing, and educational needs of the poorest people in Africa, especially as they combat the growing AIDS epidemic, and as they struggle to repay debt to us! This is simply not just!

I would urge you, your Congress and Sec. O'Neill to consider committing to more aid as an investment in national security; countries that are stable and prosperous are far less likely to listen to terrorists like Bin Laden. I would also urge you and Sec. O'Neill to cancel the debt of these impoverished nations so they can invest in their people by establishing infrastructure, clinics, and schools. If we commit to doing enough now, perhaps the next generation will not have to!

Sincerely,



Cut and paste if you'd like! Hotpepper, you're exactly right. Did you all know EVERY SINGLE SEAT in Congress is up for relection this Nov? They're listening! Of course they don't think we care if we don't tell them! New angels are being added every day! But we still need over 60 letters to reach 100! Surely a community this big can get that done?

http://whitehouse.gov-- write Bush

http://www.jubileeusa.org-- write your rep

O'Neil's # again 202 622 0190



SD

 

[verte76]

Yes, I'm telling my Congress people that I vote! Of course I'm in an interesting situation. My Congressman, Spencer Bachus, a Republican, is a big time supporter of debt relief and, in fact, has co-sponsored several debt relief bills, and also AIDS treatment bills. I write him to ask him to keep up the good work. Unfortunately my senators are not of this persuasion, so I'm writing them like crazy and one of them is up for re-election this year.

 

[Sherry Darling]

Update from Jubliee

Just got this from Jubliee and thought I'd pass it on...JUBILEE NEWS AND UPDATES: June 20, 2002
Special G8 Summit Edition

The leaders of the world's most powerful nations, called the G8, will meet
in Canada next week, June 26-28, to address issues of international concern,
including Africa and debt.

Find all the news on the G8 Summit and related activities at:
www.jubileeusa.org

* * * * * * *
Congratulations to all who called Secretary O'Neill before the G7 Finance
Ministers' meeting. We heard from Treasury staff that they were swamped
with hundreds and hundreds of phone calls both days!! Thank you for making
the drop the debt message heard.
* * * * * * *

This update includes:

1.) Take Action during G8 Meetings
2.) Jubilee Tells G8: HIPC Debt Plan is More Grief than Relief
3.) Mark Your Calendars for September Mobilization
4.) Action on Debt Legislation Still Needed

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.) TAKE ACTION- Write to your Local Newspaper

Sound the Jubilee message in your area by writing a letter to the editor of
your local newspaper.

The media coverage around the G8 meetings is a great time to get the drop
the debt message in the press. Tell G8 leaders to cancel the debt without
further delay!

We know you've thought about doing this before- get up your courage and do
it this time! Watch the coverage in your local paper and then respond.
Getting a letter to the editor published, is as easy as one-two-three.

Click here to learn more:
http://www.jubileeusa.org/jubilee.cgi?path=/take_action&page=G8_LTEs.html


TAKE ACTION: Attend the Global Justice Action Summit in Missoula Montana,
June 20-24, co-sponsored by Jubilee USA, featuring activists from around the
country responding to the G8 agenda. Great speakers, festivals, and a
caravan
to the G8 meetings in Canada. To learn more, visit their beautiful site:
www.globaljas.org


2.) G8 Debt Relief Plan: More Grief than Relief

Jubilee USA Network released a briefing on the status of the debt relief
initiative, HIPC, so far. Please see the summary below:

African nations spend $15 billion on debt service every year, draining
desperately needed funds that could otherwise be used for health, education,
clean water or the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Loans to Grants will not Resolve the Problem
---------------------------------------------------------

- The G8 heads of state, led by President Bush, have introduced a new plan
to provide aid to impoverished nations in the form of grants instead of new
loans. While this is certainly a positive step in the right direction, it
does nothing to address unpayable debts already on the books. Additionally,
a conversion of 18-21% of World Bank giving from loans to grants is
inadequate to stem future debt crises. The G8 should implement a plan
for at least 50% conversion from loans to grants on top of full debt
cancellation.


Debt Relief Can Work
------------------------------

- The limited debt relief given so far, shows that when countries can use
the savings effectively. In Uganda, debt savings were used to double
elementary school enrollment; in Mozambique half a million were vaccinated
against killer diseases. In Tanzania, debt savings were used to
eliminate school fees and 1.5 million children will be able to return to
school this
year.

More Grief, than Relief
-------------------------------

However, Jubilee USA Network?s found several problems with the current debt
relief scheme, called the Heavily Indebted Poor Country Initiative (HIPC),
including:

* It takes too long to provide relief*
After six years, only six countries have completed the program, while over
half
in the program have been delayed by IMF penalties. These delays threaten
the effectiveness of any new debt cancellation.

