Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report Summarizes Editorials on Bush’s Upcoming Trip to Africa
Several newspapers have recently featured editorials discussing Bush's global AIDS initiative and his upcoming trip to Africa. Bush is scheduled to visit five African nations -- Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria -- from July 7 to July 12 to promote economic development and the fight against HIV/AIDS. During the trip, Bush is expected to discuss several initiatives that focus on Africa, including the five-year, $15 billion AIDS initiative (HR 1298), which he signed into law in May, and the Millennium Challenge Account, which calls for increasing aid to developing countries in exchange for a range of political and economic reforms (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 6/27). Summaries of the editorials are as follows:
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Toronto Globe and Mail: According to some AIDS advocates, Bush's trip to Africa is a "premature victory lap" celebrating the passage of his global AIDS initiative, a Globe and Mail editorial says. The amount of money allocated to the initiative is "nothing to be proud of" in the fight against "diseases that are laying waste to parts of Africa, and areas beyond," the editorial says. The Globe and Mail concludes that Bush was right in his insistence that the international community build its policies in Africa based on a moral duty to stop suffering, but "he should follow through on his commitments and other nations ... should do more too" (Globe and Mail, 6/30).
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Long Island Newsday: Bush is "using his international bully pulpit to focus needed attention on Africa" to draw attention to the continent's "grievous crises [of] ... ferocious civil wars, pervasive official corruption and the scourge of AIDS, malaria and famine," a Newsday editorial says. While Bush's "ambitious agenda" seems to lack the necessary "money or muscle" to back it up, the international attention that this plan will garner is "not a bad thing," the editorial concludes (Long Island Newsday, 6/30).
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New York Times: While Africa's problems may "seem remote to some Americans, Mr. Bush recognizes that they are not," and his trip to Africa, promises of increased aid to the region and the global AIDS initiative "symboliz[e] that concern," a Times editorial says. The AIDS initiative is especially "welcome" because it can "save hundreds of thousands of lives" and is also "remarkably cost effective," compared with the costs of war or farm subsidies, the editorial concludes (New York Times, 6/28).
- Salt Lake Tribune: If Bush's trip to Africa and commitment of funding for the global AIDS initiative is "truly a new American commitment to dealing with Africa, then it is good news indeed," a Tribune editorial says. "It is a hopeful sign indeed that the president ... seems to realize that the problems of Africa impose upon America both the moral duty and the security necessity to do all we can, with long-term, committed policies, to help that sad continent overcome its ... burdens and rise to full membership in the family of nations," the editorial concludes (Salt Lake Tribune, 6/30).