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Letters to the Editor If you wish to have your letter published in the magazine or on the website, E-mail editor@transatlantictimes.com or write: Letters to the Editor, Transatlantic Times, PO Box 6500, Largo, MD 20792. To Transatlantic Times Magazine, On the occasion of the visit by His Excellency Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to London: His Excellency Prime Minister Meles Zenawi attended the third meeting of the Commission for Africa held on 24th February 2005 at Lancaster House in London. Prime Minister Meles is one of the 17 commissioners of the Commission for Africa, which was established under the chairmanship of British Prime Minister, the Rt. Honorable Tony Blair early last year. Over the past year, the commissioners have been engaged in analyzing why previous efforts to solve African problems failed, and have looked into fresh and viable mechanisms to deal with them. The commissioners’ report is expected to be launched in both London and Addis Ababa on 11 March, 2005 and will include comprehensive recommendations to change the lives of Africans through good governance, more development aid, and debt relief as well as the creation of a fair trading environment for African countries on the international market. Britain will assume the presidency of the G-8 and the European Union later this year and Africa will be one of the major items on the agenda to be tabled by the British Prime Minister at these forums, so that a broader global consensus and political goodwill can be generated to help solve Africa’s problems. At a press conference held at the conclusion of the meeting, Prime Minister Blair praised his Ethiopian counterpart, and noted that Prime Minister Meles was chosen as a commissioner on his personal merit and for his commitment to reform and development in Ethiopia. In the course of his brief stay in London, Prime Minister Meles also met and held discussions with a British-friends-of-Ethiopia Think-Tank as well as representatives of the Ethiopian Community living in London. Prime Minister Meles and his entourage are expected to leave for home on March 24, 2005, in the evening after concluding their fruitful visit to the UK, that will have been the fourth in the last two years. Embassy of Ethiopia 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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