Aug. 15, 2006: #2

AIDS Conference

Several articles on the AIDS conference here
www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/features/aids/index.html

Sample, Stephen Lewis: We always underestimate Africa
www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/features/aids/story.ht
ml?id=3fdb7233-b524-449a-98fc-4b7e6e869e82&k=3040



How did the grandmothers come to appear at the AIDS conference? The Stephen Lewis Foundation paid for them to come -- "Grannies, Lewis upstage Keys after AIDS parade", Chris Cobb, CanWest, Aug. 14, 06
www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/features/aids/story.ht
ml?id=9253c933-e26b-4743-ad55-5c0f82793917&k=43976

Three hundred African and Canadian grandmothers paraded through the streets of Toronto Sunday [....]

The Stephen Lewis Foundation launched its Grandmothers to Grandmothers campaign in March of this year in an effort to mobilize support for African grannies.

In an emotional address to the women, Lewis said the gathering had been historic and exceeded anyone's expectations.

"I never imagined that there would be such a profound uniting of forces the forces of the African grandmothers and the Canadian grandmothers," he said.

I'm afraid that last statement seems disingenuous to me. Bring on the emotion with the Stephen Lewis grannies. They get a trip; he gets publicity and to bash the government ....... what does it do for AIDS?





The Stephen Lewis Foundation: Board of Directors
www.stephenlewisfoundation.org/about_who.htm

The backgrounds of the directors include such descriptors as:

appointed, community organizer, works for social justice, helping immigrants, aboriginal peoples and women of colour, Immigration and Refugee Board member, the David Suzuki Foundation, the Coady International Institute at StFX University, Executive Director of Medecins Sans Frontieres Canada, worked on humanitarian and community development projects, commitment to social justice and activism, Executive Director of Calmeadow, a Toronto-based microfinance NGO, appointed as the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, experience in all aspects of professional fundraising ...


It sounds to me as though the foundation had been designed for this conference -- a leftist political meeting with AIDS as the pretext and the object to denigrate the Conservative government and to prepare the way for more of the Lib/Left/NDP social do-gooders ... from what I have read and listened to. (IMHO, of course.)


Women and AIDS , NatPost, Aug. 15, 06
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/editorialsletters/story.ht
ml?id=e75a3f75-89be-402d-be36-6cd8150069cf

[....] Socially sanctioned male promiscuity is a major factor, especially in sub-Saharan Africa: While women in AIDS-afflicted countries are expected to remain loyal to their husbands, adultery is often seen as acceptable for men. As a result, many wives are unknowingly exposed to the disease by unfaithful partners who bring it home from extramarital encounters.

Western governments and activists are typically hesitant to address these sensitive underlying problems for fear of appearing racist. As Ms. Burkhalter puts it, "International experts instead focus on long-term development strategies such as economic empowerment and expansion of girls' education," while "foreign donors prefer public awareness campaigns to hands-on help in getting rapists and batterers off the street and into jail." But since all the public awareness campaigns in the world will not prevent a woman from being raped, non-consensual sex will remain a major contributor to the spread of AIDS until third-world governments get serious about cracking down on offenders. And in some cases, that will only happen once international pressure compels them.

The international science community can only do so much. To save women's lives, their governments and societies must also begin looking out for them. [....]

Israel won't be the scapegoat -- "The scapegoating of Israel is a result of the cult of victimhood that has taken hold of large swaths of the Arab and Muslim worlds." , Jordan Michael Smith, Aug. 14, 06
www.ottawasun.com/News/Columnists/Smith_Jordan_Michael
/2006/08/14/1753172.html

[....] Besides Cyprus, Israel is the only country in the Middle East given a ranking of "free" by Freedom House, the esteemed non-partisan organization. Arabs and Muslims living in Israel are treated like second-class citizens, and they still have more rights than they do anywhere else in the Middle East. Israel is "a strong democracy, a symbol of freedom and an oasis of liberty," as Bill Clinton once said.

An oasis. That must always be remembered. Israel has accomplished this with a tiny population and a puny, resource-unfriendly piece of land. And since its birth it has been surrounded by enemies bent on its extinction.

Now you see why Arab and Muslim countries scapegoat Israel. Because it exists. Because it succeeds. Because by focusing on Israel, they can ignore the fact that 50% of women in the Arab world are illiterate, and more than 10 million children in the Arab world don't attend school (April 2005 UNICEF report). [....]

Freedom of speech & the Left

Stanley Kurtz: Message for the Belgian Government, The Corner, Aug. 14, 06
corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=
MWYyMTZhN2EwMjRlMmE3ZTQ0NTVlOTFjNTAyNWRjYTM=

A number of us here in the United States have witnessed, with growing concern, reports of the government of Belgium's harassment of the weblog, "The Brussels Journal." We consider The Brussels Journal to be an invaluable source of information and opinion on matters European. By no means are all of us necessarily in agreement with everything that appears on The Brussels Journal. Nor are all of us by any means traditional Christians. Nonetheless, Americans recognize The Brussels Journal as one of the few web-based sources of European news and opinion from a conservative and Christian point of view, and we consider it essential that all sides of political and cultural questions be permitted a place in public debate. [....]

Search: Professor , expressions of racism

Check what John Jay Ray has written on leftists, racism and free speech. (below or later)



UN and the Middle East "Peace"

, Anne Bayefsky, Aug. 14, 06
www.eyeontheun.org/editor.asp?p=233&b=1

The most frightening part of U.N. Security Council resolution 1701 on the Lebanon war is that the United States agreed to allow the U.N. to play a pivotal role in the battle of our age - between democracy and terrorism, freedom and bondage, dignity and intolerance.

Kofi Annan's wide grin, as he stood side-by-side with Secretary Rice on Friday, said it all. He won. But America and freedom's cause lost. [....]

Inco was open to CVRD bid following Teck offer -- Sought white knight , Carrie Tait and Boyd Erman, Financial Post, August 15, 2006
www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/
story.html?id=4165058b-c4c3-4264-9541-7eb61b75e652

[....] "Inco would have gone out and beat the bushes to find anybody they could to come in and help them with an offer for Falconbridge," said Kerry Smith, an analyst at Haywood Securities Inc. "Presumably, the one that was able to respond in a timely fashion was Phelps Dodge."

Teck's bid expires at midnight tomorrow and CVRD's sudden emergence in the bidding war makes it virtually impossible for the Vancouver-based company to wrap up its bid tomorrow. Its bid -- composed of $40 in cash and 0.5821 of a Teck share -- was worth $85.99 at yesterday's close. [....]

They came from Walthamstow -- "Yet with British Muslims, the young have become far more devout and separatist and hopeless than their parents." , Michael Coren, National Post, August 15, 2006
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/editorialsletters
/story.html?id=baec6405-e56b-4b85-a761-d0b6c5127140

[....] Racism has always been an issue but seldom as bad as social workers would have you believe. The Hindu and Sikh communities, for example, have faced the same problems as their Muslim cousins but have generally done extremely well. There are very few Hindus and Sikhs in British jails, but almost 10% of the prison population is now Muslim. A third of Muslims have no job qualifications, the highest of any minority group in the country. And more than 100,000 of Britain's 1.6 million followers of Islam believe in the mass slaughter of non-Muslim British civilians.

But we cannot and must not connect disadvantage, even the self-imposed kind, with political extremism. The case of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh proves that. [....]