Jewish World Review Jan. 11, 2005 / 1 Shevat 5765

Lewis A. Fein

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Cry Outrage: Nelson Mandela's Real Politics


http://www.jewishworldreview.com | Has Nelson Mandela's crown of laurels dissolved yet, each leaf falling before this man's hypocrisy and fondness for evil? For there seems to be two wildly different images of the famed leader, the stoic prisoner of an unjust system and the defiant defender of tyrants the world over   —   from Havana to Tripoli to Ramallah. This outspoken supporter of Fidel Castro and Mohammar Qaddafi - this eulogist for Islamic terror - is now irony's latest icon: his son's recent death from AIDS leaves Mandela as an unworthy recipient of global praise and international recognition. (The death of a child is always tragic, and I wish this terrible disease on no one. But there is a difference between sympathy and empathy, between an extension of warm wishes and actual mourning. Mr. Mandela's political policies do not warrant my affection or my respect.) That Hollywood and the United Nations seek to further lionize this man is not surprising, but nonetheless disturbing.


Mandela's fight against AIDS, which is the greatest curse to have befallen Africa since slavery, is simply not worth the media's attention. Where is the great man's outrage against the very behavior - the promiscuous sex and drug addiction - that is the primary cause of AIDS? Where is his sense of anger against the politicians and doctors who - despite the accumulated scientific evidence and visibly sickened patients - insist on using generic drugs that are ineffective against this resilient villain? Instead, there is Mandela's smiling face, his hand genuflecting before the gathered masses, as flashbulbs pop and the red carpet unfurls beneath his feet. And what about the poor and meek, the anonymous millions for whom Mandela has nothing but the placebo of rhetoric, even as AIDS threatens every village, province and hamlet?


Let us merely be honest: Nelson Mandela is the rightful enemy of one A-lettered enemy (apartheid), not another (AIDS). His statements - never mind his actions, which seem to advance the cause of worthless generic drugs - never rise beyond the point of political boilerplate, a summons here and a plea there; politics-as-condolences, with editorial review by Hallmark. Yet, the image of Mandela as the promoter of health education persists. That mistaken reputation costs more lives than nearly any other political policy, considering its dependence on junk science and hostility toward necessary pharmaceutical products.

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I cannot emphasize this issue enough, that current programs and existing generic drugs fail the vast majority of Africans stricken with this disease. Let me reiterate: AIDS is a moral, medical and political issue; it deserves attention not just from doctors or nurses, but from governmental officials - Nelson Mandela included - who have the power to allocate funds and attention toward this grave problem. Hence my frustration with Mandela's photo-op AIDS "policy," which is nothing more than a series of well-timed press conferences and heavily advertised speeches.


In another decade, unless drastic action is taken and real drugs are used, AIDS will be the greatest killer of black Africans since the dawn of civilization. Future historians, divorced from the mindless hysteria of our current adulation, will not elevate Mandela; they will not celebrate incompetence with inscriptions, with the deification of the undeniably flawed. They will remember all we - and Mr. Mandela - choose to forget.


AIDS must be stopped   —   with drugs that work! Nelson Mandela's personal tragedy should not blind us to his errors, his immoral actions or his stubbornness. We will only win the war against AIDS when we embrace science over politics. Until then, more innocents will perish, for no other reason than the very idiocy we seek to eradicate. Mandela owes the world something better.



JWR contributor Lewis A. Fein is a writer and Internet entrepreneur in Los Angeles. Comment by clicking here.

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© 2004, Lewis A. Fein