Mastering Modern World History

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Mastering Modern World History Page 115

by Norman Lowe


  Why was the epidemic so much worse in southern Africa?

  HIV was able to spread more quickly in conditions of poverty, where there was very little access to information and education about the virus and how to prevent it spreading. Widespread hunger reduced resistance to the disease and accelerated the progress from HIV to AIDS. Nor were any of the expensive anti-retroviral drugs available for Africans. The large number of civil wars in Africa produced thousands of refugees, who were often cut off from their normal healthcare services. In emergency situations like these, there was a greater danger of the HIV virus being spread through contaminated blood. Most African governments took a long time to acknowledge what was happening, partly because of the stigma attached to the disease: the belief that it was caused by homosexual sex and the general reluctance to discuss sexual habits. South Africa itself was one of the slowest to take action, mainly because President Mbeki refused to accept the link between HIV and AIDS.

  (c) What is being done to combat AIDS?

  The experts know what needs to be done to bring the AIDS epidemic under control: people must be persuaded to have safe sex and use condoms; and somehow governments must be able to provide cheap ARV treatment. Brazil is one country where the campaign has slowed down the spread of the disease. In Africa, governments have concentrated on the so-called ‘ABC’ message: ‘Abstain from sex. Be faithful to one partner, and if you cannot, use a Condom.’ Uganda provides the great African success story; the government admitted to the WHO in 1986 that they had some AIDS cases, and President Museveni personally took charge of the campaign, travelling round from village to village to talk about the problem and what should be done. Uganda was the first country in Africa to launch the ABC campaign and provide cheap condoms for its people. People were encouraged to come forward voluntarily for testing. The programme was financed jointly by the government, by aid agencies and by religious organizations and churches. Uganda’s meagre resources were strained to the limits, but the campaign worked, even though very few people had access to ARV drugs: Uganda’s HIV prevalence rate had peaked at 20 per cent in 1991, but by the end of 2003 it had fallen to about 5 per cent. The epidemic had passed its acute stage, but the problem of orphaned children was just reaching its height.

  Elsewhere in Africa and China, governments were slow off the mark and the epidemic took a firmer hold, reaching crisis proportions in 2003. Some African countries were beginning to follow Uganda’s example. In Malawi, President Muluzi set up an AIDS commission and appointed a special minister to deal with the problem. But huge sums of money are needed to finance the necessary three-pronged attack on HIV/AIDS across Southern Africa:

  ABC campaigns or some equivalent;

  anti-retroviral drugs – these are much cheaper now, since pharmaceutical companies gave way to political pressure and allowed drugs to be supplied more cheaply to poorer countries;

  healthcare systems and infrastructures, which in most poor states need modernizing in order to cope with the magnitude of the problem; more doctors and nurses are required.

  There are several international agencies trying to deal with the disease, the most important being the UN’s Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria; the World Health Organization (WHO); and UNAIDS. In December 2003, UN secretary-general Kofi Annan complained that he was ‘angry, distressed and helpless’; 1 December was World AIDS Day, but the outlook was bleak. Reports from all over the Third World showed that the war against the disease was being lost; the virus was still spreading and 40 million people were living with HIV. The UN Fund said it would need £7 billion by 2005 and the WHO wanted £4 billion. Many wealthy countries have given generously; the USA, for example, has promised $15 billion over the next five years, but insists that the money be spent in the way it specifies. The Bush administration favoured programmes which promoted abstinence against those that advocated the use of condoms. The Roman Catholic Church also continues to oppose the use of condoms, even though scientists have shown that it is the best means of prevention available. No wonder Kofi Annan was angry; ‘I am not winning the war’, he said, ‘because I don’t think the leaders of the world are engaged enough.’

