HIV/AIDS WORLDWIDE
HIV/AIDS Conference in South Africa
As South Africa defended its policy of denying AIDS drugs to its population at a conference on the disease in Durban, WHO head Lee Jong-Wook compared the worldwide AIDS crisis to Armageddon, reported Agence France-Presse on August 5. Lee called for a massive increase in efforts to combat it, especially for Africa. "In the African continent, it would be wrong to talk about prevention, voluntary counseling and testing, when people are actually dying. You have to provide treatment as well as prevention," said Lee. The story noted that the South African government has come under heavy criticism for failing to adopt a national treatment plan for HIV/AIDS sufferers, choosing instead to focus on "nutritious diets" for those infected. Lee said this was inadequate to deal with an epidemic he described as "a global security issue."

A Generation Orphaned By AIDS in Kenya
On August 13, The Washington Post featured an in-depth story on AIDS orphans: more than 3.5 million children across sub-Saharan Africa have lost both parents to AIDS, according to the U.N. AIDS organization, and more than 13 million have lost at least one. Children are already going hungry because parents who were farmers are dead. "Economies are collapsing and famines are growing in areas that always had food," said Aloys Nyabola Mbori, who leads a committee to find ways to feed and care for orphans in East Kagan. "Africa has seen poverty, but this will be worse than anything we have ever known." Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF, said, "The implications of this are monstrous. The profound trauma of losing a mother or both parents has devastating long-term implications, not only for a child's well-being and development, but for the stability of communities and, ultimately, nations themselves. Children and women caught up in the chaos and forced displacement of war are more vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation, which facilitates the spread of HIV." Read: The Washington Post

International Meeting on AIDS in Asia
An August 1 story by Agence France-Presse reported that an international meeting on AIDS in South and Southeast Asia called for greater commitment from politicians to fight the disease, warning that HIV could spiral out of control if urgent measures are not taken. Indian Parliament Speaker Manohar Joshi issued a call to MPs to team up with health workers, dubbing the disease "a catastrophe in slow motion�In Asia the window of opportunity for bringing the HIV/AIDS epidemic under control is narrowing rapidly... Both India and China are experiencing serious epidemics that are affecting many millions of people," Joshi said at the start of the two-day, 14-nation conference.

INTERNATIONAL FAMILY PLANNING
The Fate of the Girl Child in India
Reuters reported August 14 that women's activists say keeping the faith for baby girls in India is as tough as ever, despite government moves to introduce laws barring people with more than two children from running for political office and holding government jobs. "In a country where there's a strong son preference, and the technology for sex selection is easily available, this could lead to a shortage of girls in the long term," said Saroj Pachauri, regional director of the Population Council. Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani recently said the planned legislation was important because "persuasive methods have miserably failed to curb the population explosion." Already, the government's aggressive campaign for two-child families and India's obsession with having sons has led to an increasing number of women aborting female fetuses to make sure they have at least one boy, if not two. "The bottom line is the number of girls is going down because of pressure to have small families," said Francois Farah, UNFPA representative in India. According to an August 15 story by Agence France-Presse, China launched a campaign to curb a widespread practice of aborting female fetuses, which has led to a disastrous imbalance in the ratio between boys and girls, state media said. Read: Reuters

China�s One-Child Program Affecting Economy and Society
The Los Angeles Times (CA) reported August 2 about Yide, who shares a spacious Beijing penthouse with his parents, Li Guijun and Chang Qing, both 39, and belongs to a special group of consumers, the "little emperors and empresses" who are the legacy of the one-family, one-child program launched by China in 1979. The story said these children, raised during a period of dramatic economic growth, are knowledgeable consumers of Hollywood movies and enjoy Taiwanese pop tunes and the latest Hong Kong fashions. Even the children of factory workers and domestic helpers are being sent to after-school classes and study-abroad programs, reflecting Chinese society's emphasis on education. However, sociologists worry that this generation is overprotected and spoiled: they fear that China's embrace of capitalism has materially enriched the lives of young people but left a moral void that could contribute to social problems such as drug abuse and drinking. Read: Los Angeles Times

China Loosens One-Child Program Restrictions for Some
Beijing Municipality has eased its local birth control policy, making it easier for nine special groups of families to have a second child, reported Xinhua General News Service on August 8. The nine groups that are allowed a second child include couples who have a disabled first child, who are the only child of their respective families and currently have only one child themselves, and remarried couples who have only one child. Under the former municipal Population and Birth Control Statutes, these couples could only have a second child at least four years after the first child was born and if the mother was at least 28 years old. The revised statute, which will be implemented on Sept. 1, stipulates that couples who are subject to just one of these conditions can have a second child.

