Natsios called racist; firing sought

By John Donnelly, Globe Staff, 6/9/2001

ASHINGTON - Three advocacy groups yesterday called on Secretary of
State Colin L. Powell to fire Andrew Natsios, US administrator for foreign
aid, for his comments on Africa that they called ''shockingly racist.''

Twice this week, Natsios, a former Massachusetts official who only a month ago
started his job as head of US Agency for International Development, said
administering AIDS treatment in Africa would be extremely difficult because of a
paucity of health infrastructure and because most Africans don't have clocks or
watches and thus could not take medication at specific times.

He made the comments in an interview with the Globe and before the House
International Relations Committee on Thursday.

In many parts of Africa, ''people do not know what watches or clocks are,'' he said
before the committee. ''They do not use Western means to tell time. They use the
sun. These drugs have to be administered in certain sequences, at certain times
during the day. You say, take it at 10 o'clock, they say, what do you mean, 10
o'clock?''

Some people in the packed hearing room gasped.

According to an agency spokeswoman last night, Natsios feels that he ''said what
he has to say, that he said what he needed to say in testimony.''

The groups demanding his dismissal were Africa Action, the oldest US advocacy
group for Africa; Religious Action Network, a group of about 300 churches; and
Health Gap Coalition, which works on

HIV/AIDS issues globally.

Global health specialists, including two USAID officials speaking on condition of
anonymity, pointed out that in several ongoing AIDS drug trials, African physicians
are successfully distributing pills twice a day, in the morning and at night; in the
United States, some new drug regimens have been simplified to a single pill
containing three anti-HIV drugs.

''Some of Mr. Natsios' comments are just wrong. He should be corrected,'' said
Dr. Paul Farmer, a Harvard infectious disease specialist who has for more than two
years supervised the use of AIDS drugs in rural Haiti, in which patients take
medication twice a day. A State Department official said last night there was no
reaction yet to the letter from the organizations to Powell, who oversees the US
Agency for International Development. A USAID spokeswoman also said her
office had no immediate reaction.

The letter from the three groups also objected to Natsios' stance against paying for
treatment in Africa, where 25 million people are infected with

HIV/AIDS. Natsios stressed that prevention should be the main focus in fighting
AIDS, but he backed the distribution of a drug that blocks transmission from
mother to child, as well as drugs fighting secondary infections from malaria and
tuberculosis.

''For us, the main problem is the policies, because they are dangerous to the lives of
people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa,'' said Salih Booker, executive director of
Africa Action. ''But it's the racism that leads to dangerous policies.''

Representative Barbara Lee, a California Democrat, also strongly objected to
Natsios' comments, saying in an interview the comment on clocks ''was
outrageous.''

She also found fault with his hesitation to begin treatment programs because of the
lack of health infrastructure in Africa. ''You don't deny treatment because there's no
infrastructure by US standards,'' she said. ''I'm not saying there's a great
infrastructure in Africa, but we need to develop the roads and the clinics, and at the
same time utilize traditional African ways of disseminating information and
disseminating condoms.''

Inside USAID, several officials said yesterday they were concerned that the furor
over Natsios' comments would hurt their efforts, which account for the single
largest international block of funds against AIDS in Africa.

''His comments threw us for a loop,'' said one USAID official, speaking on
condition of anonymity. ''You can't do prevention without adding treatment in
there.''

John Donnelly can be reached at [email protected]

---

Prolong the mandate of Guinean president Gen. Lansana Conté?

From Brian Farenell

Guinéenews is reporting (and I saw the same thing from
Agence France Presse) that there is an effort underway
to prolong the mandate of Guinean president Gen.
Lansana Conté. Currently, the Guinean constitution
limits the head of state to two terms of five years
each.

In 2000, deputies of the ruling Party for Unity and
Progress (PUP) proposed a bill at the National
Assembly which prolong the mandate of the president of
the Republic to seven years and would remove the limit
of the number of terms he may serve. But since it
failed to receive the required 3/4 vote, the bill was
removed from the agenda. Yet, several prominent
members of the PUP have called for a national
referendum on the question. At a seminar held in
Kankan for local officials (présidents de CRD, chef de
districts, etc), a resolution was adopted calling for
a revision to the Fundamental Law to permet Gen. Conté
"to remain in power until he fulfills his mission
began in December 1985."

