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| Africa: Subsaharan |
| Aids ’killing Africa’s |
| 2004-06-21 |
| Aids is the leading cause of death in military and police forces in Africa, according to research. A study carried out by scientists in Nigeria says Aids could now be responsible for more than half the deaths in these services. The researchers interviewed about 500 Nigerian naval officers. Almost a third of those interviewed admitted having had sex with prostitutes, with nearly a half saying they did not use a condom. Many knew how HIV was transmitted, but more than 50% thought a cure for Aids was already available. The research was published in the Biomedcentral Public Health Journal. Lifestyle link In further work the scientists also reviewed much of the available data on HIV in the military. According to the scientists, this type of lifestyle - being posted away from partners for long periods of time - encourages soldiers to have sex elsewhere and has lead to HIV being a major problem in many African countries. Discussions are already under way between naval authorities and doctors to address the problem. Tackling the issue in the military, the authors say, is one of the most realistic ways of controlling the spread of HIV across Nigeria. The country has one of the world’s highest numbers of people living with the Aids virus, according to Nigeria’s health minister. Eyitayo Lambo has said that some 2.3m Nigerians had already died from Aids, while 3.8m were HIV positive. Only South Africa and India have more people infected with HIV. Does this article strike anyone else as not a little disingenuous? Why is there no mention of mass rape being a common practice among African military men? Gang rape would certainly vector HIV more quickly than even an active prostitute could on her best night. I suppose it would be culturally insensitive of me to suggest such a thing or expect there to be any outcry and condemnation regarding it. Can anybody tell that I’m just dripping with sympathy for all these uniformed thugs who have acquired themselves a one-way ticket to Hell? If only they were unable to further transmit this plague, their punishment would be ultimately fitting. Sadly, there exists the horrific misconception that sex with a virgin will cure HIV. There also exists a distorted belief in some Asian and African countries that having sex with a virgin will cure HIV. (These notions are unfounded and false. In fact, the average rate for HIV infected children rescued from brothels is 50 percent, and some rates are as high as 90 percent.) One can only dread to think of how many more child rapes will result from all these soldiers being diagnosed as HIV positive. Again, no mention of such "culturally insensitive" information like this which might lessen any sympathy for what has to be some of the most brutally criminal armies in the world. At some point this sort of biased reporting crosses the line and begins facilitating the crimes they fail to document accurately. |
| Posted by:Zenster |
| #10 People: Ahem, there is no polite way to say this but the life span of the average adult in many portions of Africa is not really all that high to begin with. How can you be scared of a disease which will kill you in 12-15 years (Africans are generally tougher than we are) when you don't figure you're going to live more than another six anyhow? You add to that fact things like the government of Zimbabwe passing out pamplets which tell their population that AIDS is a myth the white man cooked up.... |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2004-06-21 6:50:13 PM |
| #9 And we might as well face it; a large fraction of Americans are content with tabloid-journalism. This is one of the most damning aspects of modern American culture. That people even read rags like The Inquirer and The Star, much less actually believe them is a searing indictment of our nation's educational system. ... except that it leads to exposure of innocent little girls to rape and HIV Thank you, Frank G, for making sure that compassion wasn't lost amongst the recriminations. My deeply cynical attitude about African politics has led me think that AIDS may almost be necessary to eradicate the viciously chauvinist culture of male privilege that continues to plague that continent. The corrupt and often tribal mentality that drives so much of their genocide and abuse must be stopped somehow and it looks like only an epidemic will achieve such an end. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-06-21 3:56:24 PM |
| #8 except that it leads to exposure of innocent little girls to rape and HIV Someone should really gather together those who want to be protected from harm into a giant camp and gaurd it with a militia. I'm sure they're plenty of decent men, who if armed right, would defend the camp to the death. Not to mention teaching the women to fight back would help. Of course, all this is just a dream for me. It would take years of planning, Government approval, supplies, ect that would have to be diverted from elsewhere, like the UN programs. And that will never happen. |
| Posted by: Charles 2004-06-21 2:39:34 PM |
| #7 You dont get it. Mass Rape, Gang-rape, murder, etc... are all perfectly ok in the eyes of the BBC/CNN/NBC/CBS/ABC/etc.... as long as it is being comitted by Muslims. I guess that's their version of tolerance. |
| Posted by: eLarson 2004-06-21 2:17:29 PM |
| #6 except that it leads to exposure of innocent little girls to rape and HIV |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-06-21 2:16:04 PM |
| #5 ...misconception that sex with a virgin will cure HIV --- natural selection at work. |
| Posted by: virginian 2004-06-21 2:15:04 PM |
| #4 Nah. Pretend you're a reporter. Where do you want to be stationed? London or Freetown? Right. Instant news bias. And we might as well face it; a large fraction of Americans are content with tabloid-journalism. Some of us want more; so we go to places like Rantburg or roundups of Liberian news reports to find things that not even the BBC bothers to notice. (And the BBC, for all its biases, provides an order of magnitude more Africa news than my local newspaper.) Does racism play a role in reporting? Maybe not, but the value of an overseas story does seem to correlate with the race of the participants. You can explain it in terms of connections instead or racism. Most of us have more connections to people and events in richer countries; so stories from those countries will get more audience bang for the buck (unless there's lots of blood involved). But back to the story at hand: armies are proving to be very effective at spreading AIDS, whatever else they do. There are several kinds of armies, of course. I suspect gang rape is more common in the militias and fighting units, and stealing women to bring along for cooking and sex. The garrison troops seem more likely to use prostitutes and pick up a new woman for cooking and sex at each redeployment--less likely to go in for rape. I don't have hard numbers, but that's the impression I get from reports. |
| Posted by: James 2004-06-21 2:14:58 PM |
| #3 I think it's quite clear that BushHitlerChaneyHalliburonRightWingFoxMediaCorporateWhores already have the cure for AIDS and are keeping it from Africans because they have brown skin and everyone knows that blah blah blah blah blah... /LLL |
| Posted by: Chris W. 2004-06-21 12:36:50 PM |
| #2 It isn't all Muslims: see Liberia and Sierra Leone. And the networks seem to offer a "tut-tut, but what do you expect," so long as the perps and victims are brown or black. I guess that kind of news doesn't sell enough soap. |
| Posted by: James 2004-06-21 12:34:23 PM |
| #1 You dont get it. Mass Rape, Gang-rape, murder, etc... are all perfectly ok in the eyes of the BBC/CNN/NBC/CBS/ABC/etc.... as long as it is being comitted by Muslims. Just look at what they are reporting.... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-06-21 11:53:04 AM |