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USA/Africa: Policy Prospects
AfricaFocus Bulletin
Apr 5, 2004 (040405)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor's Note
A U.S. election campaign, it seems, has room for one foreign policy
issue at most. That space is fully occupied by Iraq. So it is no
surprise that no African issues - not even the unfulfilled Bush
administration promises on AIDS from January 2003 - have edged
their way into election debates. The difference that this year's
election could make for Africa policy is still largely a matter for
speculation.
The March 29-30 meeting in Botswana on use of generic
antiretroviral drugs (see AfricaFocus Bulletin for March 25 at
http://www.africafocus.org/docs04/gen0403.php) produced a flurry
of media attention. Editorial writers generally criticized the Bush
Administration's refusal to accept international recommendations in
favor of fixed-dose-combination generic treatment. But the Botswana
meeting was inconclusive. Administration spokesman John Lange
later conceded that the issue of lifting the administration's ban
on funding these generic treatments would probably be addressed "by
the fall" (see below). In an opinion article in the San Fracisco
Chronicle (March 29), Abner Mason, chairman of the international
committee of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS,
defended the administration's position by insisting that treatment
for Africans suffering from AIDS should wait for approval under the
"gold standard" criteria of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
This issue of AfricaFocus Bulletin contains a brief update on the
generic drug issue from the Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report. (For
additional updates and news coverage on this issue, see
http://www.cptech.org/ip/health/aids/fdc)
The Bulletin also includes two background articles on U.S. election
candidates. Charlie Cobb reports on what clues are currently
available on the policies of Democratic presidential candidate
Senator John Kerry. Sabrina Miller reports on the unexpectedly
strong Senate candidacy of Barack Obama, who won an overwhelming
victory last month in the Democratic primary for the open U.S.
Senate seat in Illinois. If elected, Obama, whose Kenyan father was
a student in the U.S. in the 1960s, would be the third African
American to serve in the Senate in this century. Obama has built a
strong coalition for his Illinois race, and has good prospects for
winning the general election [see
http://www.obamaforillinois.org].
++++++++++++++++++++++end editor's note+++++++++++++++++++++++
Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report
A service of kaisernetwork.org
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/hiv
Thursday, April 1, 2004
U.S. Official Defends Policy on Generic AIDS Drugs;
Business Coalition Says Policy Undermining Efforts To Fight Disease
Access this story and related links online:
http://cme.kff.org/Key=2461.DsN.C.D.KtGdv0
Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS CEO Richard Holbrooke on
Wednesday at a meeting organized by the coalition and the Council
on Foreign Relations, said that the United States' delay in
purchasing generic antiretroviral drugs is "tearing apart" efforts
to fight AIDS in developing countries, the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution reports (Nesmith, Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, 3/31). However, John Lange, deputy
coordinator at the State Department Office of the Global AIDS
Coordinator, speaking at the meeting said that the United States is
not trying to avoid purchasing generic antiretrovirals but wants to
"assure the quality, safety and efficacy of them," Reuters reports
(Fox, Reuters, 3/31). Officials from HHS, the World Health
Organization, UNAIDS and the Southern Africa Development Community
at a two-day meeting in Gaborone, Botswana, this week failed to
reach an agreement over standards for generic antiretroviral drugs
for use in developing countries. The medications in question are
fixed-dose combination, or FDC, antiretroviral drugs, including
Cipla's Triomune and Ranbaxy Laboratories' Triviro, which combine
stavudine, lamivudine and nevirapine into one pill that is taken
twice a day and costs as little as $140 per person per year. A
regimen of the same three drugs purchased separately from patent
holders GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol-Myers Squibb and
Boehringer-Ingelheim requires six pills a day and costs about $562
per patient per year (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 3/31). "Fairly
or not," the United States' reluctance to use antiretroviral drugs
"is going to become a symbol that the United States is protecting"
brand-name pharmaceutical companies, Holbrooke said, adding that
the issue "could undermine all the good work we are doing"
(Reuters, 3/31). Lange said that he expects the generic drug issue
to be resolved by the fall (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 3/31).
Drug Access
Only 3% of the 3.9 million HIV-positive people who need
antiretroviral drugs in Africa have access to them, according to a
study released on Wednesday at a forum in Dakar, Senegal,
AFP/Yahoo! News reports (AFP/Yahoo! News, 3/31). The study was
conducted by the Accelerating Access Initiative, a partnership
between the United Nations and six pharmaceutical companies
(Washington Times, 4/1). Despite an 85% drop in the cost of
antiretroviral drugs over the past two years and the fact that 40
African countries now have national HIV/AIDS plans, only 150,000
HIV/AIDS patients in Africa are currently receiving treatment,
according to the study. In addition, only 2% of sub-Saharan
Africans have access to antiretrovirals, compared with 84% of
people in Latin America, the study said. Delegates from 19
countries in Africa, Europe, North America and South America took
part in the forum, which ended Wednesday (AFP/Yahoo! News, 3/31).
John Kerry stands for... what?
