Africa is dying of Capitalism, not AIDS
uploaded 29 Dec 2003By Masum Khan
A few weeks ago music artists from around the globe gathered in Cape Town, South Africa for the '46664' concert. The concert was named after Nelson Mandela's prison number. Fronted by Mandela himself, the purpose of the concert was to raise awareness for the Aids epidemic sweeping across Africa.
The model of this awareness campaign is based on the Band Aid campaign, which raised awareness for the famine in Ethiopia during the mid-80s via the concert called 'Live Aid'.
Recent figures have highlighted that 30 million people in Africa have been affected by HIV/AIDS, and over 17 million people have been killed by AIDS in the world's poorest countries (more than the casualties from the wars of the last century). There are now over 11 million AIDS orphans, and this figure is estimated to rise to 20 million by the end of the decade. Such realities are stripping Africa's population and threatening its economy, which is already crippled by poverty, debts and unfair trade policies.
The HIV/AIDS virus infects and damages the immune system, which leaves the individual open to illnesses and infections (e.g. tuberculosis and pneumonia). Consequently, a number of drugs are required to be taken on a daily basis; such as antibiotics, antiviral and anti-cancer drugs which attempt to slow down the damaging effects, and strengthen the immune system. Hence, it is crucial that the medication remains in the body at all times, thereby making the individual less likely to develop more serious conditions.
The patent Issue
The problem lies with the fact that American drugs companies have developed a treatment program for AIDS, spending enormous resources in research and development under the protection of the patent. Their reasons for doing this are simply financial; they intend to recoup their expenditure by selling the treatment at a massive profit. It costs $10,000 to undergo the treatment program as set out by American drugs companies, however, the average "yearly" wage in South Africa is just $1,000. In the absence of the patent, the treatment could cost as little as $200.
Those in favour of patent laws would argue that the massive prices reflect the enormous investment and risks taken in pharmaceutical research and development (R&D). The example given is India, where an attempt was made to do away with patent-based pharmaceutical R&D. In the absence of the patent, no company was willing to take on the massive financial risk. India eventually backtracked & fell in line with the existing model.
Treating the symptoms
Given the pure financial and commercial situation surrounding the development and production of drugs, it will be interesting to see if the '46664' global humanitarian campaign manages to bring medicine to the masses. If we take a look at previous humanitarian mass movements, they have generally failed to bring about systemic change. For example, 'Band Aid' did not stop famine in Africa. And the 'Stop the War Coalition' (STWC) did not stop the war in Iraq. The reason for this is that such campaigns fail to understand the calamity from an ideological viewpoint; rather they view it from a pragmatic or practical viewpoint. An example of this is the absurd fact that Ethiopia's economy was based upon exporting food to the world before the Live Aid campaign; and it continued exporting food during and after the campaign, though its people were starving! Additionally, the attention span of the masses only lasts for the duration of the campaign, a period far too short to alter any reality.
Western states adhere strictly to the Capitalist ideology, which caters for the material value of people, but fails to effectively take into account the moral, humanitarian and spiritual values. Consequently, institutions not based upon the material value are largely tolerated as long as they do not radically interfere with the material aspect. For example, the church is tolerated since it carries very little capability in challenging the authority, or in altering people's materialistic mindset.
Equally, humanitarian groups are tolerated as long as they do not affect the stranglehold that the western Capitalist nations have over the developing nations. It's clear that Band Aid did not affect the dependency of Africa on the western nations, in particular its debt liabilities. The amounts raised by humanitarian campaigns are miniscule compared to Africa's debt burden, and the sums they pay back yearly to their western creditors. As a result it can be argued that these humanitarian activities actually defuse the anger felt by the masses when a calamity is highlighted, but stop far short of actually addressing or fixing the real problem.
The problems lie in Capitalism
In pure Capitalist philosophy, if you have no money for food you starve, if you have no money for medicine you die, and if you have not money for cloths you go naked. Such realities are currently realised in much of the developing world, whilst in western nations there are measures to ensure people survive - in order to keep western nations strong and powerful over other nations. Even then, it is clear that many western nations are edging towards reducing public expenditure on social issues such as pensions or providing a free national health service. The ever-greater rush towards privatisation in all such areas is driven by the previously mentioned Capitalist philosophy.
However, under the Islamic system, the state always acts as a final guarantor on these issues. The Islamic view upon life and human needs is not based on profit. Consequently, the Khilafah would deal with any epidemic, AIDS or otherwise, by applying resources to bring about a treatment for ALL those who were affected.
The constraining factor would be resources and ability to distribute, but not financial constraints driven by profit. In the Islamic history, there was a time when Madina was affected by a serious drought. The Khaleefah ordered the governor of Egypt to provide food, so money was spent and huge amounts of food and resources were shipped all the way to Madina.
If the states treasury is short of funds, whilst more money is required for relief then Islam permits an emergency tax upon the wealthiest, who are able to pay (not an income tax that hits all, whether they can pay or not).
As for the idea that in the absence of patent laws medical research would stop to a crawl, this is absurd. It is in the interests for any nation, more so a leading power, to have a healthy economy underpinned by a functioning agriculture base, industrial base, pharmaceutical base and so on. Such powers, regardless of their political ideology have always acted to ensure the survival of such bases. Obvious examples here are subsidies to European farmers and tariffs on American steel imports. Other examples are the prohibition of foreign companies buying airline companies in America and Europe. When these markets cannot compete, they are protected.
Additionally, due to the ease of travel diseases are fast becoming an international problem. In the absence of developing a cure, such diseases would begin to kill western populations as fast as they kill the populations of other nations. Hence the western nations are forced by reality to research and develop cures for such diseases, regardless of whether patents were granted. However, they use the excuse of patents to ensure they dominate other nations.
One also has to remember that disease has been around for as long as man has been around, and man has been looking for cures to diseases for just as long. Many millions of cures to problems have been discovered over a great period of history. Such cures were not developed with profits or patents in mind, rather such a mentality only spans the last few centuries, i.e. the era of Capitalism. In the Islamic world, people have always been motivated to learn, study and contribute to humanity for purely altruistic reasons alone. Muslims were keen to seek the reward from their Creator by benefiting humanity; hence the Islamic history is full of developments and progress in all fields of medicine and science. The financial dilemma linked to medical developments and patents, is strictly linked to shortcomings in the Capitalist philosophy.
Muslims in Britain must be clear in understanding that the real source of oppression and misery is the Capitalist system that the world is forced to live under. They must understand that futile humanitarian gestures are used as a means to relieve western societies from their guilt.
Hence Muslims should not be drawn into aiding and abetting such nonsense; rather they should boldly and intellectually draw people's attentions to the truth of the matter. This would earn them the respect and attention of those who are won over to the truth, and it would lead to people seriously questioning whether Capitalism can truly lead mankind to progress and prosperity, and if it is not indeed time to begin investigating the Islamic alternative.
Source: The New Nation (Bangladesh)
