Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Was the Pope right about AIDS in Africa?

A Facebook friend linked to an article in Il Sussidario titled: as a liberal, I say the Pope is right.
Dr. Green, the above-mentioned liberal, explains that condom use encourages more risky behaviour. He has the background to know what he is talking about: Dr. Edward Green is Director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard School of Public Health and Center for Population and Development Studies. He is a medical anthropologist with 30 years of experience in developing countries and in the fight against AIDS.

I wish I had commented earlier because I suspected this might be the case - but now no one will believe I was so insightful.

I thought the Pope might be right about condom use increasing the spread of AIDS because of reports of using 'protection' in other areas causing increased risky behaviour.

Hockey and football players are known to hit harder now that they have more and better armour. In the book,
Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us), by Vanderbilt (which I will get to reviewing some day), the same problem with safety features in cars. Anti-lock brakes allow people to go faster around corners, so they do, rather than maintaining the same speed and having fewer accidents.

Green also points out that condom use, in Africa, is often reserved exclusively for casual sex; unprotected sex with a spouse is still the norm.

I am not a fan of the Pope and I am not convinced that he is right, but I can see that he might be.

I can't resist; highlight below for the inevitable off-colour response:
The Pope should be knowledgeable on the subject; the Church has worked to cover up the results of illicit sex for years.

3 comments:

Daniel Costello said...

Brian,

Thank God I'm not a Muslim and that you are not being critical of Mohammed. You are hitting the poor old Pope below the belt.

kwandongbrian said...

A little 'fatwa envy', Daniel?

Daniel Costello said...

Fatwa? My specialty is Sloth. Let me introduce you to my family of Korean martyr Saints?

www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=4774