* Too little debt relief has been provided* Half of the countries now in
line for HIPC relief will face officially ?unsustainable? debt burdens soon
after completing the program. For example, Uganda the first country to
complete HIPC, will soon be in need of a third round of debt relief because
of the program?s miscalculations.

* The conditions for the relief are unreasonably complex and harmful* After
two decades of these IMF ?structural adjustment? policies, little economic
progress has been made in many borrowing countries, and in most instances
these countries and their people have suffered from even greater poverty.
The IMF has suspended countries? debt relief in at least nine cases because
governments were was not in compliance with IMF policy demands.

* To reduce debt, countries must incur new debt* Governments must have a
loan agreement with the IMF in order to qualify for debt relief. For at
least two countries, debt relief was withheld until they signed a new loan
agreement with the IMF.

For full Jubilee USA Network briefing, please see:
http://www.jubileeusa.org/jubilee.cgi?path=/press_room&page=jubilee_to_g7.ht
ml


3.) Mark your Calendars! September Mobilization Plans Underway

Jubilee USA Network will be sponsoring an interfaith service and all night
vigil outside of the US Treasury department prior to the annual meetings of
the World Bank and IMF this fall on Thursday, September 26th. Please plan
to join us for vigils, spirited demonstrations, teach-ins, and gatherings of
Jubilee supporters from Septemeber 25-October 1, 2002. More information
coming soon...


4.) Action Needed on Debt Legislation

The debt legislation introduced this spring is going smoothly through the
Senate. The debt language was included in the Kerry/Frist AIDS bill
that passed the Senate Foreign Relations committee last week.

However, we still need help on the House side to make sure the Debt
Enhancement Act of
2002 passes. This legislation, although a far cry from Jubilee's call for
100% debt cancellation, will provide an additional $1 billion in debt relief
for the most impoverished nations and is a pivotal step forward. We need
your help to win!

ACT NOW:

If you live in the key districts listed below we need your help more than
ever! We are organizing district visits and letter writing campaigns in
these key areas of the most influential members of Congress. Please help us
find contacts in these cities! Call Sarah Smiley at 202-546-4470 or
sarah_jubileeusa@yahoo.com with any leads or questions.

But don't think that all the districts aren't important too! Even though
your
Representatives may not be the key members, their support of this
legislation is still important. We need as many co-sponsors as possible to
ensure that this bill passes!

For sample letters and to learn more visit:
http://www.jubileeusa.org/jubilee.cgi?path=/take_action&page=New_Debt_Legisl
ation.html


KEY DISTRICTS:

Bereuter (1-NE): Freemont, Lincoln

Oxley (4-OH): Mansfield, Findlay, Lima

Ferguson (7-NJ): Union

Roukema (5-NJ): Hackettstown, Ridgewood

Biggert (13-IL): Aurora, Clarendon Hills, Joliet,
Naperville, Wheaton, Warrenville, Hickory Hills

Ryun (2-KS): Pittsburg, Topeka

Castle (DE): At-large

Wolf (10-VA): Herden, Manassas, Middleburgh,
Washington, Leesburg, Manassas Park, Warrenton,
Winchester

Paul (12-TX): Freeport, Georgetown, Johnson City,
Katy, Rockport, San Marcos, Surfside, Victoria,

Kolbe (5-AZ): Bisbee, Green Valley, Oro Valley,
Sierra Vista, Tuscon

Hyde (6-IL): Addison, Des Plaines, Glendale
Heights, Lombard, Oak Brook, Westmont

Nussle (2-IA): Dubuque, Manchester, Mason City,
Waterloo

Hastert (14-IL): Batavia, Elgin

Armey (26-TX): Addison, Carollton, Coppell,
Cornith, Hebron, Hickory Creek, Lewisville,
Northlake


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
As always, we need your financial support to continue to bring the Jubilee
message to decision makers whether they meet in Canada as the G8 or on
Capitol Hill. Your contribution this month helps us to print our briefing
on HIPC and send Jubilee staff to monitor the G8 meetings in Calgary.
Please donate now, you make the difference:
http://www.jubileeusa.org/jubilee.cgi?path=/donate
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------

Any questions? Call Mara Vanderslice, Outreach Coordinator, at 202-783-0129
or mara@j2000usa.org


To unsubscribe from this list, just send an empty e-mail to jubilee-usa-net-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

People can subscribe by sending an empty email message to

jubilee-usa-net-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

For full campaign news visit http://www.jubileeusa.org/

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

Keep it UP guys! This will need to be a sustained effort!

