Thus Ryan and I stand resolved that: The United States federal government should substantially increase AIDS essential medications to Sub Saharan Africa regardless of relevant patent law.
THE PLAN IS NOT MERELY A PRAGMATIC POLITICAL INTERVENTION, BUT AN EXPLOSIVELY REVOLUTIONARY ECONOMIC GESTURE. THE DEMAND FOR AIDS ESSENTIAL MEDICATION IS A DEMAND AGAINST THE PREDATORY MODEL OF CAPITALISM WHICH ENSURES THE DEATH OF MANY FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF A FEW. THE STRUGGLE AGAINST CORPORATE GREED AND FOR HEALTH IS BY DEFINITION A STRUGGLE AGAINST THE WORST EXCESSES OF CAPITAL.
Adam Sitze, professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought at Amherst College. “Denialism.” The South Atlantic Quarterly 103.4 (2004) 769-811
THIS MEANS THAT THE PLAN SHOULD BE READ ACCORDINGLY. IT IS AN IDENTIFICATION WITH THE ABJECT: THOSE EXCLUDED FROM THE GLOBAL MARKETPLACE AND VICTIMIZED BY PRACTICES IT NATURALIZES. THIS IS OUR PRIMARY ETHICO-POLITICAL RESPONSIBILITY: TO CONFRONT THE VIOLENCE OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM. THE IDEOLOGY OF CAPITALISM CURRENTLY STRUCTURES OUR PERCEPTION OF REALITY SUCH THAT A UNIVERSAL STRUGGLE AGAINST IT SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE. THE CHALLENGE, THEN, IS TO IDENTIFY PARTICULAR EXCESSES OF CAPITALISM AND POLITICIZE THEM IN AN ACT OF UNIVERSALIZATION. PHARMACEUTICAL PATENTS ARE A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF THESE EXCESSES BECAUSE THEY AFFECT SO MANY AND ARE CONTROLLED BY SO FEW, EFFECTIVELY CONDEMNING MILLIONS TO DEATH. THE PLAN IS NOT JUST A PARTICULAR POLITICAL MANEUVER THEN. INVESTED IN IT ARE ALL THE STAKES OF A GLOBAL REVOLUTION AGAINST CAPITALISM AS WE KNOW IT.
Daly, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University College Northampton, 2004. [Glyn, Conversations with Zizek, pp. 14-19]
ALL OTHER POSTMODERN STRUGGLES ARE IRRELEVANT SO LONG AS CAPITALISM PROVIDES THE IDEOLOGICAL STAGE FOR THEIR PLAYING OUT. THE ONLY REAL UNIVERSAL POLITICAL OPTION IS TO POLITICIZE THE ECONOMY. THIS MAKES ALL OTHER LIBERATORY STRUGGLES POSSIBLE.
Zizek, Prof of Sociology, Univ. of Ljubljana, 2004. (Slavoj, Ticklish Subject p. 356)
Kinkaid (All Teams) – Affirmative – Landmines
Observation 1: The forgotten epidemic
The Greatest challenge to public health in sub-Saharan Africa is landmines. Landmines directly harm tens of thousands and the devastate African societies.
Sarah Taylor of the land mine action information center states in 2002 [Journal of Mine Action Dec. 2002]
1/3
[Just three percent of all arable land in Angola is currently under cultivation… This is nearly impossible]
And, Africa is the most mined continent in the world. They lack resources to address The Hidden Plague.
Oyugi 04 (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kenya)
[Africa remains the most mine-affected continent. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 22 countries are mine-affected…Some of the mine-affected States in the continent are among the world’s weakest economies]
And, US apathy is not accidental, rather, US has failed to assist in demining because those suffering, do not meet our narrow lens of national security.
Kidd 04 (Acting Deputy Assitant Secretary for Politica-Military Affairs)
[Thank you Colonel Jordan. I will now describe the overall US Humanitarian Mine Action Strategic Plan. It is designed to…and host nation’s own genuine commitment to helping to rid itself of its landmines.]
Contention 2 – Harms
Scenario 1 – Mined Mayhem
Landmines cause mass suffering in Africa. They kill more than all weapons of mass destruction resulting in millions losing their lives, disease spread, and famine.
Oppong and Kalipeni 03 (professor in department of geography at UNT and the later associate professor of geography and African studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
[Most of these victims are civilians killed or injured after hostilities have ended. Of the sixty-five countries reporting new landmine causalities...The increased frequency of blood transfusions facilitates the spread of syphilis, hepatitis, malaria, and HIV.]
Famine is an unnecessary massacre – we must take every step to challenge the conditions that cause hunger.
