Did you know that one percent of the US federal budget could actually change the world and solve many of the world's problems? So says a number of music artists who have signed a declaration for the ONE CAMPAIGN. Of course, one percent of the total US budget is $25 billion. That's $25 billion PLUS the nearly $20 billion the federal government already spends on direct foreign aid (2005 estimate), and then you have the billions in aid from American charities, citizens, and American corporations. The ONE program wants to urge people to contact their representative to try to get the US to more than double it's current foreign aid total. The average American taxpayer will surely not be pleased with the idea of having even MORE of their money taken on numerous FAILED projects.
The program's main objective is fighting AIDS. Problam is, Americans in general don't care about fighting AIDS. Why? Because AIDS is not a worldwide epidemic, and it's surely nowhere near a big problem here in this country (around a million Americans are infected with HIV, and most of them are gay men who choose to risk their lives through their dangerous behavior.) Americans are also aware that the major AIDS problem area is Africa, and that much of the problem on that continent is caused by mere irresponsibility, the refusal to use protection during sex, and the ignorance and tradition of much of the population in regards to safe sexual practices. More money won't make people use their heads and stop being arrogant about a deadly disease. Common sense will do that, and common sense is free.
You often times hear how the US ranks low in regards to foreign aid amounts...but these numbers almost always neglect to take into account the vast amounts pledged to international aid by American charities, business, and the everyday citizen. These numbers almost never include international aid in terms of military service donated to various efforts, food aid, and services that cannot be measured in raw dollar amounts.
The idea that throwing more and more money at problems will fix these problems is dead. We all know that money isn't the solution for the most part. The US taxpayer is already screwed when it comes to foreign aid- for many years, the American citizen actually paid the tab on the over $1 billion a year given for aid to North Korea, the terrorist lead regime that is in the process of building nuclear weapons that will surely be used to attack American servicemen and women in Japan and South Korea. Why would the average middle class American support a plan to send even more of their money on projects most of us don't care about (such as AIDS in Africa, a problem that money won't solve, as I mentioned)? We don't.
With this issue, you also have to look at American military spending, which is more than any other nation on earth- a good thing, because it's our military which truly made us the superpower we are today thanks to the events of WWI and WWII. Again, our military services are provided all of the time, and this spending is always left out of most of the figures concerning "forgeign aid." If you added the billions spent on the security and reconstruction of Iraq (over $100 billion), you'd have a foreign aid number that is over 5 times bigger than what most estimates list. When you add overall military spending for military activity that is directly helping people outside of the US, the US probably spends more on "foreign aid" than any nation on earth.
Bono and other millionaires can call for Americans to urge government to send off more of their hard-earned money, but I don't think the average American will be taking the challenge anytime soon, and for good reason...
Although it is true that throwing money at a problem is often counterproductive, your criticisms of the ONE campaign are not well-founded.
First and foremost, you need to do more research regarding the incidence of HIV and AIDS. Contrary to your statement that "most of them [HIV victims] are gay men..." the truth is that in fact 75% of all worldwide HIV infections occur as a result of heterosexual transmission. (See Quinn, T. "Global Burden of the HIV Pandemic," Lancet 1996;348:99-106.)
Secondly, asserting that most Americans "don't care" about the global AIDS epidemic demonstrates that you are missing the point of the ONE campaign. Americans may not currently care about the AIDS epidemic, but they need to. Even if you want to look at it from a purely self-centered point of view, the AIDS pandemic is a threat to American national security. Having a fatal disease running rampant in underdeveloped countries leads to the people in those countries becoming increasingly depressed, frustrated, and ultimately hostile. They feel as though no one cares about them, and begin to look for ways to express their anger.
This leads to small uprisings that can become civil wars that we Americans are ultimately called in to quell. Worse yet, some of these enraged individuals look to organizations that promise them opportunities for revenge, organizations such as Al Quaeda and other terrorist factions. In other words, if we ignore the AIDS epidemic in Africa we are planting the seeds of future tragedies on our own soil.
Third, why is it that unprotected sex occurs so frequently in Africa? The answer is a combination of tradition, poverty, and ignorance. However, you are wrong to presume that ignorance is in itself a blameworthy trait. The reason that many if not most people in Africa are ignorant about safe sex practices is because they lack properly funded schools - how can they be expected to practice safe sex if they never learn the statistics on STD's or how to use a condom? You are correct that there are some deep-seated cultural practices that are sexually risky, but the only way to fight these uninformed traditions is with information - and information, unlike common sense, is not free.
On a side note, what you refer to as "common sense" is only common in the industrialized world thanks to generations of well-funded education. To accuse native Africans of lacking common sense regarding sex is as ludicrous as accusing a homeless person of poor taste in fashion.
I do hope that before launching such a scathing tirade against a charitable organization in the future you will take care to only do so after having performed research and analysis far more thorough than whatever led to this highly unhelpful posting.
my point was...the biggest point was- throwing money at the problem isnt going to help. there is already obscene amts of money spent on hiv/aids research, prevention, etc. in the US, WAY TOO much money (thanks to the homosexual lobby and irresponsible conservatives who want to demonize sex in general) on this problem.
the problem with this campaign is- theyre implying, just spend MORE money (more taxpayer money), which is money that isnt donated...its forcefully taken from americans. and americans dont care much about problems that dont affect them personally...and civil unrest in a third world nation due to disease isnt usually going to find its way to our shores. and even if it were possible that it would, most americans wouldnt realize it, and if they did they wouldnt
realize how big it might be.
in regards to the situation of subsaharan africans...from what i read, a lot of it IS cultural issues, and part of it is refusal on the part of their govts and of the people to address other health officials, such as rampant STD's which is probably responsible for the high incidence of heterosexual transmission there. common sense does come into play tho...we know billions have been given to these countries (how well its spent, who knows), but these people arent totally ignorant of the problem and of the risks, of the prevention methods, etc. and it surely doesnt take a genius to realize that if you have bloody lesions on your genitals, you should probably take care not to go out and partake in any sexual activity, let alone riskier sexual activities that lead to more destruction. some of the problem is ignorance, but id wager that more of it is a refusal to use common sense, cultural abnormalities that lead to oppression of women, etc.
as for heterosexual transmission, i meant in the US. the disease affects very few people in the US (the cdc estimates less than a million americans have the disease), and thats tiny when you think of a population of 300 million. and in that population, only certain risk factors mean any real chance of coming in contact with the virus (MSM, IDU's, and their partners). the scare campaign launched by greedy organizations who want to make sure the money keeps flowing in has worked in large part, but more and more americans are becoming aware of the fact that not everyone is at risk like theye been claiming since the start of all of this.
as for money in regards to the US and the need for more balance in spending on health issue- more money is spent on HIV than on disease that actually affect americans (diabetes kills more americans each yr...car accidents kill more each yr, accidental falls kill more people each yr, etc.)
the problem is- we already spent an inordinate amt of money on a problem that, in the US, really isnt much of a problem...and asking for taxpayers to fork over even more money to pay for it is a bad idea. few americans would say- sure, take MORE of my hard earned money to spend on something that will never affect me.
where do you draw the line at spending? the US, as i read the other day, gives the largest portion of money to fight this problem worldwide. billions more? i dont think americans would stomach that so well, and even so- what would these campaigns be asking for next? 5% of the budget to fight other problems? and what are the chances that the money taken from our govt would go to fund what it says it would? so many problems with throwing cash at problems.