"Joshua leant forward, raising his voice over the blaring music: 'Myself, when I finish drinking I just go for any girl and have sex with her. I do flesh to flesh. There is no reason of using a condom once I am HIV. I'm dying.'"
Here's an illuminating article about the AIDS crisis in Africa. What took me most aback was learning of the age at which some Africans become sexually active, from the age of 5, 6 or 7 years old:
"'The majority of poor people tend to live in single rooms and it is very difficult to have privacy,' he told The Observer. 'We [would] see elder members of the family when they were having sex. I grew up in that setting.'
"Samura said that many of the youngsters would copy their parents. 'I was hooked on the game of practising what I saw,' he said. 'We used to call the game Mum and Dad. I started having sex when I was seven.'"
Full article at
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1509754,00.html
Aphra
-- Modified on 6/20/2005 6:44:19 AM
It is very hard to visualize children watching their parents have sex. Obviously they will copy the behavior that appears to be appropriate.
Something else has bothered me for a long time. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I understand that the African continent is one of the growth areas of the Catholic church, and that it will be a long time before the Catholic church embraces the use of condoms. The combination of those two facts does not bode well for this crisis.
"Catholic bishops from southern Africa on Monday condemned the use of condoms to fight AIDS, saying their use is immoral and dangerous.
The Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference wrapped up a seven-day meeting by denouncing the use of condoms, which they said destroy moral fibre and encourage casual sex. "The Bishops regard the widespread and indiscriminate promotion of condoms as an immoral and misguided weapon in our battle against HIV-AIDS," the conference said in a statement issued after talks in the South African capital Pretoria."
Scary stuff, indeed.
Morgan
people that don't play the game would stop trying to make the rules
Actually, this also made me think that, historically, most people lived cheek by jowl and had precious little privacy until comparatively recently. This was highlighted in a recent TV programme I saw which was a reconstruction of a settlement for the likes of the Pilgrim Fathers, but this goes back many centuries. A large family of several generations, plus a labourer or servant or two, all living under the one roof in a couple of rooms. How on earth did they manage?
As far as the Catholic Church and the issue of condoms is concerned, yes, you are right about that too. Compounded by this is, I think, the drive within the US administration in favour of the concept of abstinence rather than the use of condoms. I don't have an available link, but I read an article recently which touched on this - it was stated to be affecting the US's policy on aid to Africa.
Aphra