HIV/ AIDS: A Global Crisis and an International Responsibilty

I just recently discovered and joined the vast world of the blogosphere; initially I thought my scope would not extend any further than publishing my own thoughts on the current circumstance of the African third world, but I have come to appreciate the insight other blog contributors can provide in my own drive to improve the present conditions that exist on the continent. While I was pouring through blogs relating to the challenges faced by African nations, I became increasingly conscious of the number of entries that pertained to raising global awareness for HIV/AIDS. Millions of people throughout dozens of African nations are dying at staggering and increasing rates from diseases and viruses that people in first world countries don't even recognize as legitimate threats. Most of us have been taught the risks and consequences of HIV/AIDS, but view it as a faceless tragedy at a distance- we recognize the fragility of mortality but don't feel personally affected. Most places in the world aren't as fortunate; in Botswana, over twenty-four percent of the adult population is infected with HIV/AIDS. This story follows suit with many other third world countries where large proportions of the working age population are infected with the virus and are rapidly spreading it because of a total lack of prevention information and treatment funding. Since I began exploring the blogosphere, I have come in contact with people like me who are actively trying to get this devastating truth out to as many readers as they can. The first blog I have commented on is part of the online branch of the ONE campaign where distinguished political figures and humanitarians offer their positions on international poverty and disease eradication. The entry "Senator Durbin on Bush's Africa Trip" was posted as a direct response to the President's policies and actions towards the prevention of AIDS in Africa. The second blog post, "Doctor Urges Creation of 'Science of Healthcare Delivery'" is from the blog spot Wired Science; the entry discusses the need for funding towards the HIV/AIDS crisis to unify and address both prevention and treatment of the virus. I have responded to both pieces directly on the respective blogs and also provided my reactions below.


"Senator Durbin on Bush's Africa Trip"
Comment:
While the monetary donations made to third world countries by the United States and the international community are monumental, our primary emphasis should be towards bringing doctors into countries where the HIV/AIDS crisis is rampant. As the Senator noted, only three percent of the world’s health care workers are in Africa even though it overwhelmingly bears the burden of the virus. Of course it is imperative that donations continue to be made, but initiatives should focus on bridging the disparity between infected people and the availability of health care professionals. Large scale international programs should be implemented that would encourage doctors and nurses to travel and work in places where the HIV/AIDS rates are out of hand; smaller organizations like Doctors Without Borders should be expanded, and the government should provide tax reduction benefits to professionals who volunteer. In addition, great lengths need to be taken to allow more students into medical school, a change that would not entail a lowering of academic standards. Currently in the United States, the American Medical Association only allows a minuscule percentage of students into medical schools annually, keeping the supply of doctors low and maintaining their exorbitant salaries. This monopoly is extremely petty in light of the international shortage of doctors.

The concluding challenge- a need to push ourselves and each other to make a greater impact- is vital if we want to be wholly successful in eradicating the HIV/ AIDS epidemic. Globalization and the successive technology revolution have enabled people who are not doctors or lawyers to take an active role in combating the international health crisis. However, few are aware of just how much of an impact they can make. The One Campaign has been extremely successful in educating the masses on global phenomena that have been largely ignored for decades. Still, more should be done to provide information on involvement opportunities, especially to younger generations. I believe if this challenge was more than just a statement but actually provided a means through which the public could donate their time and talents, there would be a surprising turn out of volunteers. Our media overwhelms us with heart wrenching stories, but we are never told how we can make a difference to ensure that our children don't have to bear the burden of problems we left unsolved. Perhaps the most successful plan to eliminate the threat of HIV/AIDS for future generations is to create an accessible, straightforward system through which the masses could become involved.

"Doctor Urges Creation of 'Science of Healthcare Delivery'"
Comment:
This article has such a deep, but overlooked bearing on the international society we live in today; I am extremely grateful to people like Jim Yong Kim who acknowledge that- despite actions like the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) and PEPFAR- the United States and the international community could do more to help those already living with HIV/AIDS. As one of the more highly developed nations, we have so much potential to help raise the basic survival rates for people in Africa, yet we do not share the knowledge of medication technology and other treatment methods we have already acquired on the basis that it has not yet proven to be as effective or complete as possible. As Kim put forward- we need to “start rethinking the relationship between finding treatments and actually treating patients”. While we are all painfully aware that there is currently no cure for the virus, treatment plans that delay and alleviate its symptoms do exist. In the United States, these pill cocktails are relatively expensive because our medical and pharmacology systems are businesses and operate under market conditions. However, agreements should be reached to make these drugs available at drastically reduced prices to those who have already been infected in Africa as a way to help execute the Millennium Development Goals put forth by the World Health Organization. This step along with Kim’s suggestion to expand health care delivery on a national scale in African nations would begin the preliminary steps of implementing the practice of preventative medicine throughout third world nations. It is imperative that policies directed towards HIV/AIDS eradication entail a melding of prevention and treatment systems because there are two sides to this crisis that need to be addressed. If only preventative methods or treatments are applied, then only half of the issue is being resolved; this in turn drastically slows the rates by which we could be improving basic standards of living and health in third world nations. This article elucidates our fundamental human obligation to do all that is in our power to begin equalizing basic health as it extends to the entire global population.

