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A few weeks ago music artists from around the globe gathered in Cape
Town, South Africa for the '46664' concert. The concert was named
after Nelson Mandela's prison number. Fronted by Mandela himself,
the purpose of the concert was to raise awareness for the Aids
epidemic sweeping across Africa.
The model of this awareness campaign is based on the Band Aid
campaign, which raised awareness for the famine in Ethiopia during
the mid-80s via the concert called 'Live Aid'.
Recent figures have highlighted that 30 million people in Africa
have been affected by HIV/AIDS, and over 17 million people have been
killed by AIDS in the world's poorest countries (more than the
casualties from the wars of the last century). There are now over 11
million AIDS orphans, and this figure is estimated to rise to 20
million by the end of the decade. Such realities are stripping
Africa's population and threatening its economy, which is already
crippled by poverty, debts and unfair trade policies.
The HIV/AIDS virus infects and damages the immune system, which
leaves the individual open to illnesses and infections (e.g.
tuberculosis and pneumonia). Consequently, a number of drugs are
required to be taken on a daily basis; such as antibiotics,
antiviral and anti-cancer drugs which attempt to slow down the
damaging effects, and strengthen the immune system. Hence, it is
crucial that the medication remains in the body at all times,
thereby making the individual less likely to develop more serious
conditions.
The patent Issue
The problem lies with the fact that American drugs companies have
developed a treatment program for AIDS, spending enormous resources
in research and development under the protection of the patent.
Their reasons for doing this are simply financial; they intend to
recoup their expenditure by selling the treatment at a massive
profit. It costs $10,000 to undergo the treatment program as set out
by American drugs companies, however, the average ''yearly'' wage in
South Africa is just $1,000. In the absence of the patent, the
treatment could cost as little as $200.
Those in favour of patent laws would argue that the massive prices
reflect the enormous investment and risks taken in pharmaceutical
research and development (R&D). The example given is India, where an
attempt was made to do away with patent-based pharmaceutical R&D. In
the absence of the patent, no company was willing to take on the
massive financial risk. India eventually backtracked & fell in line
with the existing model.
Treating the symptoms
Given the pure financial and commercial situation surrounding the
development and production of drugs, it will be interesting to see
if the '46664' global humanitarian campaign manages to bring
medicine to the masses. If we take a look at previous humanitarian
mass movements, they have generally failed to bring about systemic
change. For example, 'Band Aid' did not stop famine in Africa. And
the 'Stop the War Coalition' (STWC) did not stop the war in Iraq.
The reason for this is that such campaigns fail to understand the
calamity from an ideological viewpoint; rather they view it from a
pragmatic or practical viewpoint. An example of this is the absurd
fact that Ethiopia's economy was based upon exporting food to the
world before the Live Aid campaign; and it continued exporting food
during and after the campaign, though its people were starving!
Additionally, the attention span of the masses only lasts for the
duration of the campaign, a period far too short to alter any
reality.
Western states adhere strictly to the Capitalist ideology, which
caters for the material value of people, but fails to effectively
take into account the moral, humanitarian and spiritual values.
Consequently, institutions not based upon the material value are
largely tolerated as long as they do not radically interfere with
the material aspect. For example, the church is tolerated since it
carries very little capability in challenging the authority, or in
altering people's materialistic mindset. Equally, humanitarian
groups are tolerated as long as they do not affect the stranglehold
that the western Capitalist nations have over the developing
nations. It's clear that Band Aid did not affect the dependency of
Africa on the western nations, in particular its debt liabilities.
The amounts raised by humanitarian campaigns are miniscule compared
to Africa's debt burden, and the sums they pay back yearly to their
western creditors. As a result it can be argued that these
humanitarian activities actually defuse the anger felt by the masses
when a calamity is highlighted, but stop far short of actually
addressing or fixing the real problem.
The problems lie in Capitalism
In pure Capitalist philosophy, if you have no money for food you
starve, if you have no money for medicine you die, and if you have
not money for cloths you go naked. Such realities are currently
realised in much of the developing world, whilst in western nations
there are measures to ensure people survive – in order to keep
western nations strong and powerful over other nations. Even then,
it is clear that many western nations are edging towards reducing
public expenditure on social issues such as pensions or providing a
free national health service. The ever-greater rush towards
privatisation in all such areas is driven by the previously
mentioned Capitalist philosophy.
However, under the Islamic system, the state always acts as a final
guarantor on these issues. The Islamic view upon life and human
needs is not based on profit. Consequently, the Khilafah would deal
with any epidemic, AIDS or otherwise, by applying resources to bring
about a treatment for ALL those who were affected. The constraining
factor would be resources and ability to distribute, but not
financial constraints driven by profit. In the Islamic history,
there was a time when Madina was affected by a serious drought. The
Khaleefah ordered the governor of Egypt to provide food, so money
was spent and huge amounts of food and resources were shipped all
the way to Madina.
If the states treasury is short of funds, whilst more money is
required for relief then Islam permits an emergency tax upon the
wealthiest, who are able to pay (not an income tax that hits all,
whether they can pay or not).
As for the idea that in the absence of patent laws medical research
would stop to a crawl, this is absurd. It is in the interests for
any nation, more so a leading power, to have a healthy economy
underpinned by a functioning agriculture base, industrial base,
pharmaceutical base and so on. Such powers, regardless of their
political ideology have always acted to ensure the survival of such
bases. Obvious examples here are subsidies to European farmers and
tariffs on American steel imports. Other examples are the
prohibition of foreign companies buying airline companies in America
and Europe. When these markets cannot compete, they are protected.
Additionally, due to the ease of travel diseases are fast becoming
an international problem. In the absence of developing a cure, such
diseases would begin to kill western populations as fast as they
kill the populations of other nations. Hence the western nations are
forced by reality to research and develop cures for such diseases,
regardless of whether patents were granted. However, they use the
excuse of patents to ensure they dominate other nations.
One also has to remember that disease has been around for as long as
man has been around, and man has been looking for cures to diseases
for just as long. Many millions of cures to problems have been
discovered over a great period of history. Such cures were not
developed with profits or patents in mind, rather such a mentality
only spans the last few centuries, i.e. the era of Capitalism. In
the Islamic world, people have always been motivated to learn, study
and contribute to humanity for purely altruistic (to seek Allah's
pleasure) reasons alone.
Muslims were keen to seek the reward from their Creator by
benefiting humanity; hence the Islamic history is full of
developments and progress in all fields of medicine and science. The
financial dilemma linked to medical developments and patents, is
strictly linked to shortcomings in the Capitalist philosophy.
Muslims must be clear in understanding that the real source of
oppression and misery is the Capitalist system that the world is
forced to live under. They must understand that futile humanitarian
gestures are used as a means to relieve western societies from their
guilt. Hence Muslims should not be drawn into aiding and abetting
such nonsense; rather they should boldly and intellectually draw
people's attentions to the truth of the matter. This would earn them
the respect and attention of those who are won over to the truth,
and it would lead to people seriously questioning whether Capitalism
can truly lead mankind to progress and prosperity, and if it is not
indeed time to begin investigating the Islamic alternative.
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