HEY, Buy Me A Rubber!!!

[Psycho4Bud]

LOL, touche.

Okay, so regarding the topic...

I think that if America (led by the Bush Administration), would like to appear as the world's one and only superpower, defender of freedom and democracy, destroyer of tyranny, communism, fascism and despotism, and as the most financially, economically, morally and militarily dominant country in the world, well, then, I think it can afford to send some condoms over to a poor country full of dying people.

Putting it that way almost gets me to send a box of Trojans myself. But come on, really, is the U.S. the only rubber manufacturer in the world? There's going to come a time when the well runs dry. With a debt of over 7 trillion and a GNP of 11 trillion we're getting close!!

[Psycho4Bud]

Yeah, but that's if, and only if, W. realizes that teaching abstinence is a complete waste of time. Like it's working so well over here...

Politicians have a hard enough time keeping their dicks in their pants. How should they expect someone else should? I'm with ya, why teach abstinence, teach safe sex.

[Breukelen advocaat]

http://aids.about.com/cs/aidsfactsheets/a/africa.htm

The news is sobering. In fact it is down right frightening. A new report from the United Nations says that AIDS will kill half of all 15 year olds in Zimbabwe, Botswana, and South Africa if something is not done soon. The report goes on to say that about 24 million people in Sub-Sahara Africa are living with HIV. So why is the epidemic raging out of control in Africa and other undeveloped countries? Several factors are contributing to this tragedy.

����To combat this lack of funds, the United Nations is urging developed countries to fund the war on HIV. Experts place the cost of containing the epidemic to be approximately $4 billion.*


Cultural Differences
A big barrier to containing the HIV virus is cultural differences that make fighting the disease all that much more difficult. In some African populations, multiple sexual partners is expected as part of cultural expression. This increases the risk of transmission because of the shear number of sexual contacts, most of them between parties who are unaware they are infected.

Complacency
In Africa alone, more than 11 million people have died as a result of AIDS. Yet, South African President Thabo Mbeki denounces HIV as the cause of AIDS, saying that nothing has been proven that links the two. Instead, Mbeki is representative of a growing number of people that feel HIV drugs themselves may be the cause of AIDS. This stance has made it more difficult to educate the general population on the importance of medicines in fighting HIV and AIDS.
Oddly enough, the success of HIV medications is also contributing in a small part to the African epidemic. Complacency has led to a rise in unprotected sex, both heterosexual and among gay men. People have seen the success of medications and feel that if infected, a few pills is not a large price to pay for spontaneity. This state of mind can and will have huge ramifications.
So the epidemic rages on. Some experts expect two thirds of the Sub-Sahara population will eventually be wiped out by AIDS. A sobering thought indeed. While there have been a few successes in the region, AIDS continues it's devastating attack on a population, a culture, a people. Changes have to be made soon...while there is still time

*Hey Bud, got a spare 4 billion?

[GHoSToKeR]

Putting it that way almost gets me to send a box of Trojans myself.

Wow. I actually got somebody to think about something from a slightly different point of view for a second. My work is done.

I'm going to be honest with you, I don't know enough about this subject to have much of an opinion.. I could read up on it, but alas, I am too stoned (listening to Dark Side of the Moon.. so happy.. lol). I agree with you that it shouldn't just be America being blamed for this.. any country that isn't helping should be blamed. It's a disgrase that with all these modern resources we are so proud of we still have things such as famine and AIDs epidemics going on. No one individual or even one country can be blamed.. the whole 'civilised' words is to blame for not doing enough about it.

F L E S H, the sad thing is that there are alot of people who will never realise that teaching abstinence is pointless. They're the same people who will never legalise Cannabis.

[Mojavpa]

Putting it that way almost gets me to send a box of Trojans myself. But come on, really, is the U.S. the only rubber manufacturer in the world? There's going to come a time when the well runs dry. With a debt of over 7 trillion and a GNP of 11 trillion we're getting close!!

