News Articles Internet Articles (2015)
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Chirac noted that the money could be raised by one of several methodsincluding a tax on international financial transactions; a special levy on currency trades, a tax on the fuels used by airlines for international flights; or by taxing the fuels used by sea-going vessels that travel the international waterways of the world. Not specifically mentioned by Chiracbut the method of taxation that would most likely be implemented once the right to tax is approved would be a one-day tax on the wages of the workers in the wealthy nations, assessed and collected by that nation's government, and surrendered to the UN with the funds that nation normally contributes to the upkeep on the UN. Chirac's proposal came at the moment that the World Heath Organization is attempting introduce an antiretroviral therapy [ARV] program. (Antiretroviral drug therapy inhibit the replication of HIV by slowing the process down and delaying the advent of each new phase of the disease. It is not a cure.) While Sheehy's discovery is improving the quality of life of the AIDS patient it does not, as yet,offer either a cure or a vaccine that will prevent the disease. None of the AIDS drugs developed to date will prevent or cure AIDS. Nor will they keep the HIV-positive patient from dying. The new generation of AIDS-fighting drugs simply prolong the life of the infected person by slowing down the progression of the disease. But everyone who becomes HIV-positive will ultimately get full-blown AIDSand everyone who gets AIDS will ultimately die a horrible death as a result of itwhether they succumb to the disease itself or die from one of the immune deficiency diseases that develop as a direct result of AIDS.
British Prime
Minister Tony Blair, who is fighting an uphill battle
to keep his Labour Party majority in the Parliament and, at
the same time, to boost his own popularity within the Labour
Party and among the British citizens, was asked a similar
question. Blair responded that he had not studied
Chirac's proposal, but felt it was necessary to leave
all of the options on the table. The simple truth is,
England, France and Germany, like the United States, are suffering
tremendously from the affects of globalization. Adding a $10
billion global taxthat will be assessed only on the
wealthiest 22 nationsto fight AIDS on top of another
proposed increase in the levies paid by the wealthiest nations
that will amount to over $125 billion more per year by the
end of this decade goes beyond the pale. Particularly since
the economies of the developed nations are rapidly shrinking
as the jobs drain continues. Most of the politicians present were skeptical that Chirac would be able to generate enough support from the international community to push such an unpopularand illegaltax through. One of those who was skeptical Chirac's idea would get off the ground was Bill Clinton, since he knows first hand the reaction of the American people to a UN tax since most Americans not only want the United States out of the UN, they want the UN out of the United States. (Which is one reason the UN hierarchy is working to change the rule that currently disallows a current or former national leaders from serving as UN leader. Clinton is viewed by the socialist European Union as a very popular two-term American president whose election as head of the UN would, they believe, do much to make the American people believe the UN really was an American institution created by FDR and Winston Churchill when in fact it is the evil stepchild of the League of Nations, conceived by the fornication of European and American bankers who climbed into bed with Woodrow Wilson.
Ian Vasquez, Director of Global Economic Liberty at the libertarian Washington, DC think tank Cato Institute agreed with Bill Clinton. "I think [Chirac's] proposed tax] is reckless," he said. "International organizations already have a problem with accountability, and giving them a constant stream of revenue would make them less accountable than they already are. It seems like [Chirac] is just creating headlines for himself." It could very well be that, with the rules relaxed about current or former leaders serving as Secretary-general of the UN, Chirac may be putting himself up as an alternative to Clinton. G-8 leaders are considering several proposals to help Africa, which is the most AIDS-infected continent in the world. Sub-Sahara Africa is the poorest region in the world, with 70% of its population living on less than $2 a day. While the World Health Organization [WHO] projects that one million people in that region will die from malaria this year, they also estimate that well over two million will die from AIDS. That region received $26 billion in net aid in 2003 (the last year with complete figures). Over half of that money $16.25 billioncame from the United States. Aid agencies have been imploring the United States (which gives less of its GNP in relief aid than any other industrial nations) to double its spendingparticularly in Africa, and specifically to fight AIDS. But Chirac's radical rethinking of AIDS research, treatment and education spending is meeting strong opposition in the United States and the other industrial nations that are expected, by the UN and WHO, to shoulder 100% of the cost. The UN insists the additional funds are needed since they are now treating 75% more people than they did in 2003and 700 thousand patients in Africa are now getting antiretroviral therapy, up from 440 thousand six months ago. But the furor that has ignited even more negative feelings for the UN in the United States is not the request from WHO for more money, but the Chirac proposal that the UN simply take the money by imposing an international tax on the wealthiest nations.
On January 16,
1996 the mainstream media announced that the United Nations
was "contemplating" a global surcharge on international
air travel to support its sagging coffers. Instead of demanding
to know where the UN gained its authority to tax American
travelers and American airline companies, Where did that authority come from? Certainly not from its charter. The UN Charter was very specific in this area. Funding for the UN was to come exclusively from voluntary contributions from the member nations. That, by the way, was pretty much how the US government was funded under the Articles of Confederation. That changed with the ratification of the Constitution of the United Statesour second governing charter. In that "charter," the federal government of the United States was created subservient to the State governmentsjust as the UN was created subservient to the nation-states that created it. The parallel is unmistakable simply because the UNand the League of Nations before itwere deliberately created from that model.
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