  By 2012 well over 30 million people had died from AIDS since the first cases were identified in 1981. An estimated 1.8 million of them died in 2010 alone, two-thirds of them in southern Africa, where nearly 15 million children were left orphaned. In the same year around 2.7 million people became infected with HIV. According to the WHO, the attempts to control the epidemic have been intensified; from 2002–8 spending on the campaign in low- and middle-income countries increased sixfold. Since 2008 spending has not increased, but at least the level has been maintained. In May 2012 the WHO published a plan of priority action for the next two years: focusing on HIV prevention, encouraging people who might be at risk to get themselves tested regularly, providing even wider access to cheap ARV drugs and improving and modernizing healthcare systems, especially in southern Africa. There were some encouraging signs: more people than ever before were receiving ARV treatment, the annual number of AIDS deaths had declined and the global percentage of people infected with HIV seemed to have stabilized. However, the UN agencies warn that recent achievements should not lead to complacency; on no account should efforts be relaxed. In fact in eastern Europe infection rates were still rising; and in the USA in June 2012 more than one million people were living with HIV, but probably 20 per cent of them didn’t know they were infected.

  FURTHER READING

  Baker, R., ‘Degrading Democracy: American Empire, Islam and Struggles for Freedom in the Arab Islamic World’, in S. Shehata, S. (ed.), Islamic Politics in the Middle East (Routledge, 2012).

  Berman, P., Terror and Liberalism (Norton, 2004 edition).

  Connelly, M. J., Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population (Harvard University Press, 2008).

  Barnett, D. and Whiteside, A., AIDS in the 21st Century: Disease and Globalisation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002).

  Epstein, H., The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West, and the Fight Against AIDS (Viking, 2007).

  Fassin, D., When Bodies Remember: Experiences and Politics of Aids in South Africa (University of California Press, 2007).

  Liotta, P. H. and Miskel, J. F., The Real Population Bomb: Megacities, Global Securities and the Map of the Future (Potomac Books, 2012).

  QUESTIONS

  Explain the causes and consequences of the rapid growth in the world’s population during the twentieth century.

  What methods were used to try to control population growth in the second half of the twentieth century, and why did some of them arouse criticism?

  Why was it that in the second half of the twentieth century the rate of population growth in Europe slowed down, while in Africa and other Third World areas it accelerated?

  There is a document question about the HIV/AIDS epidemic on the website.

