I have been really busy at my real job working on a project dealing with HIV treatment and prevention. Earlier this week I spoke to a leading physician in the field. He had just returned from Africa where things are not good. A few of his statements really stuck with me."This administrations abstinence only education has set our AIDS prevention back 10 to 15 years."
"Right now in Africa there are more than 30 million orphaned children due to AIDS."
"Two weeks of the money spent on the Iraq War would pay for all the medications for every AIDS patient in the world for an entire year."
So much for a Culture of Life!
A. Bush's funding of AIDS assistance to Africa has been head and shoulders above that of his predecessors. Even Richard Gere, certainly no Bushie, acknowledged this publicly.
ReplyDeleteB. PRIVATE philanthropy by American Christians is some of the most generous in the world.
But most of the money is for abstinence only education. This simply does not work. The statistics prove it. The reality is that safe sex with condoms is the only proven way to halt the spread of the virus. Ignoring this fact by asking human beings not to have sex will never be an answer.
ReplyDeleteFor the sake of the millions of children in Africa and other developing nations we must change the current U.S. policy.
Can't we agree on that.
Are we talking Africa or are we talking the United States? In a US context I would suggest that a mix, emphasizing abstinence but educating in contraception in a way that does not glorify sex (above and beyond what popular culture is apt to do), would be optimal. In an African context, the taboos about talking about homosexuality, coupled with the lack of power women have to so much as question their husbands about their extramarital activities, are similarly important.
ReplyDeleteWe agree on both counts then - that the current policies both at home and abroad are not effective.
ReplyDeleteI think that was my point to begin with.
So please AnonCon "spread" - so to speak - this reality to your conservative readers.
I realize that I am just preaching to the chior over here.