Bush cares about black people- but no one cares

As Kanye West so eloquently put it, “Bush doesn't care about black people”. This was the sentiment raging within the African American community after Hurricane Katrina. But how based in real facts is that statement? Bush has appointed more African Americans to positions of power than any president before him. Fine, people say, but its only because he doesn't want to seem racist. They point to Hurricane Katrina, and all of its colossal failures. Well what about Mayor Nagen, who left hundreds of buses in a parking lot when they could have been used to transport people, or Governor Blanco, who refused Bush’s offer to send the national guard to aid in dealing with the storm?

In a catastrophe like that, it’s natural to look for someone to blame. But, while Bush did not do everything he should have, blame shouldn’t just be given to him. It was the bureaucrats and corrupt political landscape of New Orleans, the economic inequalities that were present in that city long before Bush came to power. Everyone messed up, and Bush didn’t “leave people to die” just because they were black.

But the focus of this blog isn’t that. The focus of this blog is how the media, and most people in america, have completely ignored the amazing work Bush has done in Africa. Bush does care about black people, and has done more to alleviate the poverty and disease and hunger that is rampant in Africa than any president before him.

In 2003, only 50,000 Africans were on HIV antiretroviral drugs- and they had to pay for their own medicine. Today, 1.3 million are receiving medicines free of charge. The U.S. also contributes one-third of the money for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which treats another 1.5 million. It contributes 50% of all food aid given to Africa, and on his recent seven-day trip through Africa, Bush announced a new $350 million fund for other neglected tropical diseases that can be easily eradicated, a program to distribute 5.2 million mosquito nets to Tanzanian kids, and contracts worth around $1.2 billion in Tanzania and Ghana from the Millennium Challenge Account. All initiatives of the Bush Administration. In fact, oddly enough, If you look at worldwide polls Bush enjoys his highest approval ratings on the African continent.

Bush has quadrupled aid to Africa. But who knows this? Who? No one reports on it, no one seems to care that he has done as much as possible to help these people. “When we see hunger we feed them. Not to spread our influence, but because they're hungry.” That’s President Bush, talking about the need to increase our nation’s contributions to alleviating hunger in Africa. In the end, while the media trips over themselves to talk about how great Bono is, and how much he has helped African’s, it is Bush who is taking action. He wants people to eventually “Stop coming to Africa feeling guilty. Come with love and feeling confident for its future.”