  Index

  Abacha, Sani 569

  Abbas, Mahmoud 239, 250, 252, 253–4

  Abdelazia, Mohamed 556

  Abdullah, King of Saudi Arabia 282, 291

  Abiola, Mashood 569

  Abubakar, General Abdulsalam 568, 569

  Abu Nidal Organization (ANO) 262

  Abyssinia see Ethiopia

  Acerbo Law (1923) 300

  acid rain 646

  Acheampong, Ignatius 566

  Adenauer, Konrad 188–9

  Afghanistan 161–2, 208, 258–9, 264, 267–9, 277–9

  Africa 4, 8, 9, 35, 37, 73–5, 118

  decolonization 529–30, 541–4, 555–7, 559–61

  pan-Africanism 533

  problems in 563–606

  Second World War in 89, 94–5, 100

  underdevelopment of 564

  African National Congress (ANC) 263, 585–6, 588–91

  Agadir Crisis 7, 9

  Agricultural Adjustment Administration (USA) 494–5

  Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud 280–2

  AIDS/HIV 174, 654, 667, 671, 679–82
<
br />   in South Africa 590–1

  in southern Africa 573, 598, 680

  Ai Weiwei 455

  Akufo, General Fred 566

  Albania 75, 94

  since 1945 204, 211

  Albright, Madeleine 519

  Alexander, King of Yugoslavia 61

  Algeciras Conference (1906) 8

  Algeria 282

  struggle for independence 550–3

  Alia, Ramiz 211

  Allende, Salvador 155–7, 672

  Alliance for Progress 611

  allied air offensive 102–4, 109

  alphabet agencies 498

  al-Qaeda 262, 266–70

  Alsace-Lorraine 4

  America see Latin America, South America, United States of America

  American Federation of Labor (AFL) 481–2

  American International Group (AIG) 655–8

  American Railway Union (ARU) 482–3

  Amin, Idi 573

  Andropov, Yuri 402

  Anglo-German Naval Agreement (1935) 69, 73, 77

  Anglo-Japanese Alliance (1902) 4

  Angola 557, 577–9

  Annan, Kofi 184, 605

  Anschluss 70

  anti-ballistic missiles (ABMs) 521

  Anti-Comintern Pact (1936) 69, 75

  anti-communism (USA) 511–13

  Anzacs 22

  apartheid 584–90

  end of 587–90

  introduced 584–5

  opposition to 585–7

  appeasement 78–80

  April Theses (Lenin) 357

  Arab League 227

  ‘Arab Spring’ 259, 282–91, 675

  causes of 283

  Arabs 172, 225–56

  Arafat, Yasser 234, 238–40, 247, 262

  Arbenz, Jacobo 619

  Arévalo, Juan José 618–19

  Argentina 608, 610, 622, 626–7

  Aristide, Jean-Bertrand 611

  Armenia 164, 382, 406

  Arusha Declaration (1967) 572–3

  Ashmun, Jehudi 593

  Assad, Bashar 283

  Assad, Hafez 243

  Assange, Julian 630

  Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) 456

  Atlantic Charter (1941) 532

  Attlee, C.R. 126, 534–5

  Australia 22, 650

  Austria (since 1918)