SD

 

[Sherry Darling]

Bush to Propose Doubling Africa Education Aid
Administration Pledges $500 Million to Fight HIV-AIDS in Caribbean, Africa


A June 20 article on President Bush's AIDS announcement should have attributed the following quotation to Asia Russell, director of multilateral institutions for Health GAP: "By choosing to focus primarily on 'innocent' newborns, Bush is leaving women, families and communities for dead."


By Karen DeYoung and Paul Blustein
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, June 20, 2002; Page A02


President Bush will propose today to double spending on a U.S. initiative for education in Africa to $200 million over five years and will announce plans to travel to the continent next year, senior administration officials said yesterday.

The announcement on African education will be the second, relatively modest foreign assistance plan unveiled within two days by an administration that has questioned whether such aid has been wasted on inefficient and corrupt governments. Yesterday, Bush pledged an additional $500 million over three years to help prevent HIV-infected mothers in parts of Africa and the Caribbean from transmitting the virus, which causes AIDS, to their infants.

"Medical science gives us the power to save these young lives. Conscience demands that we do so," the president declared in a Rose Garden ceremony.

The flurry of initiatives come as Bush prepares to head next week to a summit of leaders from the Group of Eight leading industrial nations in Canada, where Africa will be a major focus. The $10 billion U.S. foreign aid budget is the lowest among rich countries as a percentage of economic output, and the new proposals could help the administration project a compassionate image at the summit.

Most of the 20 million deaths from AIDS have occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, where HIV infection rates are the highest in the world. The United Nations estimates that 800,000 children were born last year infected with the virus, even though as little as a single dose of medication to mother and child at birth can prevent transmission up to half the time. Bush's initiative aims to prevent up to 146,000 infant infections over the next five years. It is projected to provide extended treatment with life-extending anti-retroviral drugs for infected infants and their parents in numbers that will increase as the program expands.

But while saying the proposals were welcome, activists, aid advocates and some in Congress criticized them as too little, too late.

The AIDS initiative focused on the least politically sensitive aspect of care and treatment for a disease that is most often transmitted through adult sexual activity. "By choosing to focus primarily on 'innocent' newborns," said the Global Alliance of activist groups, "Bush is leaving women, families and communities for dead."

There was also criticism of the size of the funding, and what some saw as an attempt to take credit for congressional initiatives they believed Bush had helped undermine.

Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), who along with Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) had proposed $700 million in new spending this year on global AIDS programs, yesterday called the Bush plan a "shell game," saying it "provides no funding beyond that already provided by the Senate until the year 2004."

Bush's $500 million consists of $200 million the House and Senate have already added to the president's proposed emergency terrorism appropriation for this year, which administration officials said would be spent over this year and next, and $300 million that Bush said he would put in his fiscal 2004 budget request next year. This year's budget for global AIDS projects is about $1 billion, without the new funding.

Rock star Bono, a global development advocate who last month accompanied Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill on a 10-day tour of Africa, issued a statement saying: "This crisis urgently demands an historic presidential AIDS initiative. This isn't it, but could be the beginning of it."

Others in Congress and among nongovernmental organizations said they were glad to have what Bush proposed. Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), who shepherded the House's version of the $200 million in emergency funds, said he was "especially pleased" by Bush's initiative. Mark Isaac, public policy director at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, called it "real leadership . . . in fighting global AIDS." Isaac said that working with mothers who care more about helping their children than avoiding the stigma often associated with AIDS in the developing world often provided a way to expand prevention and treatment.

Paul De Lay, director of the HIV/AIDS office at the U.S. Agency for International Development, said that infants infected even after treatment with nevirapine, the drug used to reduce transmission rates from mothers, would be put on a permanent regime of anti-retroviral drugs, along with those infected mothers and fathers whose stage of disease qualifies them for treatment.

The program is initially targeted at eight African countries, to expand to 12 by 2004, plus Guyana and Haiti and a regional program for other Caribbean islands. The plan also includes improvements in health care infrastructure, an exchange program between U.S. and African and Caribbean hospitals and initiatives to provide African women alternatives to breast feeding, which can pass the disease.

The education proposal is both an increase in size and a fleshing out of specifics for an initiative that Bush unveiled last year. Administration officials said the money will go to train 420,000 teachers, provide 250,000 scholarships for girls, and provide 4.5 million more textbooks for African schoolchildren.

But the level of funding drew a negative reaction from aid advocates. The world's rich nations are being exhorted by the World Bank and other aid agencies to contribute billions of dollars a year to fund an initiative aimed at ensuring that all children in poor countries finish at least five years of schooling by 2015; currently, more than 100 million elementary-school-age children are not in class at all. The United States and other donor nations have backed the plan in principle but not all have been forthcoming with the money.

