Trump Resurrects Colonialism, Calls It 'America First Health'
The irony is thick enough to choke on: a plan described as dismantling 'neo-colonial' practices by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Undersecretary Jeremy P. Lewin, who simultaneously promise to give African nations 'access to innovative American drugs' and commodities. This isn't decolonization; it's just a different flavor of economic leverage, ensuring U.S. pharmaceutical companies get their
cut while painting it as philanthropic. Lewin's critique of USAID's 'parallel health care' (read: systems outside direct U.S. corporate control) conveniently paves the way for a new, arguably more direct, corporate-colonial model. One might wonder if this 'America First Global Health Strategy' is truly about African self-reliance or about securing new markets for Big Pharma. The focus on 'pool
procurement' for drugs and diagnostic kits, while framed as capacity building, sounds suspiciously like a guaranteed sales pipeline for U.S. manufacturers. Critics worry about corruption, but perhaps the bigger concern is the re-branding of corporate self-interest as benevolent aid, simply bypassing the old middlemen for new, more direct ones. It's not 'neo-colonial' if we say it's 'America
First,' apparently.