  between the wars 64–5

  since Second World War 134, 194, 198

  union with Germany (1938) 77

  Austria-Hungary (before 1918) 3, 4, 7–11

  break-up of 31, 38–9

  during First World War 18, 20–1, 23, 25, 29, 30

  peace settlement 38–9

  responsibility for First World War 12–16

  autocracy, meaning 4

  Axis, Rome–Berlin (1936) see Rome–Berlin Axis

  ‘axis of evil’ 266

  Azerbaijan 164, 382, 400

  Azikiwe, Nnamdi 543, 567

  Babangida, Major-General Ibrahim 569

  Bachelet, Michele 622, 627

  Baghdad Pact (1955) 229

  Bahrain 282

  Balewa, A.T. 567–8

  Balfour Declaration (1917) 230

  Balkan Wars 7, 9–11

  Banda, Dr Hastings 546

  Bangladesh 670, 673

  Ban Ki-moon 651

  Bantu Self-Government Act (1959) 585

  Barak, Ehud 248

  Barthou, Louis 80

  battles

  Adowa (1896) 73

  Arnhem (1944) 107

  Atlantic (1942–3) 102

  Britain (1940) 93–4

  ‘Bulge’, the (1944) 107

  Cambrai (1917) 27

  Caporetto (1917) 27

  Dien Bien Phu (1954) 150, 455, 550

  El Alamein (1942) 100

  Falkland Islands (1914) 25

  Jutland (1916) 26

  Marne (1914) 19–20

  Masurian Lakes (1914) 20

  Midway Island (1942) 99–100

  Monte Cassino (1944) 104

  Passchendaele (1917) 27

  Somme (1916) 24

  Stalingrad (1942) 101

  Tannenberg (1914) 20

  Verdun (1916) 23–4

  Vittorio Veneto (1918) 30

  Ypres (1914) 19 (1915) 20 (1917) 27

  Bay of Pigs 137, 148

  Bear Stearns Bank 655

  Begin, Menachem 237–8

  Beijing (formerly Peking) 70, 162

  Belgium 3, 11, 89, 91, 192–3, 197

  and decolonization 555–6

  Belize 537–9

  Belorussia 407

  Ben Bella 551–2

  Beneš, Edvard 62, 81, 131

  Bengal 536, 560

  Berlin 107

  blockade and airlift 131–2

  divided after Second World War 126

  wall 135–6, 210

  Berlusconi, Silvio 190

  Bernanke, Ben S. 654–5

  Betancourt, Romulo 614

  Bethmann-Hollweg, Theobald von 14–16

  Beveridge Report (1942) 119

  Bevin, Ernest 191, 534

  Biafra 543, 568

  Biko, Steve 587

  bin Laden, Osama 258, 262, 266–70, 278

  Bizimungu, Pasteur 582

  Black Muslims 509–10

  Black Panthers 489, 510

  Black Power 510

  Blair, Tony 271–2, 596

  Blitzkrieg 90, 96, 109

  Blum, William 260, 265

  Boers 583

  Boko Haram 571

  Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) 630–1

  Bolívar Plan (Venezuela, 2000) 623

  Bolivia 608, 610, 622, 627–9

  Bolsheviks 51–8, 354, 360, 361–8

  seize power 60, 357–9

  bombing 89–91, 93–4, 96, 99–100, 102–4, 153, 345

  Bosnia 7, 8–9, 176, 212, 214–15

  Botha, P.W. 587–88

  Botswana 680

  Boutros-Ghali, Boutros 582

  Boxer Rebellion (1899) 421

  Bo Xilai 445–6

  Bo Zhiyue 446

  Bracher, Karl Dietrich 111, 318

  Brandt, Willi 189

  Brandt Report (1980) 638–43

  Brazil 608, 612–14, 622, 624–5, 643, 662–3

  Brezhnev, Leonid 396

  Brezhnev Doctrine 206

  Briand, Aristide 54

  BRIC nations, meaning 661

  Britain, Great 132, 145, 169

  and China 4

  and decolonization 529–32, 534–48

  economy 3

  and the European Community 192–6, 197–9, 218

  and First World War 18–32

  foreign policy between the wars 50–5, 57–9, 74, 77–83

  and Germany before 1914 4, 8–9, 12–13

  and India 534–7

  and the League of Nations 47–8

  and the Middle East 172, 227–34

  and the peace settlement 32–3

  and Russia 7–8, 58–9, 365

  and Second World War 89–91, 93–4, 100–10

  and South Africa 583–91

  and Suez 172, 232–4

  and the war against terrorism 268–9, 271–9

  British Expeditionary Force (BEF) 19–20

  British Honduras see Belize

  Broszat, Martin 76, 332

  Brown, Gordon 656

  Brusilov, General 25, 355

  Brussels Defence Treaty (1948) 132

  Bukhari, Major-General 569

  Bukharin, Nikolai 373–5, 380, 394

  Bulgakov, Mikhael 399

  Bulgaria 9–10

  and the Peace Settlement 39–40

  since 1945 204, 211

  Bullock, Alan 116

  Burma 89

  Burundi 580–1

  Bush, George 246–7, 518, 624

  Bush, George W. 170, 260–1, 453, 520–3, 650, 652, 656

  and Afghanistan 266–9, 271–5

  and Iraq 270–7

  Busia,
Kofi 566

  Cambodia (Kampuchea) 158, 175, 457–62

  Cameron, David 255, 278

  Camp David 237–8, 515

  Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) 139–40

  Canada 19, 132, 145

  capitalism, meaning and nature of 123

  Capone, Al 450

  Cárdenas, Lázaro 616

  Cardoso, Francesco 613–19

  CARICOM (Caribbean Community and Common Market) 539

  Carmichael, Stokeley 510

  Carnegie, Andrew 477

  Carter, Jimmy 237, 515, 621

  Castro, Fidel 137, 147–9

  Ceauşescu, Nicolae 211

  Central African Federation 546

  Chamberlain, Austen 54

  Chamberlain, Neville 70, 82

  Chamorro, Violeta Barrios de 662

  Charter 77 207

  Chávez, Hugo 608–9, 615, 622–4, 630

  Chechnya 411–12, 414–18

  Chernenko, K.U. 402

  Chernobyl 403, 646–7

  Chiang Kai-shek 420, 423–9

  Chile 155–7, 608, 610, 622, 627

  China 420–46

  before 1949 4, 420–9

  becomes communist 425–9

  communist rule in 431–46

  economic advance 662

  and Japan 69, 70–2, 118, 336–8, 421–2

  and Korea 142–6

  and Latin America 609, 623, 624

  and population control 674

  and USA 142–6, 162–3, 514

  and Vietnam 152–5

  Chirac, Jacques 187–8, 219

  chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) 646

  Chomsky, Noam 261, 265, 628, 631

  Chongqing 445

  Churchill, Sir Winston 13, 22, 82, 126, 129, 191, 233

  Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) 495

  ‘civilization struggle’ 269–70

  Civil Rights Movement (USA) 486–9, 505–11

  Civil Rights Acts (USA) 506, 509

  civil wars

  Angola 557, 577–9

  Congo 574–5, 576–7

 

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