[Peace-discuss] Fwd: USA/Africa: Policy Prospects

[Alfred Kagan]

FYI, see the article on Obama at the end.

>To: akagan at uiuc.edu
>Subject: USA/Africa: Policy Prospects
>From: africafocus at igc.org
>Sender: World Wide Web Owner <www at africafocus.org>
>Date: Mon, 05 Apr 2004 09:22:23 -0700
>
>
>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 critized 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
>
>POLITICS AND POLICY
>
>1. 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 Ô 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 Roosevelt - and
>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 at 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 at igc.org. Please
>write to this address to subscribe or unsubscribe to the bulletin,
>or to suggest material for inclusion. For more information about
>reposted material, please contact directly the original source
>mentioned. For a full archive and other resources, see
>http://www.africafocus.org
>
>************************************************************


-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu