Posted on 04/17/2005 2:46:42 PM PDT by presidio9
Rose was raised as a good Catholic schoolgirl by her grandparents, but now the 18-year-old orphan survives by selling sex in a Ugandan slum with scant regard for the teachings of the church.
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Whatever the next pope says about condoms, she believes they are the only way to stop an AIDS epidemic that killed more than 2 million people in sub-Saharan Africa last year.
"I'd like to follow the Church's teachings, but with condoms you can stay safe," she said. "Maybe I'm already sick, but I don't think so. You have to survive and look for money."
The Catholic Church, along with Pentecostal churches, is growing fast in sub-Saharan Africa. As one of the most influential institutions on the continent the Church's stance on the fight against HIV/AIDS affects millions.
Some 25 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are already living with HIV/AIDS.
Many AIDS campaigners say the Vatican's rejection of condoms in favor of abstinence to prevent AIDS threatens to set back the fight against the disease by years, removing a vital weapon from the armory of prevention campaigns.
"The earlier the Church changes its position, the better for the fight against AIDS in the Third World," said Nwoke Anselm of AIDS Alliance Nigeria.
The condom question also confronts Catholics with a dilemma: those who defy the church hierarchy to champion condom use in the belief it will save lives run the risk of becoming pariahs within their own parishes.
SUCCESS STORY
Rose's native Uganda is often cited as an African success story in fighting AIDS, having cut HIV infection rates to around 6 percent of the population from 30 percent in the early 1990s.
Many Ugandans attribute President Yoweri Museveni's government's success to its early frankness about condoms in contrast to the silence of many African leaders, but ministers are increasingly emphasizing abstinence and fidelity.
While abstinence may sound fine in theory, activists say poverty forces many young people in Africa into selling sex just to survive, making it impossible for them to avoid intercourse.
Uganda's top Catholic, Cardinal Emmanuel Wamala, has been an outspoken critic of condoms, which he says promote immorality, and has urged youths to vow to abstain from sex before marriage.
The government says its strategy is working in a country where conservative messages resonate with the Catholic faithful, but New-York based Human Rights Watch said last month that U.S.-funded "abstinence only" programs threatened progress.
Uganda says it has long employed an A-B-C strategy -- Abstinence, Be Faithful and use Condoms -- and denies accusations it has been induced to change its emphasis to reflect religious-right values in the United States.
"Of course we realize what condoms did in the 1990s. Now we are down to around 6 percent, we feel the only way to bring down rates further is through emphasizing abstinence and fidelity," said an official at the Ministry of Health.
DENIED COMMUNION
Catholic leaders see Africa as fertile turf for expansion due to its relatively conservative values on sex, but some activists say the church is less influential than it seems.
"People don't often listen to what they are told in church," said one AIDS campaigner in Madagascar, adding that educators should target schools, the media and parents.
Some campaigners said Catholic leaders were using the church's moral authority and enormous grass-roots presence to hinder life-saving schemes.
Umati, a family planning program in Tanzania, said 22 of its AIDS educators were barred from taking Holy Communion in one district because they were promoting condoms.
In Malawi, where AIDS kills about 10 people every hour, Mark Kambalazaza, the head of one of the capital's biggest parishes, was expelled from the Church four years ago after he criticized its stance on condoms. He started his own church, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Ministry, which drew thousands.
"The Church has got its own beliefs. Our policy is that people cannot abstain," said Malawi Health Minister Heatherwick Ntaba. "They have to use a condom because of the HIV/AIDS pandemic that is claiming a lot of lives in our country."
Condoms is, after all, primarily a birth control devise. Since AIDS has increasingly spread among black populations in the Unbited States, where condoms are readily accessible, then does it not stand to reason that the main problem is the manner and frequency of sexual intercourse?
Moral Absolutes Ping.
I've read of organizations which help women (and children) escape from prostitution. They get education, medical help, a place to live, and the children are taken care of, often in orphanages. I've read about them in Thailand, and I'm sure there are other places as well.
Instead of condoms, these poor souls need to escape from the gutter. Whether it's their "fault" or not, they need help to escape and live a peaceful life. Religious organizations would be ideal to help in this way.
People just want the Catholic Church to be destroyed, that's all. The unchangeable moral absolutes it stands for make people uncomfortable.
Let me know if you want on/off this pinglist.
Catholics want Africa Activists to Back Off
"I'd like to follow the Church's teachings, but with condoms you can stay safe," she said.
Hang the fact that fornication is not exactly on the 'DO' list....
Basic contradiction alert!!
Is the Church influential, or not influential?
You are right the problem in Africa is the large number of heterosexual transmition of aids. In fact 25% of the South African army is hiv positive.
ProLife Ping!
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I'm afraid I can't remember where I heard this illustration, but it's a good one. If the holes in a condom were the size of a house window, sperm cells would be the size of a house. So no problem, right? Well, just one: The HIV virus would be the size of a baseball.
Oops.
Additional note: Don't miss the links in post 36.
Let's take this out of the realm of sex and death, and look at it for a moment.
Let's say that I looked around and saw that after 40 years of the Great Society silliness, I see that the poor are still poor despite our best efforts. So I start telling people it's OK to steal if you're very poor. Just pick somebody rich and rob them blind.
I'll bet I'd quickly become a pariah in my church, and no number of Leftist activists crying out against the mean, nasty tenets of Christianity would change that.
Plus, trying to prevent AIDS with condoms is like having seatbelts made of spaghetti.
Yes, even for Reuters, that lead is truly idiotic.
I had a lib tell me once that most terrorism (and in particular the suicide bombings by Palestinians) is caused by poverty. I responded, "Oh, that's why kids from the Dust Bowl were blowing up buses in the 1930's." He didn't have an answer for that...But then, despite the fact that this guy had a medical degree, he was dumb enough to think that Israel regulates the amount of aid that goes to Palestine.
Or better yet: Africa Activists give up fruitless condom campaigns, want Africans to stop having so much sex with strangers.
Have to agree with presidio9: Though they obviously aren't the same as the atheist set, gay men are not known for their respect for Catholic doctrine, and condom promotion didn't even really slow the AIDS epidemic down in their community. It took AZT and the cocktail to stop the deaths. IIRC transmission rate has gone down some, but that probably just means that the men involved in the most risky behaviors died during the heavy part of the epidemic.
Many libs (admittedly, those who are less-educated or educated in useless areas of study) will tell you that the European countries took all the resources during the colonial period. This is absurd, of course, but some of them believe it.
Instead of pushing condoms, why aren't the governments addressing the problems of improving their economies so that jobs will be created?
It also sounds like those who are pushing the condom idea aren't worried about the Church's teachings about anything else, why the condoms? The young women who are prostitutes might as well go ahead and have their clients use condoms, I mean, the situation is sinful already, the use of condoms isn't going to make it any worse.
It's just another stick with which to beat the Church.
Could also be because of the less than sanitary conditions in clinics and hospitals. If they're not careful about cleaning needles in between patients, AIDS could easily be spread within the heterosexual population, men, women and children, whenever they have to get a shot for anything.
Are condoms a greater health risk than the std's they don't really protect against?
It is politically correct to advocate condoms but every day the evidence increases that they do little to protect and may pose a very serious health risk. It is hard for the CDC and FDA to examine these risks as they have been so vocal in promoting condoms but could their silence lead to dire consequences. I for one having done exaustive research strongly feel so.
"...... new concerns are arising regarding allergic or other toxic reactions to various components of latex condoms such as vulcanization accelerators, latex proteins, spermicides and finishing powders."
"* Studies are needed to evaluate the best lubricants to use in the manufacture of condoms. Evidence suggests that the right quantity, type and placement of lubricant is important for condom functionality, acceptability and safety.
In addition, the added value and risk presented by spermicidal lubricants and by dry finishing powders (e.g. talc or cornstarch) should be critically examined."
"Since the late 1980s the reported incidence
of allergy to natural rubber latex has increased dramatically, as much as 12 -fold."
"Latex allergy is incurable, although the symptoms, such as itching, soreness, painful blistering, runny noses, swollen eyes, asthma symptoms and anaphylaxis can be ameliorated.
Everyone who has contact wi th natural rubber latex is potentially at risk from sensitisation.
Both patients and health care workers can be at risk from allergic reactions to natural rubber latex. Over the past decade, allergic reactions to natural
rubber latex have become a major public health concern."
" Once a person has developed latex allergy, however mild, they are “sensitised” to latex and are at risk from severe allergic reactions."
"Delayed cell-mediated reactions are the most common form of hypersensitivity reaction to natural rubber latex. These reactions are to individual chemical residues from the production process such as accelerants used in the vulcanisation process which is required to strengthen the product.
The residual chemicals may bloo on the surface of the products and can be absorbed through the skin upon contact."
"Potent Carcinogen found in Most Condoms
Recent study has discovered the presence of a very potent carcinogen in most condoms. Small amounts of this chemical are released whenever condoms are used.
Nobody knows whether this is serious yet however it is not likely to be healthy to expose the reproductive organs to cancer-causing substances on a regular basis.
This is a potentially serious issue for much of the world's population that cannot afford or access other forms of birth control. I hope further studies will follow on this soon. Could this be related to the rise in cancer in women, and men as well? "
"Talc...(on condoms)...may result in fallopian tube fibrosis with resultant infertility. Question raised by Doctors Kasper and Chandler in Journal of the American Medical Association. (JAMA) 3/15/95
-from Nutrition Health Review, Summer 1995 n73p8(1)"
"A possible tie between talcum powder and ovarian cancer, long suspected because of talc's chemical similarity to asbestos, was strongly supported last week when a study found a higher risk of the cancer among women who used feminine deodorant sprays. The study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, found that women who used talcum powder in the genital area had an increased ovarian cancer risk of 60% and women who used feminine deodorant sprays had a 90% increased risk."
-from The University of California, Berkeley Wellness Letter, April 1993 v9n7p1
"Benzene. In addition to the effect on fertility, some researchers believe overexposure to chemicals may also contribute to testicular cancers. In fact, a 2000 study concluded that there was a link between sperm abnormalities and testicular cancer.
Among the study participants, men in couples with fertility problems were more likely to develop testicular cancer. In addition, low semen concentration, poor sperm motility, and abnormal sperm morphology were all associated with increased risk for testicular cancer."
"a recent Lancet study (2002;360:971-977) found frequent use may in fact increase the risk of HIV transmission.
The head of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organizations, Don Baxter, said up to 10 percent of condoms sold in Australia include nonoxynol-9 as a lubricant. "Not a high percentage of condoms use nonoxynol-9, it's usually a particular brand, but they are fairly widely available," he said. Baxter advised all gay men to avoid using condoms with nonoxynol-9 and said AFAO would call for the product to be withdrawn from pharmacy shelves. "
"The allergens that cause reactions in individuals with spina bifida are particle bound proteins that are less able to be dissolved in water than some of the other latex proteins"
* Talc - This is found in baby powders, face powders, body powders as well as some contraceptives such as condoms. Talc is a known carcinogen and is a major cause of ovarian cancer when used in the genital area. It can be harmful if inhaled as it can lodge in the lungs, causing respiratory disorders."
Condoms contain compounds known to cause cancer and serious birth defects in substantial quantities
SOURCES. Condom Industry web site, medical publications and Beacon Pharmaceuticals.
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