Re: government, markets, and material well-being

["Henry C.K. Liu" <hliu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Correction:

If blood is not bought and sold like a commodity, aids in China would be
under control.

"Henry C.K. Liu" wrote:

> That is what you get with a market economy.
> If blood is not bought and sold like a commodity, aids in China would be
> uncontrol.  Also, if the Chinese government were to free itself from US
> neo-liberals, the Chinese people would be better off.
>
> Henry  C.K. Liu
>
> Alan G Isaac wrote:
>
> > Just to be clear, this post is not meant to pose any
> > unambiguous judgment on the subject.  Just the opposite.
> > Alan Isaac
> >
> > August 25, 2002
> > AIDS Scourge in Rural China Leaves Villages of Orphans
> > *By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL*
> >
> > DONGHU, China---Neighbors remember when young Dong Yangnan
> > was a "xiao pangzi," or little fatty, the kind of husky,
> > moon-cheeked child that Chinese grandmothers adore. Today,
> > at 12, he is orphaned, stick thin and dressed in tattered
> > clothes.
> >
> > Last summer, his mother died of AIDS. His father, coughing
> > and feverish, succumbed to the disease in May. Yangnan lives
> > with an elderly grandfather, surviving on rice gruel and
> > steamed buns.
> >
> > "Before, I had a happy life, and my parents took good care
> > of me," he said listlessly, his big eyes staring away to a
> > lost past. "Now I have to look after myself and often have
> > no money."
> >
> > AIDS is creating an explosion of destitute orphans here in
> > China's rural heartland and is driving large numbers of
> > families into such dire poverty that they can no longer
> > afford to feed or clothe, much less educate, their children.
> >
> > At the start of last year, there were no orphans in this
> > village in southern Henan Province. Today, because of AIDS,
> > there are nearly 20, and hundreds more are likely to face a
> > similar fate within a year or two. Residents estimate that
> > 200 of the village's 600 families have one parent dead and
> > the other ill, often too frail to work or even rise from
> > bed. They receive little government help.
> >
> > According to unpublished statistics from the United Nations
> > Development Program, the number of families living below the
> > official poverty line in Xincai, the county that includes
> > Donghu, skyrocketed last year, to 270,000 from 40,000.
> > Breadwinners fell ill, and families spent whatever they
> > could scrape together for food and care.
> >
> > Experts say the blow dealt by AIDS to villages like Donghu
> > has been sharper and crueler than anywhere else in the world
> > because of the unusual and efficient way the disease spread
> > here.
> >
> > Nearly the entire adult population of some villages was
> > infected almost simultaneously in the 1990's as poor farmers
> > flocked en masse to blood collection stations whose
> > unsterile practices introduced hefty doses of H.I.V., the
> > virus that causes AIDS, directly into their veins. Now, the
> > victims---including many married couples---are falling ill
> > and dying almost in unison.
> >
> > In other countries suffering epidemics, grandparents or
> > aunts and uncles have helped the sick or taken in children.
> > But here those relatives are often themselves overwhelmed by
> > AIDS. Also, because China's family planning policies have
> > limited families to one or two children, there is rarely an
> > older sibling to serve as a surrogate parent.
> >
> > Ren Genqing, 16, dropped out of school three years ago
> > because the money that would have gone for his school fees
> > was needed to buy medicine for his parents.  His father died
> > of AIDS in 2000, his mother in 2001. One uncle has died of
> > AIDS, and another is sick. He alone is responsible for his
> > 12-year-old brother.
> >
> > "I'm growing up, but my brother is still young," he said, a
> > slightly cocky teenager, old before his time. "Before, the
> > children here used to play soccer and other games, but you
> > rarely see that these days. Lots of people are dying, and
> > nobody's in the mood for that sort of thing."
> >
> > Some Chinese experts estimate that selling blood was common
> > in dozens of Henan Province's counties before it was banned
> > in the mid-90's, leaving at least a million people infected
> > with H.I.V. In some places, selling blood served as a source
> > of emergency income---fast cash to fix a roof or pay off a
> > debt---but in others, like Donghu, most adults sold blood at
> > least occasionally, and many sold it every week.
> >
> > Like many of the most severely affected villages, Donghu was
> > near a blood collection station, one with government ties.
> > Commercials on local television assured villagers that
> > selling their blood was safe.
> >
> > Villagers here estimate that more than half of adults in
> > Donghu were infected with H.I.V. in the early 1990's. A
> > decade later, the death rate is gathering steam, with
> > several people dying each week. The effects are largely
> > hidden since local officials monitor access to the village
> > and have warned residents not to speak with reporters.
> >
> > "The situation is worsening very rapidly because, once a
> > spouse dies, the burden on the remaining one escalates and,
> > of course, they are all infected too," one villager said.
> >
> > Extreme poverty has quickly and predictably followed, as
> > able-bodied adults can no longer work and families sell
> > their possessions to pay for basic needs. They borrow to buy
> > medicine for suffering loved ones, but the simple remedies
> > they can afford are ineffective against AIDS.
> >
> > Compounding the financial woes, grain, fruit and vegetables
> > grown in these villages are almost impossible to sell in
> > nearby cities, whose residents are afraid of contagion.
> >
> > "It really brings you to tears," said a medical worker who
> > has visited villages in the province. "You see these pretty
> > decent houses, built with the money from selling blood, but
> > inside there is nothing. They've sold the farm tools, the
