My Soap Box Time

I've got several things on my mind that concern Libya and the US . Every now and then the Peoples Congress /the Libyan government says that they will stop all subsidizing of food stuffs , medicines , medical care , and education . That the basic pay will be raised and the people will have to pay for these things out of pocket , instead of relying on government help as they do now . Everyone gets all het up , excited with much complaining and usually nothing happens . Some years it might be announced that all grammar schools will be closed and the smaller children will be home schooled . Now that one always causes a lot of controversy .

This year , well actually the other night , on the Libyan TV it was announced that all medical care , medicines , hospitals, clinics, and university's would no longer be free . People will pay fees for these things , in addition to that , the government subsidizing of food stuffs will no longer be available .

My ears have been ringing with all sorts of comments on this new development by Libyans of all walks of life . This will be very hard for the larger families . It will be hard for all Libyans but especially for them . The pay package is to be increased to 5000 LD a month from a very basic 300 for most people . This will be wonderful but with the fundamentals of living increasing in accordance to this pay raise , the results will be the same , no money and now people will go with out any help with food , medical care ,or education in this oil rich nation that donates billions to poorer African nations to the south of Libya .

There are still gaps in health care . People with HIV/AIDS have no treatment centers readily availability to them for medical care or meds . Tuberculosis is rampant . The treatment center for tuberculosis was built by the Italians I think and is so awful that people in the West would never even put their dogs in it for care . There isn't any drug /alcohol treatment here either because there are NO DRUGS OR ALCOHOL in Libya . Oh , sorry there is a treatment center for drugs ... in the crazy hospital . They test you for HIV/AIDS, any hepatitis's, and tuberculosis ( A,B,C, with D,E,F being ignored ) , give you some tranquilizers and that's it . You stay for two weeks if you are clean of any of the above diseases, and then sent back out into the world . No counciling , no help of any sort for the patient or the families of patients either .You are considered cured .

People that can afford to , go outside the country for treatment , especially if it involves any sort of cutting , as for surgeries . I know people here that will go to Tunis to have their teeth pulled rather than risk cross infection due to lack of prpoper sterilization techniques here in Libya . The public hospitals will not treat , or if they do treat , rather reluctantly , anyone with a infectus disease for this reasin . No pravite hospital will treat you if you have something infectus , not for love or money ! So , if you get something , oh say like AIDS , that's you death warrent in more ways than one .

Cancer treatment is from the dark ages . The cutting edge stuff from the West is unknown here and God help you if you have a rare cancer because there will be no medicines or a doctor that will know how to treat you . Here again counciling is unheard of as well . Nor will the government pay to send you out to get treatment that is not offered here in Libya . They say they will, but the red tape to even be considered for this benefit is never ending , even if you know someone that can pull strings for you!

As a matter of fact getting just your basic medicine that most people need for day to day living is expensive and many times difficult to find . And NOW they want to cut out what little help there is for free ? UNBELIEBABLE ! In this oil rich nation ... where will all that money be going to now, if not to the people ?

Schools ... not enough desks , chairs , books , poor teachers pay . You would think that the school supplies would be free wouldn't you when Western Oil Company's are paying literally billions in dollars to renew their drilling contracts with the Libyan government . No new schools being built . No public school transportation available . Many times the schools have no lights in the classrooms and definitly no heat in the winter , which believe it or not , it does get cold here in the winter . No AC or fans in the hot months and forget about school lunches .

Now for the USA ... does anyone remember the Weimar Republic ( look under the Econmics section for hyper-inflation ) or the 1930's Great Depression ? This could be happening all over again if people don't take a deep breath and think things through because it doesn't look like a lot of thought has gone into cause and affect in this present situation .

Could some one please explain to me how ... if I did a terrible job for the company I worked for , ran up debts in it's name , lied , cheated it's stock holders , it's employees , AND caused it to go bankrupt , I could expect them to let me retire , not be fired or imprisoned but retire , AND still be given $24, 000,000 ? Or WHY that would happen IF the American tax payer is footing the bill ? The American people would be paying me for a job done terribly wrong .This is just what might happen in the Wall Street / Banks bail out if the US Congress agrees to President Bushes plan .

In the meantime people who didn't do a bad job , who actually did their job well and correctly are losing their homes because of those same banks. The same banks those bad people worked for and want to "retire " from , having managed to dupe the home owner into thinking that their mortgage loans were issued at a stable rate of interest , instead of the sliding inflated rate they were saddled with .

These are the same American people that will have to pay for the bail out with higher taxes ... when they will be most likely homless and most probably jobless because they can no longer make their moragae payment due to higher interst rates .. from those same banks . These same people will most likely be unable to find a new job since many smaller companies NOT being helped by the US government will go under as thier financing dries up . This is a very scary situtation and has far reaching repercussions all around the world .

