So, I had this whole LONG blog that I was writing on the Novartis case. To make a long story short (since I already made the blog too dang long, anyway), Novartis had challenged the Indian Government's patent laws (which were agreed upon by the international community, including pharmaceutical companies, in 2001 with the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement and Public Health).
If Novartis had won it's case, it could have had a devastating effect on the generic drug market, which would be severly detrimental to AIDS ravaged countries that depend on less-expensive generic medications to help curb the rising death tolls from AIDS.
GOOD NEWS... EXCEPT THAT I'M A PERFECTIONIST
Today, I got an e-mail today from one of my activist groups that let me know the Indian Government had dismissed Novartis's case, and that Novartis stated that they did not plan to appeal the decision. This is tremendously exciting news for the millions of people in developing nations that depend on the generic antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) to extend their lives.
I guess my only anger now is directed at myself. I took so dang long writing up an essay on the subject that I never got around to posting it, which defeats the whole purpose of writing an essay to gain public awareness. I mean, the thing is now about seven pages long, and it's not even finished. That's just too dang much talking.
I wish I could have done more to help in this cause, but I couldn't even get a frickin' BLOG out to my friends so as to garner more attention to this issue because of my obsession with perfect grammar, spelling, and (most importantly) LOGIC. I didn't want anyone to come back at me arguing for Novartis. I wanted my argument to be rock solid on the first try, answering all counterarguments before they could even leave the minds of the people who thought them.
But, then I thought about the whole situation... the "big picture". Really this is a HUGE victory for so many millions of people. These generic drugs don't just save lives of the people with diseases like AIDS. In places like sub-Saharan Africa that has 24.5 million people infected with AIDS and at least 12 million orphans whose parents died from AIDS related diseases, an entire generation is being affected by having to grow up without their biological parents. And, while many Africans extend extreme generosity in taking in several members of their extended family when their parents pass, millions of children are having to grow up in orphanages.
Now, their parents can survive and raise them into their adulthood, giving the children a much better chance of success in their future, as well as giving their parents a much more peaceful passing knowing that they will not be abandoning their children.
True, I worried so much about making "the perfect" argument that I didn't gather more awareness and support for this cause via friends and random strangers that read my blog. That's a mistake I don't want to repeat. It's happened before, but this was the last straw for me.
CHANGES
You see, in the past few months, I've seen some serious changes in the greater American public, particularly my generation. We are tired of the status quo. We not only recognize that we are being lied to (by our government, by the mainstream media, by corportate America, etc.), but we're actually starting to DO something about it. And, even those who haven't actively started doing something about it are at least getting so fed up with the way things are that they are looking for ways to make this world better.
In the past few months, I've seen some major victories occur at the hands of some of my grassroots activism groups:
- The Novartis Case Dismissed. (08/07)
- Starbucks consenting to the demands of the Ethopian farmers after boycotts were formed. (06/07)
- The Clean Energy Bill being passed in the US House of Representatives after several months of back-and-forth arguing. (08/07)
- The UN Security Council announced that it will deploy 26,000 peacekeepers and police to from a full hybrid UN-African Union mission in Darfur by the end of 2007. (08/07)
Still, with all of these wonderful movements forward, there is always work to be done. I know I personally get overwhelmed by just how much evil and wrongdoing is occuring in our world. Its sheer magnitude can become so terrible that often we either try to ignore everything out of hopelessness, or we try to take on everything at once, which eventually leads to ignoring the millions of problems because of hopelessness.
JUST BLOG, BITCH!
I've never been skilled in the art of brevity. I never had a problem with the 25+ page essays. The ones I loathed were the one page summaries I had to do on a Shakespearean play. (For the record, Dr. Rocklin, I'm so glad you made me do those... even though they haunt my every waking hour.)
But, from now on, I'd like to definitely make the bulk of my blogging about stupid things that either amuse me, or piss me off... thereby allowing me to be a catty bitch, which in turn also amuses me.
HOWEVER, when I get notice of a really important issue next time, I'm not going to worry about making the perfect argument. If you have a problem with any of the views I have, or any of the stances I take on issues, by all means let me know about it. I'll be more than happy to explain myself.
If you want to nit pick at my grammar and/or spelling, just be aware that 99.9% of the blogs are written when I shouldn't be blogging, thus making for an often rushed blog that I don't always get to proofread before I hit the "Publish Post". I promise I'll go through and correct things on any new blog later. Believe me -- I hate having spelling and grammatical errors in my writing far more than you hate having to read them.
Are we cool, then?
Woo hoo! And, on that note, here's a fabulous graphic that I recently found that amuses me greatly.
=) And, all was right with the world...
Cheers,
E
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