African Swansongs ...

What is it with hated global leaders making their final victory laps in Africa?

Tony Blair practically reviled at home and most of the rest of the world by the end of his time in office .... was greeted rapturously in Sierra Leone and ... er... Libya .... in part at least for Britain's part in ending the bloody conflict in West Africa .... and for championing the (largely inconsequential) Commission for Africa ....

And now its the turn of George Bush .... possibly the most disastrous president in recent history ... to many a walking crime against humanity ... whose vast catalogue of terrible programmes and heinous decisions has perhaps just one redeeming highpoint - namely PEPFAR (and to a lesser degree his Malaria initiative) ....

Now I've raged against PEPFAR a few times on this blog ..... and there are many issues on which I vociferously disagree with it and think its been a pernicious influence on the fight against AIDS ... however ... quite aside from the fact that it paid my salary for over 2 years .... there's no denying that (at least the treatment-allocated) money has reached down to the poorest of the poor (very unusual for aid money) .... and amazingly is actually doing what its supposed to be doing - both vertically and horizontally strengthening health systems in the recipient countries ...

A personal hero of mine - South African Dr Francois Venter (head of the HIV Clinicians Society in SA .... and all-round firebrand) sums up what I think most of us feel ......

"I look at all the blood this man has on his hands in Iraq and I can't quite believe myself but I would say it's a bold experiment from the last people in the world I would expect to do it, and it is saving a lot of lives. To intervene on such a scale and make such a difference is huge,"

And it is true that this is a remarkable achievement by a man who inherited the dubious legacy of President Clinton in Africa (the debacle of Somalia, the unforgivable blunders over Rwanda, the embassy bombings in Kenya/Tanzania etc) ... and who was once described by Nelson Mandela as a man "who can't think properly"....

But was it really enough? And was it what Africa needed?

PEPFAR is now widely acknowledged to have stemmed from Colin Powell and arose from a national security fears (also culminating in AfriCOM - the US African Command) ..... and its now its pretty clear that AIDS has not caused widespread political unrest nor failed states nor strengthened terrorism ....

In addition PEPFAR was heavily championed by evangelical movements in the US ... a sort of modern-day missionary-ising of Africa "saving the poor black people from themselves" .... but who are now (thankfully) seeing their leverage slip away and their global purge on sex in tatters ....

PEPFAR hasn't democratised .... it hasn't stabilised .... it was definitely conceived of in US national interests ... but extraordinarily it has genuinely helped some people in need and it has given them a precious few more years of life ... with a hope that more will come ... and it has undeniably set the pitch for the future of HIV treatment having to be made available and rolled out in the developing world as well as the developed ....

So as for what is next on the America-Africa agenda? Well we'll just have to wait for what President Obama thinks ....