Family Planning Success in Tunisia
The Wall Street Journal reported August 8 that birth rates have dropped in just about every developing country, but the decline in Tunisia has been especially sharp. Millions of Tunisian women have been persuaded by family planning campaigners to have far fewer children than their parents and grandparents did. The resulting improvement in living standards for the country's 10 million citizens has been more pronounced than in most developing countries. WSJ noted the prime agent of Tunisia's transformation was President Habib Bourguiba, who launched the campaign in the 1950s. The government spends about $10 million each year to educate citizens about family planning and dispense birth control devices to the remotest corners of a country. Tunisia has also gone a long way toward educating its women and bringing them into the work force. Men and schoolchildren learn about contraception. Mobile clinics offer free pap smears and breast exams. Tunisia has even persuaded its religious leaders to loosen their interpretation of the Koran to fit the cause. Read: Wall Street Journal

SCIENCE AND THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION
An August 8 story by The Washington Post said the Bush administration has repeatedly mischaracterized scientific facts to bolster its political agenda, in areas ranging from abstinence education and condom use to missile defense, according to a report released by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA). The White House quickly dismissed the report as partisan sniping. The 40-page document marks the launch of a new effort by Waxman and others in Congress to highlight simmering anger among scientists and others who believe that President Bush � much more than his predecessors � has been spiking science with politics to justify conservative policies in areas such as reproductive rights, embryo research, energy policy and environmental health. For example, "Performance measures" used to determine the effectiveness of federally funded "abstinence-only" sex education programs were altered by the administration in ways that made it easier to say the programs were effective, according to the report. And information about how to use a condom � along with scientific data showing that sex education does not lead to earlier or increased sexual activity in young people � was removed from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site. Read: Washington Post and the Waxman report: "Politics and Science in the Bush Administration"

NEWS ABOUT UNFPA
Debate on Funding for UNFPA Continues
In The Village Voice (NY) August 6-12 issue, James Ridgeway wrote: �There are 19 million voters whom Karl Rove considers �religious conservatives,� but only 14 million of them voted in 2000, and the president's campaign strategists want to get them hopped up enough to vote in huge numbers in the unlikely event of a close election next year.� In one of Bush�s many bows to conservative voters, his administration denied $34 million in funding for UNFPA appropriated by Congress. "This decision is an embarrassment and a travesty," said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), whose committee approved $50 million in funding for the agency in the Senate version of the foreign-aid bill. "It flies in the face of the facts, of the law, and of the intent of Congress." Read: Village Voice

Activists and European Commission Reaffirm Commitment to UNFPA
Inter Press Service (IPS) reported August 4 that women's health is threatened by an anti-abortion campaign by conservative Roman Catholic organizations in the United States, the policies of President Bush and diplomatic efforts by the Vatican, say reproductive rights activists. IPS said the attack has concentrated with some success on UNFPA, the primary source of funds to government agencies and non-governmental organizations for maternal health programs and family planning services in more than 140 countries. Congress voted July 15 to withhold from UNFPA its contribution for the years 2004 and 2005, totaling $100 million. This confirms that "the public policy process is increasingly tainted by misinformation emanating from the White House," said theologian and activist Frances Kissling, President of Catholics for a Free Choice. Meanwhile, Poul Nielson, the European Union's Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, reaffirmed his support in May for UNFPA�s sexual and reproductive health services in order to avert abortions. The European Commission "recognizes that unsafe abortion is a reality" that causes the deaths of many women, he said.

EDITORIALS AND OPINIONS
An August 10 op ed in The Detroit Free Press (MI) by William Milliken, Republican governor of Michigan from 1969 to 1983, noted that the Republican Party could be setting itself up for defeat in 2004 in a scenario similar to that of 1992. �By playing the politics of the past, the GOP is allowing itself to become identified with an agenda on family planning that threatens to reverse the decades of progress in empowering women in the United States and abroad�These absolutists have just won a narrow vote in the U.S. House to cut in half America's contribution to the United Nation's Population Fund (UNFPA), the only truly worldwide effort to provide reproductive health services to families in the developing world.� He concluded, �As we head into another election cycle, we are certain to hear much about �compassionate conservatives�. Last time it was a promise; this time it will be a matter of record. Voters who care about these issues will rightly ask themselves, �Is my country more compassionate than it was four years ago?� The GOP has only 15 months left to improve its record if it has any chance of getting skeptical women � and men � to answer, �Yes�.� Read: Detroit Free Press

The Chicago Tribune (IL) featured an August 2 editorial that noted the first anniversary in July of President Bush's woeful decision to kill $34 million in funding for UNFPA. The editorial said, �It was a bad decision then, motivated by abortion politics. A year later, it doesn't look any better.� Read: Chicago Tribune and Star Tribune

The Washington Post�s August 12 editorial said: �As long as South Africa fails to take seriously the medical and scientific evidence concerning the causes and treatments of AIDS, there will be terrible consequences across the African continent. AIDS is killing people, destroying economies and leaving behind a generation of orphans. South Africa, with its political influence, its sophisticated medical system and its excellent medical schools, is in a position to lead a continental revolution in the fight against HIV and AIDS. It has abdicated this role far too long.� Read: Washington Post and Newsday

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The above summary was written by Elena Cabatu and Kathy Bonk at the Communications Consortium Media Center, 1200 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20005, 202/326-8700. Redistributi