July 8, 2002

11:25 AM

You're the king of a small african nation. You have an annual health budget of $15 million. Two-thirds of the people in your nation are HIV positive, and two-thirds are living below the poverty line. What do you do? Why, you buy a $31 million private jet, of course!
posted by Reggie452 (27 comments total)

It's an outrage! Can we start betting on how many of his people will die of AIDS before he makes the final payment on the thing? How about how many die before the jet pays for itself?
posted by yonderboy at 11:35 AM on July 8, 2002

It's good to be the king. Isn't that the saying?
posted by a3matrix at 11:42 AM on July 8, 2002

well you see, the jet will enable him to conduct business and arrange relief and import time aol warner content and broadband and brittney cd's and gilligan's island syndication and open nike factories that much faster, thus bringing his nation into the 21st century where aids victims die in relative affluence. he's a hero!
posted by quonsar at 11:48 AM on July 8, 2002

Four our American friends here on MeFi:
the Sun, source for this interesting story, is a tabloid paper famous for the naked girls on Page 3 and its staunchly conservative, jingoistic, borderline racist politics
posted by matteo at 11:50 AM on July 8, 2002

Oh. Off to Page 3, then, and sod the King and the plane he flew in on.
posted by yhbc at 11:53 AM on July 8, 2002

Can you post a link to page 3 for us?
Please?
posted by a3matrix at 11:55 AM on July 8, 2002

so, the jet's actually been relegated to to the back 40, where it sits in disuse being pelted with stones all day by the bat-boy and elvis?
posted by quonsar at 11:56 AM on July 8, 2002

a3matrix
My policy is, I don't post work-unsafe links on MeFi
Too Fark-ish for my admittedly difficult taste
(by the way, it's wall-to-wall boobs, nothing unusual. There's plenty on the Internet.
If you're really interested in The Sun's specific take on boobs, just go to www.thesun.co.uk and I guess that Page 3 is linked there)
posted by matteo at 12:10 PM on July 8, 2002

I don't know about you guys, but I haven't done anything to help the HIV/AIDS situation in Africa.
posted by ODiV at 12:11 PM on July 8, 2002

well, it's not like it's a brief history of the codpiece or anything like tat....
posted by y2karl at 12:12 PM on July 8, 2002

31 million pounds = $47 million
posted by rotifer at 12:15 PM on July 8, 2002

Well, at least with the jet, he can personally appeal to all the suckers in the US/UN that think that giving aid to all the poor african countries will actually make a difference.
posted by Witold at 12:18 PM on July 8, 2002

er, 'briefe', y2karl. as in "Royal Airlines will begin boarding in a briefe moment for part the first of it's non-stop flight to Mombasa..."
posted by quonsar at 12:20 PM on July 8, 2002

ding ding ding ding ding!

congratulations, witold, you're the proud winner of the 'who is the sun's target demographic' contest. you win a lifetime supply of borderline-racist-slogan tee shirts.
posted by mlang at 12:25 PM on July 8, 2002

if we read the article from the intended perspective, folks, i think you'll see that the point is not 'how terrible it is that all these people are dying from aids'; it's 'golly, mate, those jungle bunnies sure are a lot of blooming eeejits, eh?'.

(sorry, i don't do slang very well.)
posted by mlang at 12:29 PM on July 8, 2002

mlang: careful now, or Witold will run you down in his white van.

a3matrix: Google for 'Page 3' if you're that bloody desparate.
posted by riviera at 12:30 PM on July 8, 2002

Pah! So will The Sun be arguing for the British Royal Leeches Family to be coughing up to help the suffering people of the UK on the front page tomorrow?

Or maybe we're just so much more advanced than these little African nations and have eradicated AIDS, poverty, disease &c. in these islands while my back was turned?

[No doubt Dubya will be eBaying AF 1 & 2 to help out with the humanitarian efforts in the US if y'all haven't solved everything over there...]

A Penguin once said: 'The Sun? I wouldn't use it as a bog-brush matey.'
posted by i_cola at 12:38 PM on July 8, 2002

Sheesh! It's not even google-worthy. The damn link is page3.com. (T&A, not work-safe, yadda yadda.)
posted by Fofer at 1:34 PM on July 8, 2002

Apropos of nothing, isn't this the same kind that ordered all the women in his country not to have sex? He seems to be taking crazy pills.
posted by RylandDotNet at 1:50 PM on July 8, 2002

s/same kind/same king/
posted by RylandDotNet at 1:50 PM on July 8, 2002

Ah, guys - the link is also prominently featured - twice - on the main link itself. Lack of sex must be making your brains slow.
posted by yhbc at 1:51 PM on July 8, 2002

Lack of sex must be making your brains slow.

Now there's something to think about...
posted by y2karl at 2:38 PM on July 8, 2002

AIDS News from Swaziland

Of more interest to those posting here:

SWAZILAND: Teenage girls angered over five year sex ban
JOHANNESBURG, 27 September (IRIN) - Teenaged girls in Swaziland reacted with anger at the five-year ban on their sex lives this week, complaining that their boyfriends "won't wait". The ban was introduced two weeks ago as a measure to curb spread of HIV/AIDS in the kingdom.
posted by sheauga at 4:50 PM on July 8, 2002

At least they seem to get the whole sex=hiv thing.
posted by davidgentle at 5:00 PM on July 8, 2002

Was a cure for aids discovered?

I mean, would it really have done that much good to spend the money on health care? The people would have died anyway. That cash would have been about $100 per person with AIDS. There isn't really that much you can do with it.

Actualy, looking at the world fact book that country dosn't seem all that bad off, their Per capita GDP is higher then China's.
posted by delmoi at 6:51 PM on July 8, 2002

The jet actually cost about $47 million US Dollars, because it was £31 million British Pounds...ok, I'll shut up now.
posted by ncurley at 7:00 PM on July 8, 2002

finally
posted by yonderboy at 7:47 PM on July 8, 2002