For what it’s worth, there’s a decent chance (between 1 in 7 and 1 in 3) that a baby born to an infected mother will be infected with HIV. According to at least one website (I know, I know), the vast majority of children with HIV received it not through “immorality,” but from their mothers.
Don’t forget IV drug users. Still transmitted that way a lot, despite everything we do.
Raping a virgin is a home remedy for AIDS in parts of Africa.
http://www.iss.co.za/pubs/asr/10No4/Perschler.html
Child prostitution is supposedly increasing.
Now, I don’t want to get sidetracked, and have my position mistaken. I am not arguing a moral position out of some sense of moral ideology, I am arguing that the moral position has pragmatic value, that it is not entirely nonsensical superstition. Certainly people get AIDS from their Mothers, through blood transfusions, through cleaning up infected blood, from being raped, etc… I am not trying to villify anyone with AIDS. I am simply pointing out that the celibacy argument has merit and isn’t of a kind with ‘Jews are responsible for the black plague.’, or ‘The CIA created AIDS to kill off Third Worlders.’, promiscuous and/or risky fluid transmission (IV drug use) otherwise known as ‘immoral behavior’, does contribute to the transmission of the virus.
I read once, in Michael Crichton’s novel The Great Train Robbery, that in early Victorian Britain, sex with a virgin was believed a remedy for syphilis (which was believed to be caused by having sex too often, the germ theory of disease being still decades in the future).
Interesting. Michael Crichton tends to do research, or at least gives the appearance of such research. I wonder how common the incidence of rape was amongst moralistic Victorians.
For that matter, i wonder how common it is among various people in Africa.
It HAS happened and it must be stopped, but I have not yet seen evidence that it is a common practice.
Well it happens often enough that people have started a movement to stop it. From my understanding the superstition is spread by bush shamans and the like.
In the story, rape was not mentioned. In those days, a syphilitic gentleman of means could buy a virgin (or a purported virgin).
It’s been a long time and I’ve forgotten. What do the Lybian people feel was the motive of 4 Bulgarian nurses and one doctor to infect 400 kids with AIDS?
“They are evil and they hate us for being good Muslims,” would suffice. How much analysis do you think the average Libyan gives?
Except the doctor was Palestinian, so probably Muslim.
Well, after Jews, evidence strongly suggests that what Muslims hate most is other Muslims.
Probably not.
And if wishes were horses, all the beggars could ride.
So what does this daydream have to do with reality?
The nurses were bribed by Mossad. The doctor was bribed with money and the promise of a European wife - can’t recall what nationality, but it was either Swiss or Bulgarian. Maybe it was a Swiss bank account and a Bulgarian wife.
(I did a presentation on this for one of my classes last quarter.)
And in other news…
It was 5 nurses. Apart from that, there’s something odious about the way you phrased your question.
Libya is governed by murderous criminals and thugs.
Everything published in that dysfunctional polity reflects the opinions of the criminals in charge.
The opinions of the Libyan people are shaped by the official government line and of that portion of the population that is literate.
Most Libyan people do not have the capacity to conduct independant research and form their own opinions. Nor do they have any ability to influence the criminals in charge of the country.
Yeah, but those criminals and thugs are working for a closer relationship with Europe now and the above cited new contracts are showing their progress. Then again, it’s a great way to hold hostages without international outrage.
I didn’t necessarily ask what their justifiable belief was, just what the word on the street is.