…apparently we were.
I have been giving this topic some thought. I think the problem is that you are asking
for a lot of lifstyle change for not neccesarily a lot of benefit. Think about the biggest killer of young people in America. Its totally preventable and need never happen again. But it is such a part of our lifestyle that we will never ban the thing that causes it or even take basic steps to reduce it. I am talking about automobile accidents. We could save countless lives with just a little cultural change (say changing the licence age to 18 or 21, creating better mass transit systems, having auto accident awareness campaigns), but we arnt going to do it.
I think AIDS is pretty much the same idea here. In America AIDS is unique because it kills young people in their prime. Here, everything kills young people in their prime. So it doesnt command the same fear. Meanwhile; by asking for abstinance you are asking people to suppress the most basic natural urge. Even without a very sexual culture this is asking a lot. In the end, the degree of lifestyle change and the degree of lifestyle benefits just dont reckon right to take an abstinance based approuch.
Im in Peace Corps doing IT Education. So far I am loving it.
I agree with Even Sven, though I’ve never been to Africa. It seems like you could save more lives and certainly vastly improve the quality of life if you tacked some of the more fundamental problems of infrastructure in Africa. How many lives could be saved, how many illnesses prevented, if the population had access to consistently clean water? Decent food? I think the reason the western world is so focused on AIDS is that it’s our boogie man. We can’t think of anything worse. But like **Sven ** said, there are other diseases/conditions that kill more people faster there than HIV. We should be focusing on the infrastructure that allows cultural advancement and better health and education for everyone instead of just this one disease, (which doesn’t even sound like the main concern for actual Africans).
Should be simple, cheap, and easy, right? 