> > animals, even the furniture. People who are dying are lying
> > on the floor."
> >
> > For families like Ren Dahua's, it has been a vicious cycle:
> > poverty begat AIDS, but AIDS has begotten previously
> > unimaginable poverty.
> >
> > Mr. Ren started selling blood to patch his mud and brick
> > hut, to keep his children dry when it rained. He also used
> > the money to repay debts incurred from the purchase of an
> > ox, fertilizer and wheat seed.
> >
> > When the blood stations opened in 1992, he and his wife
> > rushed to sell their blood, for about $5 a bag. He regarded
> > it as an opportunity and sold blood more than 30 times.
> >
> > When two more blood stations opened nearby---one affiliated
> > with the local Red Cross and another run out of a hospital
> > less than 100 yards from his front door---he sometimes
> > visited daily.
> >
> > At the time, blood from several farmers was pooled and
> > centrifuged to skim off the plasma, which the blood stations
> > sold to companies to make medicines. The remaining red cells
> > were pooled and transfused back into the sellers, providing
> > a gruesomely efficient method for transmitting blood-borne
> > diseases, including hepatitis and AIDS.
> >
> > By 1993, both Mr. Ren and his wife, Diao Yuhuan, were
> > disqualified from selling blood because they had obvious
> > symptoms of hepatitis C: jaundice, swollen waists and almost
> > constant nausea. They did not know that they had also
> > contracted H.I.V., which often takes years to show symptoms.
> >
> > Last year, Ms. Diao fell ill with tuberculosis, an infection
> > that is often severe in people who have H.I.V. Selling his
> > possessions, Mr. Ren scraped together 3,500 yuan, which
> > covered a brief---but useless---hospital stay in Beijing.
> > His wife died at home in January.
> >
> > "Because I spent so much money when my wife was ill, my
> > children cannot go to school," said Mr. Ren, who also has
> > H.I.V. "My son passed the high school entrance exam, but
> > there's no money for him to go."
> >
> > In some families, like that of Wei Zhanjun, two generations
> > of adults are dead or dying, leaving a single child carrying
> > an unimaginable burden. Mr. Wei, whose wife died of AIDS in
> > 2000, is so short of breath he can barely walk. His body is
> > covered with painful sores. His parents, in their 50's, are
> > bedridden with similar symptoms. Only his 8-year-old son,
> > Wei Zhicheng, is healthy.
> >
> > "He is a good boy, but ever since my wife fell ill, there
> > has been no money in this home and not enough food," he
> > wrote in a letter describing his plight.  "Now, nobody farms
> > our family's land, and we have heavy debts that we cannot
> > repay." Money donated by neighbors to pay his son's school
> > fees was quickly diverted to buy painkillers.
> >
> > There is really nowhere most families can turn for help.
> > Most people die in horrible pain with little care. Their
> > children leave school and go hungry.  Although a few
> > villages have been given simple medicine and a bit of
> > financial aid, some by private groups and some by the
> > government, overwhelmed health officials have been slow to
> > react.
> >
> > In some villages, dozens of children have dropped out of
> > school because their families can no longer afford the fees,
> > and proposals to offer such children discounts have proved
> > ineffective. Some children from homes where a family member
> > has H.I.V. say they have been barred from school. Others say
> > the discounts are often so small, about 20 percent, that
> > school remains unaffordable.
> >
> > Wang Beibei, 10, a star pupil from Suixian, a county in
> > northern Henan, was expelled from third grade last year
> > after school officials discovered that her father had died
> > of AIDS.
> >
> > "They were afraid to let me in, and my friends stopped
> > playing with me," she said by phone, from the home of a
> > sympathetic neighbor. About a third of the families in her
> > village had sold blood---fewer than in Donghu---in large
> > part because the village was farther from blood stations.
> >
> > In June, Beibei's mother died of AIDS. School is out of the
> > question. There is no one to work the family's land, and she
> > and her brother struggle just to look out for each other.
> > "My brother cooks for me, and we eat noodles," she said.
> > "We have no money for eggs or meat."
> >
> > In Donghu, the school still admits such children if they can
> > pay but offers no significant tuition breaks.
> >
> > Likewise, though government plans have called for families
> > unable to farm because of AIDS to be exempt from grain
> > taxes, families here and elsewhere say they are still
> > required to pay in full.
> >
> > "The government doesn't do anything for me, and likewise it
> > didn't do anything for my family," said Gao Li, 14, an
> > orphan from Donghu, with cropped hair and a quiet,
> > matter-of-fact voice.
> >
> > "I'm responsible for my brother, who is 10," she said.
> > "Nobody among my relatives can help. My dad had brothers but
> > one is dead, and the others are sick, too. My biggest
> > difficulty is, I have no future."
> >
> > Indeed with so much death and so little reason to hope, many
> > poor farmers with AIDS have shifted their focus from
> > securing treatment for themselves to ensuring a future for
> > their children.
> >
> > Since late last year, Xie Yan, who is in her late 30's and
> > is H.I.V. positive, has had an obsession: She wants to find
> > someone to adopt her 4-year-old son, who is not infected, as
> > well as someone to support her two daughters, 13 and 9.  Her
> > husband died of AIDS last year, and last winter she watched
> > her best friend bleed to death on a hospital's doorstep
> > while the friend's 4-year-old watched in terror.
> >
> > "I try not to think about myself since I know I won't be
> > cured," she said. "But at night I can't sleep---I have
> > nightmares and wild thoughts---worrying about what will
> > happen to the kids."
> >
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