INJUSTICE
WARNING: I just pulled my head out of the sand and need to blow the sand and snot out.
Did you know that in Zimbabwe a child dies or is orphaned by AIDS every 20 minutes?
In Africa 4.7 million innocent people need AIDS drugs, but only .5 million have access to them. (2006 statistic, page 25)
Meanwhile, 20 drug company CEO's get over $1 million in compensation. Bristo-Myers Squibbs CEO got over $8 million, Eli Lilly & Co. over $11 million, Abbott Labs, over $11 million, and the head of Pfizer got over $16 million. (2005 statistics, page 190)
And then look into drug patents. Drug companies do all they can--and hire lawyers to do all they can--to extend drug patents so their top-selling prescription drugs (including AIDS drugs, but also Lipitor, Celebrex, Zoloft) can continue to put the over $1 billion in sales into their own pockets year after year.
(page 192-193) And research? By the drug companies? That's a farce when you look at their budgets. Drug research is done by government grants: aka YOUR TAX DOLLARS!
There is simply too much data to boil down into one little blog. And of course the statistics are a few years old, but c'mon, do you really think anything has changed much? But I'm sure national health care will solve EVERYTHING!
The page numbers I've noted are from the book There Is No Me Without You by Melissa Fay Greene.
It's the true story of a widow in Ethiopia. Consumed by grief after losing her husband and daughter within five years, she meant to live out the rest of her life mourning in the graveyard. Then a priest brought her an orphan, and another, and another. Soon word got out. She'd take AIDS children--virtual lepers of society. Children were dropped at her doorstep. She had 8, then 21, then 33, then 48 . . . She'd weep at her doorway and tell the poor people who came to her to drop off orphans they'd found, "I don't have enough food for all of us, I can't take any more . . ." And then she'd take them.
Some suggest that drug industry executives, political leaders and complicit agency chiefs be tried for crimes against humanity. (page 206)
Read the book. Read it and weep. The statistics above represent real people. The only difference between us and them is where we happened to be born.
WRITING UPDATE: Tomorrow is my writing day. I still need to submit my book proposal online asap for the writers conf I'm going to in April. So I have to format it and put it in some sort of transmittable file. People think I know how to do all this computer and internet stuff. I sure don't. It's also a real busy week, busy month! Every weekend is full! When I'm not doing family travelling, I'm working at the library. So I think I need God to "make my path straight." Pray Proverbs 3:5,6 for me when you think of me.
Thanks for checking in on me!
Did you know that in Zimbabwe a child dies or is orphaned by AIDS every 20 minutes?
In Africa 4.7 million innocent people need AIDS drugs, but only .5 million have access to them. (2006 statistic, page 25)
Meanwhile, 20 drug company CEO's get over $1 million in compensation. Bristo-Myers Squibbs CEO got over $8 million, Eli Lilly & Co. over $11 million, Abbott Labs, over $11 million, and the head of Pfizer got over $16 million. (2005 statistics, page 190)
And then look into drug patents. Drug companies do all they can--and hire lawyers to do all they can--to extend drug patents so their top-selling prescription drugs (including AIDS drugs, but also Lipitor, Celebrex, Zoloft) can continue to put the over $1 billion in sales into their own pockets year after year.
(page 192-193) And research? By the drug companies? That's a farce when you look at their budgets. Drug research is done by government grants: aka YOUR TAX DOLLARS!
There is simply too much data to boil down into one little blog. And of course the statistics are a few years old, but c'mon, do you really think anything has changed much? But I'm sure national health care will solve EVERYTHING!
The page numbers I've noted are from the book There Is No Me Without You by Melissa Fay Greene.
It's the true story of a widow in Ethiopia. Consumed by grief after losing her husband and daughter within five years, she meant to live out the rest of her life mourning in the graveyard. Then a priest brought her an orphan, and another, and another. Soon word got out. She'd take AIDS children--virtual lepers of society. Children were dropped at her doorstep. She had 8, then 21, then 33, then 48 . . . She'd weep at her doorway and tell the poor people who came to her to drop off orphans they'd found, "I don't have enough food for all of us, I can't take any more . . ." And then she'd take them.
Some suggest that drug industry executives, political leaders and complicit agency chiefs be tried for crimes against humanity. (page 206)
Read the book. Read it and weep. The statistics above represent real people. The only difference between us and them is where we happened to be born.
WRITING UPDATE: Tomorrow is my writing day. I still need to submit my book proposal online asap for the writers conf I'm going to in April. So I have to format it and put it in some sort of transmittable file. People think I know how to do all this computer and internet stuff. I sure don't. It's also a real busy week, busy month! Every weekend is full! When I'm not doing family travelling, I'm working at the library. So I think I need God to "make my path straight." Pray Proverbs 3:5,6 for me when you think of me.
Thanks for checking in on me!
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