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Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, I have just read a copy of your magazine, TransAtlantic Times, which I picked up at the African store here in Pittsburgh. I was pleasantly surprised such a magazine exist. I want to say thank you for the opportunity to read up on Obama. I was glad to find his entire speech which I missed during the convention. I also commend your well written and thought-out article on the aids crisis in Africa. I was encouraged to know that its not all bad news. Teh Uganda story is heart-warming. This was a well researched, factual and solution-based article that has renewed my hope in the containment of the disease in Africa and the eventual cure for it. I look forward to your next edition. The Best, Dear Sirs, Four double six was the number meant to de-humanize Nelson Mandela in a South African prizon for twenty seven years, but Nelson Mandela has now risen to the same number to mount global campaigns against HIV/ÅIDS. "We know what needs to be done -- all that is missing is the will to do it," was the final plea in the former president of South Africa made at the closing ceremony of the 15th International AIDS conference in Bangkok, Thailand. Making a comparison of the suffering of his black people under the apartheid system of the white minority rule in South Africa, Mandela said "do not forget the millions of people suffering from HIV and AIDS and do not reduce them to mere statistics." He repeated his appeal to the doners-governments, rprivate sector, and private foundations to substatially increase their funding for the fight against AIDS. He appealed to the world to rise to the occasion and with urgency to donate to the global fund and enable it to continue its fight against Malaria, TB, and AIDS-diseases he said "present the greatest threats to humanity." He said the challenges now faced require comprehensive prevention and care programs. There is also immediate need for access to the anti-retroviral treatment needed to save millions of lives in the developing world including Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America. He called for global policy changes that would protect the human rights of those that suffer from unfair discrimination due to the disease. Thank you, Henry Neondo, Bangkok, Thailand |
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