For Roseanne Barr, a conspicuous consumer if there ever was one, to criticize others for consum[ing] more than their fair share is simply ridiculous. For some strange reason – needed the attention, maybe? – she lit into John Voight, then Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. She mocked Jolie’s goal to adopt children from a variety of countries (okay, fine, I think that part is a bit silly too) but added,
“… do you know that the African daughter you hold in every picture had parents who suffered and died because of the Republican party’s worldwide economic assault on Africa over the last few decades since Reagan?”
Which is where Ms. Barr crossed the line from mean and uninformed, which has been the crux of her career, into abject, willful ignorance. As the article notes, even Obama
praised President George W. Bush, a Republican, for his President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), an initiative to fight AIDS and other diseases in Africa and around the world. Bush signed a bill last month authorizing up to $48 billion to be spent under PEPFAR.
But her Bush Derangement Syndrome seems to have prevented her from learning that President Bush’s commitment to Africa certainly is not limited to fighting AIDS. President Bush has repeatedly expanded the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which is making a real difference in bringing Africa out of the third world. Africa isn’t just huts with thatched roofs, distended bellies of starving toddlers, and war. It’s got high-rises, exports tons of food to the UK every day, major cell phone business, internet cafes, tourism, and stock markets, and countries with great credit ratings. The success stories are very encouraging. Carol Pineau’s documentary, AFRICA Open for Business, is a wonderful film that shows the rest of the story in Africa.
