Learning About AIDS in Ethiopia, A Great Read

There is No Me Without You is an Eye Opening Look at the AIDS Crisis

Sep 28, 2009

The book by Melissa Fay Greene looks at what has happened in Ethiopia in the past 10 years with the AIDS crisis and how private companies and governments ignored it all.

It is 427 pages about a remarkable woman named Haregewoin Teferra who had unimaginable ups and downs. She lost her daughter to AIDS in 1998 and was about to go into seclusion. She felt there was nothing to her without her daughter. But just before that, she was asked by a catholic charity to care for an orphaned teenager.

One of the most enlightening issues discussed was that in 1970 the UN General Assembly agreed rich countries should give point seven percent of their GNP to developing countries. It was not a moral issue, it was viewed that northern hemisphere wealth and southern hemisphere poverty were linked.

Greene writes 'Africa had been plundered for hundreds of years by the world's elites, with no thought to the chaos, tragedy, and starvation they left behind.'

In 1992 the agreement was made again, but between 2002 and 2005 this is what was given:

Of the world's riches countries, only the Netherlands and Sweden followed through on their agreement. While Denmark and Luxembourg gave point eight percent of their GNP, Norway came in with point nine percent.

'By April 15, 2006, the U.S. government had spent according to congressional appropriations, $275 billion on the war in Iraq. According to the national Priorities Project, worldwide AIDS programs could have been completely funded for 21 years with that amount of funding.'

Of course that can be said about education or transportation and a million other things. But those things didn't leave millions of orphans in one country.

More amazing about the whole thing is how the drug companies held patents for decades to keep lifesaving medications at a price so high it was impossible for anyone in a third world country to think about it.

Finally the story comes to adoption. Orphans wandered around the streets of Ethiopia aimlessly and Haregewoin's home had more than 40 children because there just was no one else. And then it was discovered that while there was a shortage of adults in Ethiopia, there was a shortage of children in Europe and North America. The Ethiopian government worried, they would lose their culture, they may be the only Ethiopians in their town, they may be the only black children for miles around. But they will have families. The babies were easy to get adopted, everyone wanted baby girls.

Greene writes: 'In the adoption world, Haregewoin learned even a three year old was an 'older child,' declined by most prospective parents as possibly too damaged or traumatized by early experiences.'

'But won't someone adopt the older children?' Haregewoin sighed as a Canadian-agency person prepared to depart with a baby.

The copyright of the article Learning About AIDS in Ethiopia, A Great Read in Activist Biographies is owned by Sue Turner. Permission to republish Learning About AIDS in Ethiopia, A Great Read in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.