The AFP added that the above elected officials
believed that Conté was "the only one capable of
assuring a climate of peace, national harmony and
security in Guinea." The AFP also pointed out that, as
one might expect, the opposition vigorously criticized
these efforts. Opposition spokesman Bâ Mamadou was
quoted, "It's admissible. If Conté wants to know the
real face of the opposition, let him try to run for a
third presidential term in Guinea." Another opposition
figure, Jean-Marie Doré told AFP that Conté should
reflect well "on the path to follow. One leads
straight back to his village and the other leads to
the destruction of Guinea."

[Sources: Guinéenews; Agence France Presse via Le
Soleil of Senegal]

---

Wednesday, 13 June, 2001, 22:55 GMT 23:55 UK
Air Afrique buys time. The airline is effectively bankrupt
By Elizabeth Blunt in Abidjan

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_1387000/1387539.stm

The beleaguered West African regional airline Air Afrique has won a last-minute reprieve.

An Abidjan summit meeting of the French-speaking West African countries which
jointly own the airline has ruled out suggestions that it should be put into liquidation.

As he left the meeting, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said
that instead they had decided to talk to possible strategic partners and to ask all
the countries involved to put up enough money to buy some time from their creditors.

The news was greeted with relief by the airline's staff.

Mr Wade reported that the agreement was
made in principle but the amount each country
would pay had not yet been fixed.

---

> Headline: Peace Corps recruits older volunteers
> Byline: Associated Press
> Date: 06/20/2001

> Most people think of the Peace Corps as an organization that sends
> young people to far-flung nations for stints of manual labor. That
> image is shifting, however, and the corps reports an
> increase in volunteers over 50.
>
> As the Peace Corps adds more slots involving
> activities such as business advising and teaching with computers, thework has become less
> physically demanding. As a result, 10 percent of thecurrent recruits
> are over 50, and 28 percent are at least 30 years
> old. That's a contrast with the 1960s, when 1 percent of recruits
> were over 50, and 5 percent were at least 30.
>
> "We want the Peace Corps to show the face of
> America," says Lauren Mitchell, recruitment coordinator at the agency's
> Denver office, speaking to The Associated Press. "Older people make
> fantastic volunteers - they bring a lot of expertise,
> maturity, and life experience."
>
> Like other applicants, older volunteers must pass a
> medical examination, and are only slightly more likely than
> younger colleagues to cut short their tours for health reasons.
>
> The most visible senior to participate was Lillian
> Carter, mother of former President Jimmy Carter, who joined the corps
> in 1966 when she was 68.
>
> "In many countries, being an older person can have advantages," says
> Danilo Minnick, a recruiter in New York. "The people
> respect age."
>
> (c) Copyright 2001 The Christian Science Monitor.
> All rights reserved.

---

AIDS in Guinea

-First AIDS case in Guinea was recorded in 1987.

-As of 1 Sept. '00, there were 7898 cases of AIDS-HIV
in Guinea and the average age of the sick was 26
years.

-AIDS is no longer a taboo subject in Guinea with
sensibilisation campaigns being undertaken via round
tables, the radios rurales, etc.

The link to the article is:
http://www.boubah.com/Guineenews.htm#link1510

---

US EMbassy in Conakry Groundbreaking

Guineenews is reporting that there was a
groundbreaking ceremony for the expected new American
embassy in Conakry. It is located on the Koloma
plateau in the center of the capital. It is expected
to be the first in a series of constructions in that
area of town which will hold other embassies,
chancelleries and ministry buildings. See:

http://www.boubah.com/Guineenews.htm#link1513

---

-Work started this weekend on a bridge over the Fatala
River in Boffa prefecture. The bridge will be 325
meters long and 12 meters wide (about 357 yards and 13
yards respectively). The project will be realized by
the Astaldi company and should take a period of 32
months. The project will cost about about 27.1 million
dollars and was financed by the European Development
Fund. Financing from the same source will permit a 106
m long bridge to be built over the Kibola River (not
sure where this is) as well as the rehabilitation of
the road between the famous km 36 and Duberka. Source:
Guineenews
http://www.boubah.com/Guineenews.htm#link1526

-I mentioned a few weeks ago that the ruling party the
PUP had started a campaign for a national referendum
which would change the constitution so as to allow
Gen. Conté to stand for a third term (under the Third
Republic) as president. The constitution currently
limits the president to two 5-year terms. The
opposition has responded to this campaign by forming
an anti-referendum committee. See:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200107070006.html