I just finished watching Christiane Amanpour's report on AIDS in Africa

[OneBlueSky]

that was first broadcast in July . . . watching the program, I was overwhelmed with sadness at the plight of the thousands upon thousands of children who have lost their parents to AIDS -- many of whom are themselves infected . . .

I was also deeply touched by Africa's grandmothers, who by default have had to parent their grandchildren at a time when someone should be taking care of them . . . one woman, Beatrice, is raising four kids, two of whom are HIV positive . . . she earns money by scouring the local dump all day, every day, to retrieve plastic bags, for which she's paid ten cents a pound . . . this enables her to provide one meal a day for her family, usually a gruel made up of UN-provided meal . . . this woman, and those like her, are living saints for what they are doing in their old age to save these children's lives . . .

that this situation exists across an entire continent is a disgrace to the "developed" nations of the world -- and particularly to the U.S. -- which spend hundreds of billions of dollars to kill and maim while Beatrice scavanges a living in the dump . . . the fact that we, as a nation, with all of our riches, choose to spend our money dropping cluster bombs and depleted uranium on Iraq rather than on feeding and providing basic healthcare for starving kids in Africa and elsewhere is so disgraceful that it's hard to find words to convey the revulsion I feel . . . we've become a nation that actually prefers death to life, and we prove it every day by what we do, and do not do, to and for other peoples with whom we share this planet . . .

if you get a chance, please take the time to watch this documentary, which is being re-played periodically (often late at night) on CNN . . . here's an article about the program . . .

Amanpour: World fails to save Africa's AIDS orphans
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/07/17/amanpour.africa.btsc/index.html

and here's another article that follows up on two orphaned boys that Amanpour interviewed . . .

A ‘Wind of Hope’ for two brothers orphaned by AIDS
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/kenya_35106.html

[Skittles]

1. America should be doing more

it sickens me when I think of all the money wasted on the war in Iraq

[saigon68]

2. The old saying

The darker the skin

The less compassion


From amerika's CORPORATE ELITE (ESPECIALLY THROUGH THEIR SELECTED LEADERS)



RINGS TRUE HERE





AIDS orphans on the grave of their parents