Madam Speaker, I thank my friend on the other side for his comments. There are a couple of points I want to address. He made a very central point that is often forgotten.
The most important thing in dealing with people who have HIV-AIDS is food. The disease actually explodes in a person who does not have proper nutrition. The caloric requirements of an individual who has HIV-AIDS is much higher than for most of us. For most of us it is 1,500 calories but it is 2,200 calories for somebody who has HIV-AIDS. The problem is that in a number of countries political decisions are being made and food is being used as a weapon to wreak havoc, which greatly increases the number of people who move from being HIV positive to having AIDS.
I will cite the example of Zimbabwe where President Mugabe is using food as a weapon. Using food as a weapon in a country that has a 25% HIV rate means that the number of people who have AIDS explodes. Mortality figures go through the roof.
It is extremely important for us not to assume that the food problems, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, are due to acts of God. They are not. They are due to political decisions that are known in advance. Foods is often used as a tool. This results in massive increases in mortality. We have to address that.
One other point of note, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has done very well, there is a Thai doctor who is working with a pharmaceutical company to produce ARVs at a very low rate within the DRC. The conflict in the DRC has resulted in two million people dead and four million people displaced. The glimmer of hope in the DRC is that one determined physician from Thailand, who is working with the people of the DRC in one area where they are able to make the ARVs and who has the distribution mechanism.
We should work with other countries where there are people who are willing to do this, where there is a stable element of governance, a lack of corruption and a leadership that is prepared to work with us. We could partner with other international groups, NGOs and countries, to focus on those countries, to develop islands of stability on a continent that desperately needs it. If we focused on that, we would do a great deal by providing islands of stability and saving a lot of lives. We must try to turn around this terrible beast that is destroying countries, that is causing amazing security problems and which is leaving a sea of orphans on a continent that can ill afford it.