Child Soldiers: A Global Crisis

The use of child soldiers is one of the most horrific tragedies of modern warfare and one of the most ignored. Today, over 250,000 children are still being used to fight wars across the globe, most prominently in Asia and Africa. This staggering statistic has been solely a figure for more than three decades; however, as we are now living in a world that is increasingly shrinking because of the pervasiveness of technology, it is time that the world recognized this genocide against our youth. While globalization has played a role in getting these stories out to the world, it actually acts as a double-edged sword. On the one side, it has contributed enormously to the rise of children in warfare, but at the same time, it has also made the crisis global in reach and enabled international society to unite and combat the malice.

Child soldiers have been used in an increasing number of conflicts for the last half-century at such drastic rates because globalization and technology have proliferated the availability of arms and weaponry. Small governments and resistance groups in third world countries who previously had no access to modern weapons, now can have them imported for a small sum, legally and illegally, with little difficulty. The devastation of modern warfare has spread over great distances and to greater numbers of people as we are progressively more able to reach remote areas of the world that were once impenetrable. Not only has technology increased the availability and lowered the cost of arms, it has also created weapons light and simple enough that children as young as five years old can carry and fire them. One hundred fifty years ago soldiers had to be able to maneuver cannons and bayonets effectively, a task impossible for anyone not of significant size; now with a gun like the AK-47 and other automatic weapons, strength no longer matters.

The other "edge" of globalization's sword is that it has enabled the issue to be publicized en masse to the world's population. The internet and home video cameras make it possible for average people to witness the human rights atrocities being committed in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda and Sierra Leone to name a few. One well known example is the Invisible Children story; because of new technology and mass media, three college students were able to create a documentary that has turned into an international movement to stop child soldiering in The Sudan. Other recent movies like Blood Diamond and The Last King of Scotland have also helped to draw public attention to the international crises taking place. Hundreds of thousands of people are now getting involved and donating to international organizations like UNICEF and Amnesty International to help actively end the atrocities of these children that would otherwise be unknown, unnoticed, and forgotten. Because people have access to these stories, they are helping to bring about change in the lives of children half way across the globe.

Now that the international public on a large scale has taken notice of this international crisis and demanded change, the U.N. has been able to take steps to eliminate the use of child soldiering throughout the world. In 2000, a majority of the members ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention of Rights of the Child in the Involvement in Armed Conflict. This regulation outlaws conscripting any person under the age of 18 into an armed force group. Not only does this apply to rebel groups, but governments are also forbidden from drafting underaged people. The protocol was the first monumental legislation implemented that acknowledged the problem even existed; however, it did little beyond that because punishments were vague and thus not enforced. The United Nations has intervened in a few wars where children were involved, like Sudan, but only after massive international public attention was drawn to the crisis. In the last few months, the U.N. General Secretary has been trying to persuade the Security Council to place trade, travel and arms sales sanctions on countries that are still using child soldiers in combat zones. As shown on this map, the countries where there are child soldiers being used in conflicts include Afghanistan, Colombia, Nepal, the Philippines and several African nations; coincidentally, all of them are members of the UN and have all ratified the Optional Protocol on the Rights of the Child. If these new sanctions are achieved and enforced, they could be yet another key piece in halting the international child soldiering crisis.

Even as international bodies are able to make progress in removing children from war fronts, an entirely new set of monumental issues arises with reintroducing former soldiers into society. When the children are captured from their homes, they are put through a horrifying "indoctrination" process that ties them to the army. Because of the total brain-washing the children receive at such a young age, the reintegration process is a daunting task that needs to be completely effective in every case in order to guarantee first, that the children do not reenter the armed forces and second that the child soldier phenomenon does not repeat itself. The reintegration process used by international organizations is called "D.D.R"; thus far it has been the most effective way of helping former child soldiers become successful, productive members of their society. The first step to the process is 'Disarmament'- stripping the child of the only safety he or she has had since being forcibly conscripted. In most cases, the children have to be forcibly recaptured and taken to rehabilitation centers because their fighting units are the only family they have known, and their leaders constantly instill fear that the world outside the unit is an enemy. The second step, 'Demobilization', is more crucial, complicated, and time consuming because the brain-washing and indoctrination need to be reversed; this is achieved through psychological healing, teaching basic social skills, providing basic education, and breaking physiological addictions to brown-brown, a highly addictive substance given to child soldiers. The last step in the process is 'Reintegration' into society which is just as convoluted as the two preceding parts because many children do not remember their real names nor where they came from, and in many cases, the families have already been killed or moved to Internally-Displaced People (IDP) camps.

While this process is extremely complex and not entirely uplifting, it has been successful in the reintegration of many former child soldiers back into their societies. However, the most crucial issue that is yet to be addressed entails massive global mobilization; doctors, teachers, psychologists, lawyers, resources and funding are extremely low in supply, thus their success is limited to helping only a small number of the children who need to reintegrated. The story of child soldiers is bereft with tragedy and to date the ending has not been much different because as an international society, not enough has been done to help save the current children in warfare and few preventative methods have been implemented. However, we are living in an increasingly globalized world that gives each of us more power to gt involved to end this human rights atrocity.