Wednesday, July 21, 2004
AIDS, Abstinence And Condom
An interesting view from Africa.
An interesting view from Africa.
Speaking authoritatively from Ugandan experience, President Museveri unapologetically and unabashedly told the delegates that abstinence had helped to bring down Ugandan AIDS infection rate from more than thirty per cent in the early 199Os to about six per cent of the country's 25 million people last year. But some of the delegates did not believe him. They called him a liar saying that he was living in a fool's paradise.
Truly, I can't understand why those delegates were trying to crucify Museveni for stating the truth about the Ugandan experience. Here is a President of a country coming out to say viva voce that abstinence has been the only effective means used in fighting AIDS in his country yet some of the condom-miss-road touts at the conference wouldn't agree with him. Who should have known better than a President of a country? What this shows is that many of the international figures whom we revere are, like the rest of humankind, stricken by their own foibles and weaknesses. Even a fool knows that condom is not the solution to AIDS prevention. But because there are miserable wretches who are only driven by the instinct to make huge profit in the condom trade will continue to hear simplistic and superficial arguments in support of condom use in the fight against AIDS. It is like the war between NAFDAC and fake drug sellers in Nigeria. The latter know that selling fake drug is immoral and illegal but they still persist in it to make quick money. So, the noise about condom is to protect the condom business. It is unfortunate that there are some heartless individuals who specialise in making profit out of the unfortunate situation of their fellow human beings.
Critics of President Bush at the conference complained that he was imposing his personal religious view- abstinence from sex until marriage-on them. No reasoning can be so warped. By agreeing to live together in a society under the umbrella of one humanity, human beings have freely accepted to abide by certain dos and don'ts as a way of promoting human civilization, dignity and value. Abstinence from sex until marriage is not the only value which the members of the human family promote. We also promote other forms of abstinence like abstinence from armed robbery, abstinence from cheating in exams, abstinence from murder, abstinence from hard drugs, abstinence from immodest dressing, abstinence from wife beating, abstinence from bribery and corruption as in the case of Nigeria etc. Now, condom traders do not find anything wrong with all these abstinence(s). But when it comes to abstinence from sex until marriage, they are ready to die in defence of immorality. Why are these people so obsessed with sex and condom?
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