Charlie Cobb*
ThisDay (South Africa), March 16, 2004
http://www.thisdaysa.co.za
[reposted with permission]
* Charlie Cobb writes for THISDAY from Washington DC
There is no doubt in Washington political circles, and perhaps no
doubt anywhere in the entire US, that later this year Massachusetts
senator John Kerry will be officially chosen as the Democratic
Party candidate to battle George W Bush for the US presidency. But
because the real primary election campaigning by Democratic Party
contenders centred on who could best beat Bush ("All the love that
Democrats have for John Kerry is really hate for George Bush," says
comedian Bill Maher) not much about what Kerry represents in terms
of policy is clear.
As outlined in stump speeches, his basic ideas don't seem to differ
that much from those of President Bush. As a senator, Kerry backed
Bush's war resolution against Iraq, and during the primary campaign
he struggled to explain his stance to angry Democratic Party
voters, arguing that he objected to Bush's method of getting rid of
Saddam Hussein. Kerry says Bush did it in the worst way, by
abandoning old allies and the United Nations.
And the world according to John Kerry? The US "will win the war of
ideas" he says. The senator argues for an immediate increase of
active-duty US troops ‹ by 40000. It's a "temporary increase" he
said in a February 27 speech, "unlikely to last the remainder of
the decade".
Kerry's strong support of Israel suggests that the Palestinians
shouldn't count on greater support from him. In fact, he leapt to
attack then-rival Howard Dean when the former Vermont governor said
during one debate that there needed to be a more "even-handed"
approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
His antiwar past, as part of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, when
he called US troops in southeast Asia rapists and pillagers, would
seem to conflict with his current chest out, I'm-a-Vietnam-War-veteran posture. Nonetheless, the election this
November looks set to pit Kerry's Vietnam against Bush's 9-11. In
his campaign book, A Call to Service, Kerry writes: "The time has
come to revive a bold vision of progressive internationalism" and
a "tradition" honouring "the tough-minded strategy of international
engagement and leadership forged by Wilson and RooseveltŠand
championed by Truman and Kennedy in the cold war".
Where Kerry strikes a somewhat different note than Bush is in the
execution of his foreign policy. A Kerry White House would usher in
"a new era of alliances" and abandonment of the present
administration's go-it-alone approach to foreign policy. He has
talked of "collective" rather than "imperial" US leadership. With
his presidency, says Kerry, diplomacy will once again be the
paramount tool of US foreign policy and the US will consider the UN
a "full partner" and pursue collective security arrangements with
the multinational body.
In terms of how he voted last year, the National Journal ranks
Kerry the most liberal member of the US Senate. And in 1986, 1988
and 1990, casting more than 100 votes on the economy, social policy
and foreign affairs, he did not side once with conservative
Republicans.
What of Africa? Here there's not much to go on. Ignoring the
continent has become traditional for both parties. In 2001, Kerry
was one of the sponsors of the Hunger to Harvest bill, legislation
urging the president to establish five-year and ten-year strategies
to achieve a reversal of current levels of hunger and poverty in
sub-Saharan Africa.
John Prendergast of the International Crisis Group is Kerry's key
Africa advisor, though former assistant secretary of state for
African affairs, Susan Rice, who was advising Dean on African
issues, may also play a role in this area. But their overall
influence with Kerry's foreign affairs team remains as unclear as
his policy.
Kerry says he would double the $15 billion Bush has put into the
pot to fight HIV-Aids. More of that money would go to the Global
Fund as well as be spread more widely among US agencies, but Kerry
and Bush are pretty much on the same page when it comes to the
ravages of that disease.
Kerry says that he is interested in increased trade with Africa and
the Caribbean, but is not interested in trade deals that encourage
dumping, unfair labour practices or environmental harm. As
president he would review all trade agreements. This leaning
towards protectionist sentiment is consistent with his
champion-of-the-little-person campaign stance.
Responding more broadly to a National Association for the
Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) survey that asked if he
would support "a policy of not infringing on African and Caribbean
nations' responsibilities to pursue policies that they determine to
be in the best interests of their people," Kerry said yes. There
is, of course, much wiggle-room here. Who could say no to such a
question?
On a linked issue that never came up during campaign debates, Kerry
told the NAACP that "as president I will direct my Secretary of the
Treasury to negotiate an agreement that would revise the Enhanced
HIPC (Heavily Indebted Poor Countries) Initiative to provide much
greater debt relief." There are no details as to what he has in
mind yet.
And there is Kerry's wife, the very independent, unfailingly
interesting, Mozambican-born Teresa Heinz-Kerry, who during much of
the primary campaign has helped shape both policy statements and
strategy. She has described herself as "a daughter of Africa". It's
hard to tell what that means in practice.
During the 1990s Heinz-Kerry was describing herself as an "African
American". When asked, a spokesperson explained that Heinz-Kerry
wasn't using a hyphen because "African-hyphen-American belongs to
blacks". Perhaps it is partly her influence that is responsible for
her well-born husband saying on the American Urban Radio Network
that he would like to be the "second" black president. "President
Clinton was often known as the first black president. I wouldn't be
upset if I could earn the right to be the second."
The Next Black Senator?
