Battleangel

I guess it’s one of those “we think it’s a price worth paying” moments. So the US is effectively arguing that the UN shouldn’t be setting any targets and instead they inject their own tired old conditions for funding. What hypocrisy.

The Bush administration, heavily influence by the Christian right, is blocking key proposals for a new United Nations package to combat HIV/Aids worldwide over the next five years because of its opposition to the distribution of condoms and needle exchanges and references to prostitutes, drug addicts and homosexuals.

The United States is being supported by many Muslim countries, including Egypt, and various conservative African and Latin American nations. “There are a lot of unholy alliances all over the place,” said a European official attending UN talks in New York on Thursday night.

The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which represents Muslim countries, vehemently opposes references in the declaration to homosexuals, prostitutes and drug addicts, saying these should not appear in a public document. The US is supporting the OIC.

Yes indeed, freedom is on the march. But it would seem it is marching in jackboots. Furthermore, it is baffling that the US would have the tenacity of even debating conditions of excluding prostitutes at the same time as its imperial armies are intentionally mass producing prostitution and sexual slavery around the world.

It should also be noted that US HIV/Aids policies aren’t that peachy domestically either.