"I think it's disappointing that the president is thinking on such a small scale when the needs are so great," said John Ruthrauff, senior policy adviser at Oxfam America, citing estimates that $5 billion a year would be required to meet the U.N.-backed goal of achieving universal primary education by 2015.

Administration officials countered by emphasizing the importance of Bush's plans to visit Africa. Noting that Bush earlier this year proposed a 50 percent increase in U.S. foreign aid spending targeted at countries that adopt anti-corruption and free market policies, they asserted that the amount of money is much less important than Bush's demonstrated commitment to African development.

"As the president said today, as the [AIDS] initiative demonstrates success, we will provide more resources to it," one senior official said. "That is this administration's approach -- instead of 'more money, more money, more money,' we're saying, 'more results, more results, more results,' and money will follow results."


? 2002 The Washington Post Company


Again, let's LET HIM KNOW what we think of this. It's a welcome step he's taken, and he should get credit. But he also needs to know more is necessary! PLEASE write your letter to him, to O'Neill, to your reps in Congress NOW (before teh G8 summit). It will help save lives if we can convince them! We have to keep the pressure on!

Some links where you can cut and paste letters and find Ph #'s and addys

congress.com-- for rep. addys and ph #'s

stopglobalaids.com-- for letters to click and send (takes LESS THAN 2 MINTUES!)

jubileeusa.org-- more letters to click and send

Or the link in my sig

O'Neill's # is 202 0190

SD

 

[Sherry Darling]

*sigh* Sicy, is there an emoticon that hisses? Guys, TODAY is the G8 summit, if I'm not mistaken. GET THOSE CALLS MADE!

whitehouse.gov

ustreas.gov

O'Neill's office = 202 622 0190

Bush Bails on Bono
David Corn, AlterNet
June 21, 2002

So this is the thanks Bono gets?


Just weeks ago, the U2 frontman was jetting through Africa with Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and exploring the deep poverty of the continent. With a gaggle of media in tow, the unlikely duo visited cities and villages, often inspecting hospitals, orphanages and clinics where the tragic effects of the AIDS pandemic could be witnessed. One day, O'Neill was filmed tenderly cradling a small baby girl who has AIDS. Look how cute she is, he said, visibly moved, as Bono looked on.


By conducting high-visible public appearances with O'Neill and George W. Bush -- Bono visited the White House in March when Bush announced a 14 percent boost in the paltry foreign aid budget -- the rock star has shared his hipness with the Bush squares. (Not since a decked-out Elvis Presley posed with President Richard Nixon has there been such a lopsided transfer of cool in Washington.) By offering words of encouragement for Bush's modest foreign aid initiatives, he has granted the administration a seal of semi-approval. To be fair, he has probably prompted the misers to open the purse more than they otherwise would. But when Bush the other day announced a supposedly "important new" anti-AIDS program for Africa, it was not only an insult to the millions being killed overseas by this plague, it was a slap in the face to Bono.


At the White House, Bush said, "In Africa, the disease clouds the future of entire nations ... In the hardest hit countries of sub-Sahara Africa, as much as one-third of the adult population is infected with HIV, and 10 percent or more of the school teachers will die of AIDS within five years." He proposed "to make $500 million available" to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to children. Stopping inherited AIDS is one of the best bang-for-a-buck components of an assault against AIDS. A single dose of medication given at birth will work half the time. This is also one of the least controversial aspects of AIDS prevention because it has nothing to do with sex -- or condoms. It focuses on newborns, not adults. Consequently, it does not offend the religious riight and cultural conservatives.


So what's the catch? First, Bush was proposing funding that does not meet the actual need. Second, he was taking credit for money already approved by Congress. Finally, he was covering up the fact that his administration had pressed Congress to lower spending for this activity. Bush was spreading it thick in the Rose Garden.


The President expects his project to prevent nearly 150,000 infant infections over the next five years. The problem is, there are about 800,000 children born with AIDS each year, according to the UN. That means the Bush initiative is aiming at helping less than 4 percent of this population. Moreover, $200 million dollars of this supposedly "new" initiative were approved for use this year by Congress days before Bush's announcement. What he added was $300 million for this type of AIDS prevention in the following two years. Which averages out to $150 million a year -- a cut from the current level. It gets worse. At the start of June, several Republicans -- notably, Senators Bill Frist and Jesse Helms -- were trying to raise overseas AIDS funding this year by $500 million. But the White House leaned on Frist and Helms and got the pair to slice that to $200 million.


