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Sunday, September 24, 2006
Meanwhile, in Cameroon...
Nick Kristof keeps trying to get the world to pay attention to Africa:
And there are still people who love to bash the UN and also think W is a good Christian man.I arrived the next day, interviewed Dr. Pipi about maternal mortality — and found Prudence fading away in the next room. Dr. Pipi said she needed a blood transfusion before the operation could begin, so a Times colleague, Naka Nathaniel, and I donated blood (yes, the needles were sterile) and cash.
The transfusion helped Prudence, and she grew strong enough to reach out her hand and respond to people around her. Dr. Pipi said the operation would begin promptly, and Prudence’s family was ecstatic. But as we waited in the hospital lobby, Dr. Pipi sneaked out the back door of the hospital and went home for the night.
It wasn’t just the doctor who failed Prudence, but the entire system. He did operate the next morning, but by then the infection had spread further — and the hospital had no powerful antibiotics. Prudence’s breathing grew strained, as her stomach ballooned with the infection and the bag of urine from her catheter overflowed. The nurses couldn’t be bothered with a poor villager like her.
That night she began vomiting and spitting blood. She slipped into a coma, and a towel beside her head grew soggy with blood and vomit. On Tuesday afternoon, she finally passed away.
...
The U.N. Population Fund has a maternal health program in some Cameroon hospitals that might have saved Prudence’s life, but it doesn’t operate in this region. And it’s difficult to expand, because President Bush has cut U.S. funding for the population fund — even for African programs — because of false allegations that it supports abortions in China.
5 Comments:
CL - Of course there is plenty of corruption doing untold amounts of damage in Africa, both directly and by diverting aid from developed nations. But the point here is that we could be doing something to prevent or reduce this sort of tragedy and we're not. THAT is entirely Bush's fault. What other nations do is not Bush's fault (for the most part) but what the US fails to do certainly is.
Mark - My point about UN bashing is that there is plenty to be bothered by in the UN we see in the news everyday, ie Security Council actions, or nonactions as the case may be. But people forget that the UN has dozens of other much lower profile programs like the Population Fund, UNICEF, etc. that take up some important but not very glamorous causes that others don't.
The UN -- like any bureaucracy, is ripe for criticism. The first question is always intent. Some criticize the UN because they want to see it eliminated. Others criticize the UN because they want to see it be more effective. The second question is responsibility. Are the criticisms responsible, or are they aimed at fueling the black helicopter crowd which is convinced that the one world shadow government already exists somewhere in Carlsbad Caverns?
I think most liberals applauded Bush's commitment to combating AIDS in Africa, but have come to be very disappointed in how it's been carried out.
My point is that W plays abortion politics with the Population Fund and the direct result is that more African women die. There's nothing very "Christian" about that.
As for the AIDS program as I recall Bush made a huge pledge and very little of it was actually acted on. Maybe that's changed in the last year but I haven't heard that it has. And with all these things the US tends to be pretty stingy compared to the rest of the developed world unless aid is in military form.
CL, I've been waiting for you and Mark to chime in on the same post since I figure you two are pretty much on the same page. You can check out his blog over at http://latenightrants.blogspot.com/ and come back here if you decide it's more fun to argue than nod your head in agreement.
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