INSPI(PEPFAR)

Bono has gotten some press lately with the (RED) campaign that he’s bought into. Actually, I’m a little bothered by how much press this has gotten. This is American philanthropy at it’s best. You buy a $200 Apple iPod, Apple gives $10 to the UN Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Perfect! You get stuff, and cool red stuff, at essentially retail, but you get to feel good about helping people with AIDS. Apple, meanwhile, or The Gap gets you to buy their stuff (even if you already have a RAZR, you have to have the (RED) MOTORAZR) and they get a nice tax write-off for what was essentially a marketing cost. Win-win for capitalism! Now I’m a pretty big capitalist myself, but don’t try to pass off our greed for trendy products as charity.
Since its kick-off about a year ago, the (RED) campaign has donated something like 15 million dollars ($15,000,000) to the Global Fund. I can’t find an exact number, but that seems about right based on the progress throughout last year. If the percentages on the iPod and the RAZR are representative, this represents about $300 million in sales for the participating partners. Not a bad haul, considering that Apple also gets profits from the car charger, case, pedometer, and music that goes with that red iPod while the Gap gets all the profits from the belt, jeans, and camisole you got to go with your INSPI(RED) t-shirt. If these corporations are so concerned with giving to impoverished nations, why not give a percentage of everything they sell? If the consumer is so concerned with the plight of third-world citizens, why did he just spend $300 on another cell phone? Something about solving the world’s problems through materialism just makes me twitch.
Now let’s compare. In 2006, 21 billion dollars ($21,000,000,000) was requested by the federal government for treating AIDS/HIV within the United States. In addition, under the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), $3.2 billion, or over 200 (RED) campaigns, was allocated for international AIDS relief. PEPFAR promises $15 billion in aid over five years. This includes over $300 million annually allocated to the Global Fund. This program, one of President Bush’s favorite new initiatives gets virtually no press. You’ve never even heard of it have you? I’d print t-shirts, but there are very few words that end in pepfar.
I’ve never really been good at making a point on my blog. I seldom have one to make. There’s what I’m thinking. If I were Lon Solomon, this is where I’d expect you to say “So what?” And I wouldn’t know what to say.
I’ll tell you what. Next time you want to help save the world — instead of dropping thirty dollars on that t-shirt think that for the price of that t-shirt plus tax, you can feed, educate, and provide health care for one of thousands of children in the most impoverished regions of the world.