Tony said that those at the sharp end of globalisation were best placed to understand it's benefits, and that the "Travelling Anarchist Circus" had it all wrong!

Was he wrong on this one?

The astonishing thing is that Mbeki simultaneously condemns globalisation and Cosatu, the trade union federation which stood with the ANC against apartheid and which is campaigning against neo-liberalism, the ideological underpinning of globalisation. The man's schizoid mentality, probably the product of too many luncheons with Tony Blair, has surfaced more than once, namely over the HIV/AIDS crisis, in which he wrongly claimed that HIV does not lead to AIDS and vacilated over the issue of intellectual property rights governing anti-AIDS drugs. The man is a nutter and I don't know why he's in power anyway.

Some Agency has just announced that malnutrition is expected to double in Africa in the next two decades! Is that the benefits of globalisation? And didn't the G8 reveal a ten year package to get Africa back on it's feet? Or is that doomed before it has even begun?

The victims of globalisation are floundering on a boat off Christmas Island, left to rot, no-one feels they have a responsibility to assist 438 refugees, no governments care. As long as their lands are ethnically cleansed for the greater purpose, oil, resources and obscene profit.

How are the Afghan refugees victims of globalisation? In this instance, global capitalism is not the problem - it's religious fundamentalism. The fact that Australia won't take in the refugees is probably rooted in the country's long-standing and deeply embedded culture of racism.

I'm sure that the expected increase in malnutrition is not one of the benefits of globalistion...however, the lack of democracy, absence of the rule of law, religious and social intolerance, combined with civil war, may well have something to do with it! Furthermore, Africa's share of world trade and levels of inward investment have been falling since 1980 which would imply that they are actually being excluded from globalsisation.

I think you'll find that the worst drought in living memory is compounding Afghanistan's problems, not to mention East Africa over the last four decades. And since the BBC announced on the news that thanks to (toxic) chemtrails, rain at Wimbledon could be a thing of the past, maybe thanks to this technology, rain is a thing of the past for the Third World also. Wilhelm Reich invented a cloudbuster in the 1940's, don't you think they would develop that as the ultimate weapon? Starvation is the result, in a World of plenty! Earthquakes in Gujerat, Cycones and floods in Orissa, they are ALL devices for the end game, Global Domination.

Don't be too quick to judge Mbeki scizoid because he also made claims about AIDS which diverge from that of the herd. On that front he knew his stuff better than almost all the rest of us, including members of our left movement, who just parrot indignation according to what they've been told by the World Health Organization and the Atlanta-based Centre for Disease Control who dictate the reigning disease ideology in true Stalinist style: that AIDS is an infectious disease - rather than a statistical hoax. Which, tragically ignores the real causes of "immune deficiency":(1) the consequences of dislocation, war, poverty and the abysmal absence of basic services such as clean water and sanitation which cause only two or three AIDS defining diseases in Africa compared to many more in the West, and (2) unsanitary sex, recreational drugs, AZT, and especially (among non-gay, IV drug using "AIDS victims") putting toxic chemicals into the human bloodstream in quantities unprecedented in human history! At least compare the recognized, actual mortality figures due to hunger and malnutrition in Africa with the figures for deaths for what is alleged to be AIDS (in most of Africa, HIV testing is almost non-existent) and you'll see that Mbeki ain't totally dumb or compliant by saying, hey, before we mobilize to fight AIDS, with very costly pharmacoeticals, let's prioritize and tackle the much bigger problem, shall we? Being head of a very state with very, very complex political, social, racial and economic forces at play all around you may be like guarding an open keg of gunpowder from a quarreling mob. Too bad, despite his brave and radical beginnings, he may become the Tony Blair of Africa.

Fact: HIV is contracted through transfer of blood or semen. Don't go around spouting this conspiracy bullshit. AIDS kills as many people in Africa as malaria, perhapd more. I know, I've been there and seen it: hospital beds crammed with AIDS patients and kids suffering because housholds are falling apart due to this disease unable to bear the cost of treatment. You can go to Botswana, Africa's only non-oil producing middle-income country which endures a 35 per cent HIV/AIDS infection rate which will destroy the economy in perhaps a dozen years. AIDS is a fucking disaster and Mbeki has his fucking stupid head in the sand. If you want to join with him and put around a load of lies, do so. But you'll have millions of lives on your hands. AIDS is a time-bomb and we're only just seeing what the consequences are when it goes off. AIDS is the worst threat African civilisation has seen since the European invasion. Millions and millions of Africans WILL die of this disease and will not reach their meagre life expectancy. In Swaziland, for example, life expectancy has dropped from 54 to 27 as a direct consequence of AIDS.

But there is some truth in saying that the spread of HIV/AIDS. Economic liberalisation has encouraged internal migration with men leaving the fields in order to scrape a bit of money in the urban informal sector where they come into contact with prostitutes. Lack of education, cultural taboos and scarcity of condom use are also to blame. The West hasn't helped by demanding fiscal austerity and debt repayment at a time when governments need to invest more in social security and healthcare to ameliorate the consequences of the disease on the poor. African governments haven't helped by engaging in stupid wars, like the DRC, and wasting money on Western arms. I agree, it's also not the only tragedy facing Africans, but it's a damn big one and can't be solved by Bob Geldoff.

The worst comes with wankers like Mbeki and the swine of Swaziland, King Mswati, who will make any excuse not to do anything while their people die. They and the pharmaceutical corporations have had to be dragged into helping AIDS victims. They are true fascists.