Rachel Maddow and the Clinton administration's attempts to neoliberalize South Africa

[marmar]

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow played a supporting role in pressuring former President Bill Clinton into abandoning his administration's hostility to Nelson Mandela's AIDS relief programs in the 1990s.

Nelson Mandela's life and legacy are being celebrated by nearly everyone in American politics, from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to President Barack Obama. But the U.S. government aggressively opposed Mandela's political goals for decades. While President Ronald Reagan's support for the apartheid state is well documented, Clinton's work to undermine the economic foundation of the nascent Mandela-led South African republic is sometimes overlooked.

After Mandela became president of South Africa in 1994, then-President Clinton pressured the nation to adopt trade policies that benefitted U.S. corporations while restricting South African access to drugs treating HIV and AIDS. In the mid-1990s, pharmaceutical companies were charging roughly $12,000 a year for lifesaving AIDS drugs in Mandela's country. For a nation with an average income of $2,600 a year, where roughly one-fifth of the population was HIV-positive, the drug prices were untenable.

Mandela signed a law in 1997 authorizing his administration to shop the globe for cheaper drugs. If the same medication was available at a lower price in another country, Mandela's government would simply buy the drug abroad and import it. In the years since, some U.S. states -- including Kansas under former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius -- have experimented with similar policies to obtain prescription drugs from Canada in order to lower prescription drug prices for American seniors. .......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/06/rachel-maddow-bill-clinton-mandela_n_4401074.html

[Heather MC]

1. Our Government needs to stay out of other countries business

We want to act all shocked and appalled when someone from another country expresses a desire to kill Americans.

But can you blame them when we have Presidents who actively attempt to bring harm to the innocent citzens of other countries?

People were angry when Pastor Wright said "Americas Chickens have come home to Roost" but he was speaking the truth. Our country does alot of dirt Abroad, and we will have to answer for that one day.