Soror Alicia Keys Calls for African AIDS Action

[pink28]

Hello Sorors and Sisterfriends,

I would like to get some input on this issue. I don't know if anyone has read this, but on my MSN newspage I found an article discussing how millions of Africans are dying because of the AIDS virus. In some places like South Africa the average lifespan for a person with AIDS is only 30 years old! I don't like to pull out the "conspiracy" card, but I can't help but compare this to the Tuskegee Project where doctors intentionally injected poor black men with the syphillis virus and monitored how it affected them for like thirty years. What do you think, are Africans the modern-day guinea pigs, or is it something worse like mass genocide? This information really upset me and I would like your opinion.

[Poplife]

I've seen many TV specials/News articles on this topic. Here are some reason they mentioned as to why the virus is rampant in Africa:

1. General unawareness of the methods in which HIV/AIDS is contracted.

*Sadly this is true. I watched a public hearing on cable once and a young African girl raised her hand and asked if there was a cure for AIDS.


2. In war-torn countries men often took up with prostitutes and broight the disease back to their wives.

3. The unwillingness of the governments of those countries to accept the situation/make public awareness a priority.

*In one country the president is actually funding research to see if HIV really causes AIDS. (Hmm.)

4. Myths that give AIDS patients false hope and often make the infected population grow (i.e., if you have sex with a virgin girl it will rid you of the virus).


All in all it doesn't seem like the disease is coming from nowhere. The facts are hard to dispute. Plus there are other factors as well...take the pharmaceutical companies. They refuse to lower the prices so that suffering Africans can prolong their lives in comfort rather than die in pain. One dose of the medicine that can keep a man from dying costs more than he makes in a month. That is probably why the life expectancy is so low.

It's heartbreaking to see...but I don't know if I'd say it was a conspiricy.




[This message has been edited by Poplife (edited July 13, 2000).]

[exceptional]

This subject really intersts me. There are millions and millions of African Americans that have died, is dying or suffering the devestation of the AIDs virus. I get weak even talking about it. I do believe that it is a conspiracy. I believe that AIDs was develop by doctors and have been implanted in animals and people all over the world and I do not think that anything will change until millions of "Whites" are subjected to the disease and then there will automatically have a cure. But of course who will be able to afford the medication of treatment once it is aware to the public. That's right, the "White Man" and this will leave our people with no hope. We need to educate our future, meaning our children and younger sibling of the dangers of unprotected sex, needle sharing and what have you. We need to express our devestation and help these AIDs victims by supporting and reporting on the cause. Remember the person you lease expect could have AIDs and sex is a circle of fun, meaning that the one person you have sex with has had sex with others and that others have had sex with other etc. and know you have had sex with this one cenral being sharing the germs of hundreds of others. Just like you get in the car and put on your seat belt, when you get in bed put on a condom. No one can protect you from this nefarious disease but yourself.

[hope01]

Hello Ladies,
I had to respond to this post so here it goes. I totally agree with Poplife, if there were more straight white people afflicted with this disease there would be no limits set on finding a cure but since it is our people the cure gets further away daily. The same thing happened with Cancer. My grandfather had prostate Cancer for eight years and there was hardly any information available on the subject but now since the Mayor of New York and the Commissioner of New York have Prostate Cancer I can not turn on the TV without hearing a special on it. So I say until enough/a large number of afflauent and straight whites come down with a disease be it AID, HIV or Cancer of any kind there will be no progress to cure it. I am so sorry for the long post but I thought it needed to be said.

------------------
Respectfully Hopeful

[molasses79]

Hello, I'm a new user and I wanted to respond to the big conspiracy of AIDS. First of all, I do agree that those who are finacially able to pay for the medication, are predicted to live longer. I don't like to talk bad about anybody race, but I truly believe that the "white man," started this disease to eliminate the minorities and it back fired, now most of the world has it. I believe their is a cure out there. Truly, one of the cure's is to hae protected sex or don't have sex at all. I'm still curious how that doctors can't find the HIV?AIDS virus inside of him? IT makes you think.

God Bless

[tickledpink]

Sorors and SFs, here is an AP excerpt from an email that I rec'vd today...

AIDS May Orphan 28 Million in Africa

By RAVI NESSMAN
.c The Associated Press


DURBAN, South Africa (AP) - Nearly 28 million African children are expected
to lose at least one parent to AIDS by 2010, leaving a continent plagued by a
generation of devastated youth, according to a report released Thursday.

Pink, is this the article that you were talking about? Nonetheless, this is so sad and awful. I can't begin to imagine the effect that this will have on Africa's youth if it comes to pass.



[This message has been edited by tickledpink (edited July 13, 2000).]

[PositivelyAKA]

Poplife i agree with your theory, it seems to hold the most truth. as far as a conspiracy i would hate to think that is the case, many whites are dying of aids as well. i think it is more about money then anything, those who can afford the treatment seem to have better life expectancies, these countries are not as wealthy as the US so it is not susprising they are still having this problem. Perhaps those who are concerned can donate money to the appropriate agency that will help to educate and buy more drugs. This should be a mass effort on our part, but there is still plenty of disease and poverty in the US so it is hard to focus on a continent most of us have never even set foot on.

[Professor]

Sisters,

My uncle has full-blown AIDS and was HIV positive for more than fifteen years. I only learned of his status two years ago when he became ill. As a major supporter of my uncle I have read a great deal on this topic. If in fact it is found that this terrible disease was somehow "Engineered" by white America I will probably join some militant group that hates all white America and support going back to the motherland.
What has most surprised me about my Uncle is that in the fifteen years I never noticed one sign of his sickness. In encourage ALL to be safe sexually.

[HER_STORY]

i have a friend whose mother,father,uncle, aunt have died from aids. and just recently he told me that several other family member have it. this is so sad within a decade his whole family history has been wiped away!!

[AKA2D '91]

Alicia Keys Calls for African AIDS Action

Fri Nov 26, 3:05 PM ET Entertainment - Reuters


By Barry A. Jeckell

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Alicia Keys is calling on her peers in the music industry to raise their voices to help millions suffering from AIDS (news - web sites) in Africa.




"Just for a moment imagine the media hysteria and global outrage if 25 million Americans, many of them children, died from a treatable disease because the medicine was too costly," Keys writes in a commentary published in Friday's issue of Billboard magazine. "Imagine if another 42 million people were infected and had no hope of paying for life-saving treatment. ... This is exactly what is happening throughout sub-Saharan Africa."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp.../music_keys_dc

[Choo-ChooAKA]

i have a friend whose mother,father,uncle, aunt have died from aids. and just recently he told me that several other family member have it. this is so sad within a decade his whole family history has been wiped away!!

WOW! How sad. Where does your friend live? How did so many family members get the disease?

[AKA2D '91]

Soror, you do realize that was posted in 2000. LOL

[UpPinkies]

Well Today is World's AIDS Day. I'm rather upset at BET that they don't have specials about this disease like MTV is doing.SInce African American case are on the increase, you would think they would have more programming.

[TheEpitome1920]

BET has never done as much programming on AIDS/HIV as MTV does. However, I think 106 & Park will have something on it today. or at least I hope they will...

[ladylike]

The only programming BET has scheduled around the issue of HIV/AIDS (to my knowledge) is a special 106 & Park which will tackle the subject and address questions and misconceptions about the disease. After BET nightly news there is a movie about a young Black woman who is HIV+.

This is certainly by no means sufficient considering most of the new cases of HIV infection is the young, Black female population.