Africa

The AIDS Crisis and Somali Pirate Attacks:

The United States has put a great amount of effort into aiding Africans who are starving or suffering from HIV/AIDS. In 2007, President Bush traveled to Africa to assess the quality of life there. He began the Africa Financial Sector Iniative to encourage capital flow into Africa. This was successful, and led to capital outpacing the amount of grants given, and created more jobs in Africa. President Bush was pleased with America's efforts in Africa, and after his 2007 trip there he stated that, “we're working to empower Africans to alleviate hunger, expand education, and fight disease. America is proud to be the world's largest provider of food assistance, including emergency food stocks that have saved lives in places like Ethiopia or Sudan, and other African nations” (Bush).

The American recession, beginning in 2008, was a potential concern for African foreign aid. The United States was unsure of how much aid Africa would be given, however, the African economy had been doing well since 2004. Since then, the African economy had been increasing at 6% annually. The International Monetary Fund had grown 1.5% in 2009, and was expected to grow 4% in 2010.

The United States also formed coalitions for fighting HIV/AIDS. In 2001, only 50,000 African were receiving antiretroviral drugs, but in 2008 one and one half million people received antiretroviral drugs. President Bush was compelled to aid Africa because “the idea of an entire generation of people dying because of HIV/AIDS troubled my heart. And I felt like America could do something about it" (Bush).

However, Africa had other challenges besides the fight against HIV/AIDS. Pirates in Somalia were attacking international ships in the Gulf of Aden. A United States ship, the "Liberty Sun," evaded an attack from the pirates, but they called the U.S Navy for assistance, since the pirates fired grenades and automatic weapons at the ship. During the attack, Tom Urbik wrote an email saying "[w]e are under attack by pirates, we are being hit by rockets. Also bullets... We are barricaded in the engine room and so far no one is hurt. A rocket penetrated the bulkhead but the hole is small. Small fire too but put out... Navy is on the way and helos and ships are coming" (Urbik). Ninety minutes later, the Navy did arrive and the "Liberty Sun" and its crew were rescued. This was not the only pirate attack on U.S ships. Captain Richard Phillips was taken hostage during a failed hijack attempt, but luckily he was rescued and unharmed. Secretary Rice spoke on the issue of the Somali Pirates, and how the United States was handling the hijack attempts, " ... the United States is a part of an international effort. We do have naval forces that have been involved in this effort..... I do know that no American administration is going to want to see chaos in Somalia" (Rice). She assured Americans that the Navy was getting involved with controlling the pirate attacks, and that chaos in Somalia was what the United States was trying to prevent.

http://abcnews.go.com/video/ playerindex?id=7337652 Click for video about Somali Pirates. (There's an advertisement before the actual video)