Things are most definetly NOT getting better in the world . I worry for my children and grandchildren . War is raging in some form or another on almost every continet of the world . Who is paying for them ? You are . Who are the solders fighting in them ? Your children . The question is why ? Are the Arabbs being made into this centurys scapegoat the way the Jews were in the 1930's Germany by Hitler ? Is OIL the real reason ? Ask yourself who is the silent , invisible fore here ? What is their real agenda?

USA Congress Votes Spending for Global Fight Against AIDS, Other Diseases

I will provide the story below for you to read , and the link as well but I can't help but wonder , will any of this money , medicine , and aid find it's way here to Tripoli ? Will the Libyan government take it if it is offered , use it for the Aids victims here ,and match the American funding if they do accept this aid package , with more money of it's own ? Hope springs eternal they say .

Congress Votes to Triple Spending for Global Fight Against AIDS, Other Diseases

Thursday , July 24, 2008

WASHINGTON — The House voted Thursday to triple money to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis around the world, giving new life and new punch to a program credited with saving or prolonging millions of lives in Africa alone.

The 303-115 vote sends the global AIDS bill to President Bush for his signature. Bush, who first floated the idea of a campaign against the scourge of AIDS in his 2003 State of the Union speech, supports the five-year, $48 billion plan.

Passage of the bill culminated a rare instance of cooperation between the White House and the Democratic-controlled Congress. It was "born out of a willingness to work together and put the United States on the right side of history when it comes to this global pandemic," said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., a leader on the issue.

The current $15 billion act, which expires at the end of September, has helped bring lifesaving anti-retroviral drugs to some 1.7 million people and supported care for nearly 7 million. The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, has won plaudits from some of Bush's harshest critics both in Congress and around the world. Both Democrats and Republicans hailed it as one of the most significant accomplishments of the Bush presidency.

The United States, said Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, "has given hope to millions infected with the HIV virus, which just a few years ago was tantamount to a death sentence."

According to a study by UNAIDS and the Kaiser Family Foundation, the United States provided one-fifth of AIDS funding from all sources — governments, international aid groups and the private sector — in 2007. About 40 percent of the $4.9 billion disbursed in 2007 from the G-8 countries, Europe and other donor governments came from the United States.

The legislation approves spending of $5 billion for malaria and $4 billion for tuberculosis, the leading cause of death for people with AIDS. It authorizes spending of up to $2 billion next year for the international Global Fund to Fight AIDS. The measure also provides $2 billion, on top of the $48 billion, for American Indian water, health and law enforcement programs.

While some GOP conservatives questioned the sharp spending increase, others said the U.S. aid had important security as well as moral implications and gave a needed boost to America's reputation abroad.

The pandemic, said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., top Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee, "is leaving a trail of poverty, despondency and death which has destabilized societies and undermined the security of entire regions." The program has enhanced the U.S. image around the world, she said. "Even in the most remote areas of Kenya or Haiti, for example, people know about the PEPFAR program."

PEPFAR has focused on nations in sub-Saharan Africa that have been devastated by AIDS, but it has also provided assistance in the Caribbean and other areas hit by the pandemic now affecting some 33 million worldwide. Even with advances in treating the disease, there are still about 7,000 new HIV infections every day around the world.

The new bill, like the current law, states that 10 percent of funds should be allocated for orphans and vulnerable children. It sets as a goal preventing 12 million new HIV infections, treating more than 2 million with anti-retroviral drugs, supporting care for 12 million people infected with HIV/AIDS and training at least 140,000 new health care workers and paraprofessionals.

It increases attention on women and girls, including stressing the importance of preventing gender-based violence.

Pamela W. Barnes, president and CEO of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, applauded the bill's target of reaching 80 percent of HIV-positive pregnant women with services needed to prevent transmission to their children. "We are still only reaching 34 percent of pregnant, HIV-positive mothers with the medicine they need to keep their babies HIV-free," she said.

The final product took months of compromise: Democrats took out a provision in the existing act requiring that one-third of prevention funds be spent on abstinence education but allowed for reports to Congress if abstinence and fidelity spending falls below certain levels. Conservatives won "conscience clause" assurances that religious groups would not be forced to participate in programs to which they morally object.

Bush, who originally proposed doubling the program to $30 billion, first balked at but later accepted the $50 billion bill that passed the House in April. The Senate diverted $2 billion of the $50 billion to Indian programs and inserted a provision that more than half of funds for AIDS programs go for treatment and care.

The Senate also attached a measure, welcomed by AIDS advocacy groups, that ends a two-decade-old U.S. policy that has made it nearly impossible for HIV-positive people to get visas to this country as immigrants, students or tourists.

The bill is named after former House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairmen Henry Hyde, R-Ill., and Tom Lantos, D-Calif., who wrote the 2003 bill. Hyde died last November, and Lantos died in February as he was working on the new bill.