Worst Devastation Colin Powell Has Ever Seen

"In more than 40 years in the military and as a high-level government official, I've been in war and I've been through a number of hurricanes, tornadoes and other relief operations, but I have never seen anything like this," Secretary of State Colin Powell said after flying over Banda Aceh. Interesting. New York Times Op/Ed columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote this morning that more than 165,000 people die of malaria every month, most of them children and most of them in Africa. That makes two million people (mostly children) who will die of malaria this year. Although it may be 3,000,000, we really don’t know the exact number. To save money, “African children are given medicines that cost only 5 cents a dose but aren't very effective,” Kristof said. “The medicine that would actually save their lives is unaffordable, at $1 a dose.” Where are Powell and wannabe-tagalong-Jeb Bush when Africa needs them? In 2001, Powell went to Africa and strutted around in Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe preaching to the poor about democracy and calling his aides “troops” like the two-bit general he is. He saw the devastation wrought by AIDS then. But when the people pleaded with him to help make drugs available to Africans, he defended drug companies’ right to make a profit. “One has to remember that an investment is made to produce these drugs, to do the research. And if you don't have some return on that investment pharmaceutical companies won't do it,” Powell explained to reporters. At that time, the UN had set the figure needed to fight AIDS in Africa at $10 billion. But the rich and powerful US government contributed $200 million. And our compassionate Secretary of State Colin Powell said, “It’s $200 million more than there was the day before.” Kristof says Americans give 15 cents per day per person in official development assistance to poor countries and that the average American spends four times that on soft drinks daily. We not only are stingy, we are hypocrites. We weep and moan and show our full-blown caring bleeding-heart face to the world for a week or two after a disaster. Then we go back to our fuck-you everyday worlds and conveniently forget the world’s needy who die from neglect day-in-day-out twenty-four-seven 365 days a year. So what is Jeb Bush doing trotting after has-been ass-kisser Colin Powell like a dutiful go-fer? It makes no sense. As an Associated Press article reported yesterday, Jeb Bush can’t possibly be thinking of running for Prez in 2008...the US is in no mood for another Bush in the White House. But the White House needs to provide some kind of Bush presence at the scene of the worst natural disaster in 100 years. And since the President is busy getting revved-up for his inauguration parties, Governor Jeb, who is the worst disaster to have hit Florida in a hundred years, got the nod.