Adam Holdridge
Contributing Writer
Think about the following questions seriously: What does Africa do for you? Is Africa an important player in the global economy? Does great invention and insight emerge from the Dark Continent? What influence, if any, does Africa have over our politics? Finally, does anyone really care?
Then to further my disdain for Africa, there are the realities that create the conceptions that I, and many people in the world, hold. Africa is an untamed continent where people kill each other like animals. Disease, poverty and inequality reign across Africa. In addition, acts of genocide appear to be normal operating procedure and there is little, if any reaction from the developed world. And if my country does not care, then I must not care either. Finally, to really top it all off, there is the Africa and HIV/AIDS pandemic.
According to UNICEF, an estimated 25 million people in Africa are infected with HIV/AIDS. This statistic accounts for 60 percent of an estimated 42 million people globally that are now living with HIV/AIDS.
A report released in March 2005 by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) predicts that if attitudes do not change concerning Africa, this epidemic will cause more than 50 percent of all humans beings on this tiny planet will find themselves infected with HIV. In the United States alone, this statistic will cost our country four billion dollars a year.
It is possible Africa’s leaders will make the decision to take a stand against the disease by itself, with only “fluctuating” support from the world community. While this action will work to stop the spread of infection, it will not decrease the number of people who are already infected.
The statistic will not be as frightening as the latter finding that 50 percent of all people in the world will be infected, but there also will not be a decrease in the number from its current rate. Instead, UNAIDS found that by 2025, due to population growth, the percentage of Africans infected will be the same as in 2005.
In a press release from UNAIDS, a UN organization, the Executive Director Peter Pilot foresaw that only one possible scenario will truly work to control the HIV/AIDS problem.
“Millions of new infections can be prevented if Africa and the rest of the world decide to tackle AIDS as an exceptional crisis that has the potential to devastate entire societies and economies,” Pilot said.
Another option is that Africa and the world will take a stand together. This will require a financial commitment of about $10 billion each year by 2014. That funding must remain at that same level each year until 2025.
The return on such an investment for Africa will be the ability to reach, educate, and provide treatment (but not a cure) for about 70 percent of all African inhabitants. As a result, infection rates will begin to decline by as soon as 2019.
But who cares, right? Africa really does not affect me or you. Personally, I like a gamble, and I like the 50 percent odds of all people by 2025 being infected with the deadly HIV/AIDS virus. At that rate, I’ll be just fine.
And when the director of UNAIDS said this crisis will “devastate entire societies and economies” that doesn’t affect us either… right? What does the United Nations know anyway?
Only then will this silly Africa nuisance go away.
3-31-2005