Let's not give Bush too much credit for helping out in Africa…

[Just-plain-Kathy]

I was curious why Bush would do something nice, -something he didn’t benefit from; so I did a Google search and easily came up with this….

Bush Has Quietly Tripled Aid to Africa
Increase in Funding to Impoverished Continent Is Viewed as Altruistic or Pragmatic

By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 31, 2006; Page A04


Snip…


Some advocates suspect that the Bush administration's interest in Africa is motivated more by business ambitions than altruism. Grants made by the Millennium Challenge Corp., a foreign aid program developed by Bush with the aim of rewarding poor countries that practice good governance, are also partially predicated on whether countries have open markets that allow widespread foreign investment.

"I know a lot of activist groups who believe that the president's stated commitment to Africa is, at best, a play on words," said Nii Akuetteh, executive director of Africa Action, a Washington-based advocacy organization. "First of all, much of the aid is emergency food or medical aid, rather than true development assistance. Then there are conditions that are attached where the emphasis is more on countries that open up their markets so American companies can go in and privatize things like water and electrical service or have access to certain resources."

…end


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/30/AR2006123000941.html

Bush and Cheney treat medical government contracts, the same way they treat defense government contracts. They take our tax dollars and pass out government contracts to crony corporations.

Remember the “deadly bird flu”? That hysteria died down once Donald Rumsfeld walked away with a cool five million from his investments in the corporation which produced the magic elixir, Tamiflu.

Donald Rumsfeld makes $5m killing on bird flu drug

By Geoffrey Lean and Jonathan Owen
Sunday, 12 March 2006

Donald Rumsfeld has made a killing out of bird flu. The US Defence Secretary has made more than $5m (£2.9m) in capital gains from selling shares in the biotechnology firm that discovered and developed Tamiflu, the drug being bought in massive amounts by Governments to treat a possible human pandemic of the disease. …..

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-rumsfeld-makes-5m-killing-on-bird-flu-drug-469599.html

[Cosmocat]

1. They do not do ANYTHING ...

if they aren't turning a buck somehow ... But, the media is just COMPELED to somehow be "balanced" and more than willing to stick their heads into the sand to try to give the idiot credit for something.

[Just-plain-Kathy]

4. Our media is owned by corporations who profit from Bush's wars or energy policies. n/t

[ticked]

2. The only things I give credit to Bush for

is eefffin up the country and bullying the world, ohh yeah and for skyrocketing oil prices, you know all the good things that have happened since he has taken office.

[Iterate]

3. And I hope he spends every penny on legal fees

Come to the Hague Donald...to pick up your...award.

[Just-plain-Kathy]

5. Oh yes, the Hague...when will the rest of the world insist on accountability?... n/t

[Iterate]

6. The rest of the world would stand in awe. Shock and awe.

Talk about a chilling effect -it's hard to imagine how much that would do to restore US standing and what a chilling effect it would have on all other would-be tyrants and criminals. Imagine the conversations all over the world, I mean, "My god, they sent their own guy up on war crime charges? Shit."

[Just-plain-Kathy]

7. If we held our White House accountable, it would restore our...

...standing in the world. The world has to know that "We the People", was against what Bushco did.

[Iterate]

8. More to the point of your original post

Thanks for posting this.

Until recently I worked with a biotech startup, a university klinik, and a university mikrobiology institute in Germany that all were doing quite a bit of work in Africa -research projects on TB, malaria, HIV, plus exchanges with doctors, giving them research assistance, transferring klinical practices -those sorts of things. Some of the financial help came through the Gates Foundation and other corporate/charitable sources, but mostly through various German government and EU sources. None from the US, though the CDC plays a critical role. None of this came with any political strings attached.

If there was any self-interest, it was only in not wishing an entire continent to go into free fall.

The person-to-person contacts that evolved were perhaps the best and most long-lasting consequences, from Ministers to lab technicians to interns. One project with Rwanda even involved a number of "Ruanda-Tag" Rwanda Day festivals (Germans will always be up for a fest).

And it all worked, wonderfully well. Rwanda is making a good comeback, and Africa is doing better,

So when you see that Bush/Rumsfeld can only see a chance for enrichment or empire, it makes for a such a sharp contrast. Small wonder the rest of the world quickly came to despise them.

Rumsfeld, by the way, literally means in German "kaboom field", i.e., field as in battle field. I never heard any of them use his name without a giggle.