The National Post:
Mr. Lewis criticized Stephen Harper's government for not responding to fears over the future of Vancouver's safe-injection centre Insite for intravenous drug users. The site's three-year exemption from federal drug laws expires on Sept. 11 but despite numerous appeals, the government has yet to announce whether it will extend it."It would be positively perverse to close the Insite safe injection facility when it has been positively evaluated in a number of studies," he said. "In fact, there should be several more such facilities. To shut Insite down is to invite HIV infection and death. One has to wonder about the minds of those who would so readily punish injecting drug-users rather than understanding the problem for what it is: a matter of public health."
Mr. Lewis described the Bush administration's insistence that a third of the U.S. AIDS prevention budget is spent on abstinence programs as "ideological rigidity."
"Abstinence-only programs don't work," he told the crowd of 6,000. "Ideological rigidity never works when applied to the human condition. It's an antiquated throwback to the conditionality of yesteryear to tell any government how to spend its money for prevention. That approach has a name: neo-colonialism."
. . . to cure AIDS by throwing Stephen Lewis into a volcano. I don't know if that would lead to a cure for AIDS. But it can't hurt, and we'll never find out if we don't try, right?
Comments (5)
"Ideological rigidity never works when applied to the human condition. It's an antiquated throwback to the conditionality of yesteryear to tell any government how to spend its money for prevention. That approach has a name: neo-colonialism."
Did he give the same speech in response to Clinton's suggestion that the enlightened at the conference should be ready to push circumcision on the unwilling?
Personally, I think a volcano is too good for him...
Posted by Bruce Gottfred | August 20, 2006 9:05 AM
Posted on August 20, 2006 09:05
Also note the assertion that we should have no control as to how our foreign aid is spent. If that's the case, we might as well directly deposit it into Swiss bank accounts, because that's where it's going to wind up.
Posted by gnotalex | August 20, 2006 6:56 PM
Posted on August 20, 2006 18:56
I don't really know who anyone in the poll is but I'm always up for a good volcano sacrifice. Toss 'em all in, maybe with some of that lemon and garlic marinade or whatever it is that South Africa is promoting as an AIDS treatment.
Posted by marybeth | August 21, 2006 9:27 PM
Posted on August 21, 2006 21:27
The poll should allow for ALL choices... Naomi, Avi, Lewis AND a large write-in space for Maude Barlow, ad nauseum...
Posted by earlw | August 23, 2006 9:00 AM
Posted on August 23, 2006 09:00
What have you got against volcanoes?
The suggestion is clearly a violation of one environmental legislation or another.
Posted by AlcanSombrero | August 23, 2006 9:19 AM
Posted on August 23, 2006 09:19