The bottom line? When Bush hailed his initiative as one that would save lives, he could have as easily said, thanks to me, this program will save fewer lives than it would have had Frist and Helms gotten their way. As Senator John Kerry, a Democrat who has worked with Frist and Helms to increase global AIDS funding, griped, "Just as we've achieved bipartisan momentum to make a real difference on the toll this devastating disease is taking on Africa, the Administration announces a retreat and pretends it's a forward charge."


Bush boasts that his administration committed nearly $1 billion to global HIV/AIDS assistance this year and has sent $500 million to the global fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. That sounds like a healthy contribution. But relief and medical groups argue this is far from sufficient. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has been pressing the international community to kick in $7 billion to $10 billion a year to the global anti-AIDS fund, with the United States covering about one-fifth of that. Catholic Relief Services has called for a $2 billion increase in US funding for the effort against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, of which half would go to sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated 28 million people have AIDS. (AIDS in Africa has left up to 13 million children orphaned.)


Bush shows no signs of rising to the challenge. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee recently passed -- unanimously! -- legislation that would more than double US spending on global AIDS, financing treatment vaccines and education, and requiring the US government to create a five-year plan to significantly reduce the spread of AIDS overseas. Bush has okayed a 13 percent hike in the billion-dollar program. Here's some budgetary perspective: Under this Senate measure, US funding for anti-AIDS work in Africa (and everywhere else abroad) would be about $2 billion -- the amount New York State spends on its HIV/AIDS programs.


On June 10, Stephen Lewis, Kofi Annan's special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, delivered a passionate speech to an assembly of religious leaders in Nairobi, Kenya. His words unintentionally provided context for Bush's recent move. Lewis said:


"There's never been anything like the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Comparisons with the Black Death of the 14th Century are wishful thinking. When AIDS has run its course -- if it ever runs it course -- it will be seen as an annihilating scourge that dwarfs everything that has gone before. I think we may have reached a curious and deeply distressing lull in the battle against AIDS. The [anti-AIDS] global fund has received no new sizeable contributions for many months. The G8 summit later this month in my country, Canada, has made it clear in advance that significant additional money will not be forthcoming. A series of reports to be released in the near future will acknowledge progress made but at the same time recite blood-chilling statistics on the situation of youth and children -- statistics which make you wonder whether the world has fallen into a stupor of indifference."


Urging his audience to action, Lewis remarked,


"The thing I find by far most emotionally difficult as I travel through Africa, is meeting with you women, stricken by AIDS, who know they're dying or soon to die, with two or three young children, and they ask me, frantically, 'What's going to happen to my children when I've passed -- who will look after them." And then they add, without using these exact words, but the meaning is clear, 'Mr. White Man, you have the drugs to keep us alive, but we can't get them. Why? Why must we die?' And I want to tell you: I don't know how to answer that. I have never in my adult life witnessed such a blunt assault on basic human morality. In my soul, I honestly believe that an unthinking strain of subterranean racism is the only way to explain the moral default of the developed world, in refusing to provide the resources which could save the mothers of Africa."


Hours after making his disingenuous AIDS announcement, Bush attended a black-tie Republican fundraising extravaganza that collected $30 million or so, with a major portion of that coming from pharmaceutical companies. In fact, Robert Ingram, GlaxoSmithKline's chief operating officer, was the numero-uno fundraiser for the event. This drug company not too long ago tried to prevent the South African government from manufacturing lifesaving anti-AIDS drugs. This event was, sadly, a true Washington moment. After undermining a more generous AIDS initiative, Bush bagged millions from drug companies that have opposed measures to make anti-AIDS medication cheaper and more readily available in Africa.


That day, Bono issued a statement in response to Bush's "new" AIDS program. "This crisis urgently demands an historic presidential AIDS initiative," the U2er observed, "This isn't it, but could be the beginning of it." Bono deserves credit for pushing the tightwads of Washington and the West to acknowledge publicly the problems of global poverty and global AIDS. How long, though, can this Irish musician sing a song of hope regarding Bush, O?Neill and the rest, when he still hasn't found anything close to what he -- and those African mothers -- are looking for?

 

[U2Kitten]

Thanks Sherry you're always on top of everything!

 

[Sherry Darling]

Thanks Kitty

I'll let you all know what I hear and see about the G8 summit. If anything. Am going to check out my newpaper and do a couple net searches as soon as I press send

Some news from the Angel site: the new message board is up, we've for fourty-one 41!!! angels now, and...check this out. Ultraviolet light just let me know that atu2 has linked to be and given us a blurb. (I can't find it, but that's what she says....LOL. If you're reading this, oh Matt of atu2, a far cooler newsite than u2.com will eva be, THANK YOU. And send your letter. )

SD