Maybe if we didnt spend billions occupying Iraq then we could have allocated some of that the money to deal with real problems, like the AIDS crisis.

[Breukelen advocaat]

Maybe if we didnt spend billions occupying Iraq then we could have allocated some of that the money to deal with real problems, like the AIDS crisis.

Why can't Africa build their own goddamn factory that manufactures rubbers? Why are "we" supposed to fund everything? Is it THAT hard to do, especially in a country that has a corner of the market of the raw materials? I am sure that we could send some advisors to show them how to do it. The future of many societies in Africa depends on their willingness to help themselves.

The areas in the U.S. that were worst hut by the Hurricane are our biggest "crisis" right now.

[bhallg2k]

Why can't Africa build their own goddamn factory that manufactures rubbers? Why are "we" supposed to fund everything? Is it THAT hard to do, especially in a country that has a corner of the market of the raw materials? I am sure that we could send some advisors to show them how to do it. The future of many societies in Africa depends on their willingness to help themselves.

The areas in the U.S. that were worst hut by the Hurricane are our biggest "crisis" right now.

While everyone sympathizes with the plight of those who were affected by the hurricane, most Africans live their lives on a daily basis in conditions that are immeasurably worse.

The fact of the matter is that without serious outside help, only a handful of countries in Africa are in a position to truly help themselves. The deck really is stacked against them.

[Breukelen advocaat]

While everyone sympathizes with the plight of those who were affected by the hurricane, most Africans live their lives on a daily basis in conditions that are immeasurably worse.

The fact of the matter is that without serious outside help, only a handful of countries in Africa are in a position to truly help themselves. The deck really is stacked against them.

We have to take care of our own first, and we now have the worst national disaster in our nation's history.

We give plenty of aid. This is an extremly inappropriate time to talk about giving condoms to make sure that they can safely have as many sexual partners as they want in Africa because multiple sexual partnerships is part of their "culture". If their leaders are going to tell them that there is no relationship between AIDS and HIV, not use some of their rubber to make condoms, refuse to start digging up and selling some oil, etc., then there's nothing we can do. We're wasting our time and money. Just accept the fact that we can't change the world.

As the old saying goes, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink".

[Nicoli]

U.N. Official Faults U.S. AIDS Policy

He said the AIDS program in Uganda has three main components: abstinence, faithfulness to a sexual partner and condom use.

A shortage of condoms in Uganda has developed because both the government of the east African country and its primary donor for HIV prevention, the United States, have allowed condom supplies to dwindle. At the same time, they have allocated an increasing proportion of funding for HIV programs to religious groups that oppose condom use, said a report by the Center for Health and Gender Equity.
http://www.leadingthecharge.com/stor...s-0065558.html

Now let me get this straight. Out of all the countries of the United Nations it's up to Uncle Sam to provide Uganda with free rubbers? Since when?
Damn, I fuck too, how bout giving out some of that shit to me....hell, I PAY TAXES!!!

Next damn thing will be that we aren't "humane" enough cause the damn things weren't ribbed for her pleasure.
BWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

If we produced rubbers just for Africa there'd probably still be a shortage. What Africa needs is a decent re-usable condom. I mean I am sorry but here in America we don't have the infrastructure to support all that fucking.

[GHoSToKeR]

We have to take care of our own first

Ah ha! Here lies the problem! You've summed up the whole problem in one small, compact little sentence! Well done! Give yourself a cookie!

The moment people stop thinking like that is the moment humanity really starts to help itself. I understand why you think we have to "take care of our own" first.. you've been indoctrined to think like that from the moment you could watch TV. But, and excuse my hippyness for a second, don't you think that that ideology could be inclusive of the whole human race? I could use the same sentence, but I would be meaning to help the whole human race before worrying about going in to space, building a big military, etc.. We spend so much time worrying about trivial things that we never really help "our own", just the people around us. Why are Americans more important than Africans? If you can answer that with an honest, thoughtful response then i'll be astounded.