Abadale 07 (Ramine, “Famine is an absurd Massace”, I’humanitie, May 5)
[Jean Ziegler, main protagonist of Erwin Wagenhofer’s documentary ‘We feed the world,’ is also the Un Sepcial Rappoteur on the Right to Food and the…This is an absurd and useless massacre perpetrated by the world order of globalised financial capital.]
And, mines kill millions in Africa. The ! is staggering and outweigs all other weapons of mass destruction. It affects everyone in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Day 98 (Sr. Lecturer, Public Health, University of Zimbabwe
[An individual woman peasant farmer seeks to prepare her field for planting and loses a leg…have killed more people than all the cold war weapons of mass destruction combined.]
Scenario 2 – The camp
The scourge of landmines forces millions to flee fertile lands generating refugees, incubating disease, and causing wholesale displacement of populations.
Oppong and Kalipeni 5 “The geography of landmines and implications for health and disease in africa: a political ecology approach”
[As an environmental problem, landmines have profound medical and economic consequences…more than nine thousand cattle have been reported killed in minefields since 1980 in Zimbabwe, representing a loss of income of some Z$15 million]
Refugee camps become prisons of death. 3000 Refugees die a day while genocidal leaders profit form their suffering.
Stevens 2006 “Jacob, New Left Review 42, November-December 2006 PRISONS OF THE STATELESS”
[The new framework for dealing with large refugee crisis…For those who have followed the intensifying conflicts in Afghanistan, her optimism will not prove too infectious.]
These refugees are denaturalized and exposed to the barest of life outside of the nation state. This attempt to deny the value of life to refugees is the root of Nazi genocide and racist eugenics. We must infuse our humanitarian ethic with politics in order to eliminate the state of exception inherent in the refuge camps.
Giorgio Agamben 98 “professor of philosophy, university of Verona, Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life”
[If refugees (whose number has continued to grow in our century…either in the state order of in the figure of human rights.]
THE PLAN: THE UNITED STATES FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD SUBSTANTIALLY INCREASE ITS DEMINING PUBLIC HEALTH ASSISTANCE TO SUB-SAHARN AFRICA BY PROVIDING NECESSARY FINANCIAL AND LOGISTICAL SUPPORT.
Contention 3 – Solvency
The united states is the best and only agent for demining in Africa. The US empirically succeeds at demining, but the US needs to fully commit to the entire region.
Kindig, 02 “Sarah E., James Madison University Fellow office of humanitarian demining programs, US department of state” 3 pg. card
[The united state’s government’s Humanitarian Demining Program seeks to relieve human suffering…to sustain economies and provide holistic health care to thousands of landmine survivors. Their fear has been replaced by hope.]
2nd The US holds exclusive rights to the only successful demining technology – quadruple resonance is key.
Turner and Williams 06 (Dr. Peter and Caroleen L, Senior Engineer and Director, Government Relations, GE Security Magnetics Center of Excellence, Quantum Magnetics, Inc. Journal of Mine Action, “QR Hits a Homerun: Landmine-Detection Systems based on quadruple resonance technology show progress” issue 9.2 Feb.)
[This study explains how quadruple resonance technology…real landmines from clutter would be welcome to deminers, soldiers and citizens alike.]
3rd US deminers train indigenous populations which establishes bonds of trust and empathy necessary to stop violence.
Huntington 2000 (NCAFD project director on US National Security and Landmines, December, Patricia S.)
[Humanitarian mine clearance is the first step in the development of war-torn…establish important bonds of trust with those who have come to their homeland to assist them.]
4th US Assistance is the only comprehensive program that is effective with different languages, cultures, and countries.
Repass 2000 (Deborah, Star Mountain demining support company, “Demining Support System: Field Support for Humanitarian Demining Missions Overseas” – DISAM Journal, winter)
[Star mountain first developed the demining support system as a “proof of concept” for the US Navy Office of Special Technology…and create customized maps with the system’s GIS functionality.]
5th US leadership is key – other nations will only stop using landmines if the US sends a message against mines.
Social Justice News, 2004 (March, “US Plans Continued Use of Landmines”)
[Though there are some positive aspects of this policy…should stop using them]
OUR AFFIRMATIVE SERVES AS A CONDUIT TO EMPATHIZE WITH THE VICTIMS OF LANDMINES AND UNEXPLOEDED ORDINANCES—ONLY BY RECOGNIZING THE US COMPLICITY WITH LANDMINES CRISIS CAN WE BEGIN TO IDENTIFY WITH THE OTHER AND DEHUMYNIZATION
Robert Jensen March 02
“It is my experience that people can feel…will choose to know, to feel, and to act”
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