NEWS - Military Dictorships Begets

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Subject: NEWS - Military Dictorships Begets Poverty which Begets Aids....

Military Dictorships Begets Poverty which Begets Aids....

The Rangoon Post - 26 October, 1999

 Asia Prosperity is threatened by the spread of AIDS as reported by the
World Bank. AIDS is rampantly spreading because poverty is extensive
through-out Asia.  
  Asia poverty problems are linked to dozens of years of military
control and corruption. Most military personnel are not trained or
competent in the office they assigned to. In Burma/Mynamar, the SLORC/
SPDC had put in a person as Minister of Tourism because he had
'interests' in travel.
  This lack on education, corruption and iron-fisted violent control of
the populous has impoverished them.  The people must find other methods
of survival such as selling their belongings, travelling for work and
prostitution.
  People come from China, Thailand, Burma, and other Asian countries to
intentionally work in brothels to make money for their villages and
families.  Others, many others are tricked or sold into sex slavery
until they pay off the owner who purchased them.
  If it military dictatorships didn't exist... Asia's problems would be
extensively fewer.  


- -- -- -  - - - - - - - - 
World Bank Expert: AIDS Threatens Asia's Prosperity
  
(Photo)

A brothel in one of Kuala Lumpur's red-light districts open for business
as some 3,000 AIDS experts meet in Kuala Lumpur for the 5th
International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific    
 
 
October 26, 1999
Web posted at: 10:56 a.m. HKT (0256 GMT)

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- The AIDS epidemic in Asia could erase the
region's economic gains over the last two decades unless governments
maintain funding for social programs, a World Bank expert warned Monday. 

In Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Vietnam and
southern China, AIDS had gained a "strong foothold," even before the
economic crisis struck in 1997, said Martha Ainsworth, a senior World
Bank economist. 

The dreaded virus "threatens to slowly unravel the progress in improving
the human condition and to eliminate if not reverse the benefits of the
economic miracle," Ainsworth told the 5th International Congress on AIDS
in Asia and the Pacific, held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

The region's two-year economic crisis may have further hurt Asia's fight
against AIDS, Ainsworth said. Hundreds of companies went bankrupt and
cash-strapped governments were forced to slash budgets. The economic
turmoil pushed thousands of families into poverty and many women into
prostitution. 

"Even before the crisis, political commitment to AIDS prevention in the
region was weak," Ainsworth said. "Many policy makers are still in
denial." 

Before the economic downturn, governments channeled funds into education
and health care budgets, resulting in higher life expectancies and
reduced poverty. 

"The full impact of the crisis on HIV depends critically on how well
governments and households succeeded in maintaining social safety nets,"
said Ainsworth, an expert on the effect of AIDS on households. 

Ainsworth said AIDS had already slashed several years off the average
life expectancies of some Asian countries. 

A U.N report released at the four-day conference estimates that by 2010,
the overall death rate will be 20 percent higher in Myanmar, or Burma,
due to AIDS fatalities. In Cambodia and Thailand, it may rise 15 percent
because of AIDS. 

The United Nations estimates that 7 million people in Asia are infected
with the HIV virus or AIDS. Speakers at the conference, which ends
Wednesday, have urged Asia to act fast to curb the epidemic or risk the
devastation now faced by Africa, which has 21 million AIDS-related
cases. 

Experts are particularly concerned about the effects of AIDS on
Indonesia, the world's fourth largest country, where the economic
turmoil was compounded by political upheaval. It diverted attention and
funding from the AIDS epidemic, Ainsworth said. 

She said countries such as Thailand, one of the high-risk areas in Asia,
had proved that maintaining commitment to AIDS-prevention programs paid
dividends. HIV cases dropped among prostitutes, men with sexually
transmitted diseases and blood donors in Thailand despite the economic
crisis, she said.