Sabrina L. Miller
March 23, 2004
[Sabrina L. Miller <mssabrinamiller@yahoo.com> is a Chicago-based
freelance journalist who has written for the Miami Herald and the
St. Petersburg Times, and covered City Hall for the Chicago
Tribune. This article previously appeared on
http://www.africana.com and on http://www.alternet.org, and is
reposted with permission.]
I first met Barack Obama in the old Kroch's and Brentano's
bookstore on 53rd Street in Hyde Park on the South Side of Chicago.
His memoir, "Dreams From My Father," had just been published and he
was just beginning to emerge as a name to know in the post-Harold
Washington, black political Chicago of the mid-1990s. And I -- not
one to miss an opportunity to meet a progressive newsmaker, not to
mention a fine brother -- approached him. I was the only person in
the store who did.
He looked every bit the law professor, peering studiously at
displays in the store and jotting down notes, clearly wondering
where his book was and why it was not out front. I sidled next to
him with a broad smile and asked, "So how's the book doing?" He
took my extended hand, smiled back and said, "I'm trying to figure
that out right now."
Obama, 42, has clearly "blown up" since that quiet, bookstore
encounter. First as a popular and effective lawmaker in the
Illinois Legislature; then as a candidate in an ugly and
unsuccessful Congressional race against former Black Panther Bobby
Rush; and now Obama, who won the US Senate primary in Illinois
against seven candidates, is poised to make history.
And now he can't go anywhere without scores of people recognizing
and approaching him.
Obama is now positioned to carry the November election in this
overwhelmingly Democratic state. If that happens he will join an
elite club of African American US senators, becoming the second
from Illinois behind Carol Moseley-Braun, and the first black man
to hold a US Senate seat since Republican Edward Brooke of
Massachusetts served from 1967 to 1979.
His political positioning and rising star should be unsurprising
because for much of his life Obama has been a "First Black,"
gaining attention most notably for being the first black president
of the Harvard Law Review. But in Chicago's well-established
African American political community, which prefers its leaders
homegrown, Obama has struggled against criticism from some blacks
who mocked his Ivy League education, biracial heritage and African
name, painting everything from his smooth speech patterns to the
multiculti neighborhood where he lives as anything but
"authentically" black.
The stinging loss in 2000 to a lackluster, unpolished and largely
inarticulate Bobby Rush, who was successful in painting Obama as an
over-educated, elitist outsider, led to a retooled image for Obama
in this campaign. The revamping of Obama's image has made it
difficult, if not impossible, for his presumptive African American
political base to see him as anything but theirs.
He makes fun of his name ("My name is Obama, not Yo Mama") but
speaks little of the prominent, long-dead Kenyan father for whom he
was named. Although the African Committee to Elect Obama in
Illinois has held fundraisers for him, they are largely on the
margins of Obama's campaign. He speaks little of a childhood spent
in Indonesia and Hawaii and offers little about the white mother
who raised him. He said recently that his mother, now deceased,
recognized that "he was a black man in the United States and my
experiences were going to be different than hers."
"My view has always been that I'm African American," he said
recently. "African Americans by definition, we're a hybrid people."
Campaign commercials made reference to his historic appointment at
the Harvard Law Review but his status as an alum of Columbia and
Harvard, and as a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago,
were downplayed.
Played more prominently is Obama's early work as an organizer,
registering 100,000 African American voters in Chicago in the early
1990s. He touts his membership in one of the city's most popular
black churches, Trinity United Church of Christ -- something that
clearly endears him to older, more traditional black voters. He has
also leveraged political relationships with people like Rev. Jesse
Jackson Sr., Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) and others who
haven't always supported him in previous races. He has an African
American wife (let's face it, sisters wouldn't have it any other
way) and two daughters whose presence is prominent in campaign
literature.
The strategy worked. Through an already strong network of black
professionals and liberal whites, Obama built a campaign that
appealed broadly to urban voters and those in predominantly
white-collar counties and rural areas downstate.
"He was always a part of us but somehow it seemed to be a secret
before. White people are always looking for somebody black who
pulled himself up by his bootstraps and can tell the Horatio Alger
story," said Chicago political consultant Delmarie Cobb. "That
doesn't play well in the black community because we've always done
that."
"What makes him attractive to white people is that he's biracial.
But he has never distanced himself from the black community, even
when others tried to distance it from him," she said.
Oddly enough Rush, the former Black Panther, persisted in singing
the "he's not one of us" song and supported Blair Hull, a white,
independently wealthy trader. The baiting fell on deaf ears and now
Rush finds himself on the outs with black Chicagoans, who are
suspect of his support for a rich, white man who has never held
elective office.
Illinois Senate President Emil Jones, one of the most powerful
black elected officials in the state, said at a prayer breakfast
for Obama that politicians like Rush will eventually regret that
they were "on the wrong side of history."
"Barack Obama is our son. All of the other candidates combined do
not have his intellect," Jones said. "This is our son and our son
deserves a chance."
Whether he realized it or not, Jones had invoked the most African
of sayings in urging black Chicagoans to vote for Obama: I am
because we are and because we are, I am.
AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with
a particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.
AfricaFocus Bulletin can be reached at africafocus@igc.org. Please
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