Re: [A-List] Soros

["Patrick Bond" <pbond@xxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "James Daly" <james.irldaly@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> [the dirt on Soros]

One smudge that the author missed -- obviously didn't get my *Unsustainable
South Africa* (London, Merlin, 2002), but no surprise! -- is this slightly
mass-murderish viewpoint:

In 1997, a Medicines Act amendment had allowed for import or even local
production of generic alternatives to the patented drugs. After
international protests against the pharmaceutical companies’
arrogance--i.e., claiming billions of dollars in profits while millions of
people died--the withdrawal from the law suit sparked hope that corporations
and the state would immediately begin saving the lives of their workers and
citizens.

It was not to be, for a simple reason: a particularly narrow, privatised
cost-benefit analysis. Perhaps the principle was expressed most succinctly
by financier George Soros, who was asked about treating HIV-positive South
Africans in an April 2002 interview with the SA Broadcasting Corporation. He
answered, ‘I think to provide treatment to the bulk of the people is just
not feasible. I think to provide treatment for instance to qualified workers
actually saves money, actually saves money for companies’. The interviewer
responded, ‘Aren’t you uncomfortable to talk in a way that is a kind of
death sentence to those who we can’t afford to treat?’ Replied Soros, ‘I
think the cost of providing actual treatment to everyone at the present. I
don’t think it’s realistic. It’s not achievable’.