Posted on 09/08/2008 5:49:29 PM PDT by GodGunsGuts
Adding Insult to Injury: Africa, AIDS, and Victim-Blaming
By Chuck Colson
9/5/2008
Approximately 30 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are thought to be infected with the HIV virus. Unlike the West, from the start, HIV/AIDS in Africa has ravaged the non-drug-using heterosexual population. Let me put it this way: People whose Western counterparts are not at risk for HIV/AIDS have been the epidemic’s principal victims in Africa. Why?
This has prompted many people to blame the victims in ways that played on the worst racial stereotypes and prejudices: Researchers and experts argued that “Africans were simply incapable of being anything but promiscuous where sex was concerned.”
They were wrong: The AIDS epidemic in Africa was not because of a unique African promiscuity. In some ways, it is the product of efforts to reduce the number of Africans.
In his book Population Control: Real Costs, Illusory Benefits, Steven Mosher tells readers about the work of researchers David Gisselquist and Stephen Potterat. Prior to their work, it had been assumed that the AIDS epidemic had been spread by heterosexual sex.
Assumed because there was little evidence that this was the case. But, as Mosher points out, it was an assumption that suited the needs of various influential parties: most obviously, AIDS activists.
Another such group was population controllers who believed that Africa was “overpopulated.” A heterosexually spread epidemic would allow them to flood the continent with condoms. While Africans might not have used them for birth control, surely they would use them to prevent the spread of a potentially lethal virus!
Gisselquist and Potterat put the heterosexual transmission assumption to the test and found it wanting. Their peer-reviewed analysis of 22 studies found that instead of 90 percent of African AIDS cases being the result of sexual transmission, as was assumed, the real number was 25 to 35 percent. By way of comparison, the U.S. percentage is well over 50.
According to the researchers, the evidence suggested a “large majority of HIV infections in non-promiscuous adults.” Far from being the victims of their own promiscuity, half of all African AIDS victims were involved in monogamous relationships.
So, if promiscuity is not driving the epidemic in Africa, what is? Substandard medical care—specifically, dirty needles. Almost uniquely, in Africa the more “health care” a person receives, the greater her chances of being infected.
That is because the sanitary conditions we take for granted do not exist in poor African countries. There, syringes and surgical instruments are often re-used without proper sterilization. The needles used to administer vaccine can also transmit AIDS.
It is not only vaccination. The World Health Organization has acknowledged that needles used to administer contraceptives like Depo-Provera are often re-used. Their likely connection to the spread of HIV was tacitly confirmed by their replacement in 2002 by needles that could be used only once.
While it is impossible to know how many women were infected this way, it is clear that population-control efforts, inadvertently maybe, contributed to the spread of the virus in Africa.
But what was not inadvertent was the libeling of an entire continent by outsiders with agendas. People who did or should have known the truth went along with a lie, adding insult to a most grievous injury.
This is part two in a three-part series.
All the best--GGG
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If you agree that the following needs to be exposed and investigated, please consider joining the RETHINKING AIDS PING LIST. AIDS is the biggest public health scam in medical history. Like global warming, AIDS is being used to push a powerful leftist political agenda. For over two decades the Public Health Establishment has used your tax dollars and the full power of the federal government to wage a massive propaganda (and intimidation) campaign designed to: (A) prevent the American public from hearing the scientific evidence that suggests HIV may not cause AIDS Every single point above can be documented on my profile page. If you would like to be added to the RETHINKING AIDS PING LIST drop me a FReepmail. |
Gay sex and intravenous drug use or having sex with a homosexual or intravenous drug user accounts for over 95% of all new HIV infections.
The whole idea that African HIV was spread by heterosexuals has always seemed like an obvious fraud.
Did you read the article?
“This has prompted many people to blame the victims in ways that played on the worst racial stereotypes and prejudices: Researchers and experts argued that “Africans were simply incapable of being anything but promiscuous where sex was concerned.”
They were wrong: The AIDS epidemic in Africa was not because of a unique African promiscuity. In some ways, it is the product of efforts to reduce the number of Africans.
In his book Population Control: Real Costs, Illusory Benefits, Steven Mosher tells readers about the work of researchers David Gisselquist and Stephen Potterat. Prior to their work, it had been assumed that the AIDS epidemic had been spread by heterosexual sex.
Assumed because there was little evidence that this was the case. But, as Mosher points out, it was an assumption that suited the needs of various influential parties: most obviously, AIDS activists.
Another such group was population controllers who believed that Africa was “overpopulated.” A heterosexually spread epidemic would allow them to flood the continent with condoms. While Africans might not have used them for birth control, surely they would use them to prevent the spread of a potentially lethal virus!
Gisselquist and Potterat put the heterosexual transmission assumption to the test and found it wanting. Their peer-reviewed analysis of 22 studies found that instead of 90 percent of African AIDS cases being the result of sexual transmission, as was assumed, the real number was 25 to 35 percent. By way of comparison, the U.S. percentage is well over 50.”
I’d say something smells rotten in Africa, but the smell is emanating from Western AIDS ACTIVISTS.
You are a perfect candidate for the Rethinking AIDS ping list. Check out my profile page, and if you agree that what you find there needs to be EXPOSED and INVESTIGATED, drop me a FReepmail, and I’ll add you to the list.
All the best—GGG
We had a priest who was a missionary in Africa. Every Christmas, Easter and any other time he could come up with he put out a list of items to send there.
He said that the small rural hospital he worked at rarely had soap for the doctor to wash their hands so they just rinsed them with water.
The "helper gene" discovery is the only thing that's important ~ it means that vectors thought to be impossible, are actually quite probable in Africa.
Whereas it might take a million viral bodies to successfully implement a non-nilotic person, it might take as little as 1 viral body to do the job in a person of the groups with the gene.
Wouldn't matter what their behavior was, how needles are handled, etc. Just means that they're going to get AIDS and nothing can be done about it.
The population reduction fanatics will be satisfied with the outcome. Then the Chinese can recolonize Africa.
This AIDS scam is a great illustration of the corrupting influence of the politics of $$$. AIDS is 25 different diseases. And CDC now says “HIV causes *a mahority* of AIDS cases.” Duesberg at Cal has the science...
Not to mention all of the other diseases that could have been prevented with the soap and syringes.
Seems like this is a classic example of why conservatives should not abandon common sense in order to avoid being called "uncaring" by the libs.
The NGO's/AIDS activists on the ground in Africa had to have known about the needle situation. As you said, your missionary friend was well aware of the sanitation issues, it's inconceivable that other people could have been unaware.
You are absolutely right. Although, I think their time is about up, as more and more people catch on to their fradulant “science.” But expect their alarmism to reach a fever pitch before they finally realize that each new alarmist broadside produces ever diminishing returns. Hopefully, conservatives will take the lead on exposing the AIDS scandal before the leftist public health movement has a chance steer this explosive story down the memory hole.
Thanks. Great screenname! It’s why they fear Sarah...
Thought you two might be interested in this story about the “other” big scientific scam of the century.
All the best—GGG
"AIDS" deaths in Africa have, of course, been greatly exaggerated. This is because there is no money to be gotten from western nations when someone dies of dehydration from diarrhea, but you can get funds if someone dies of AIDS. Also, HIV testing is not regularly done on people in Africa, so anyone who dies from symptoms that are at all consistent with AIDS will often be considered an AIDS death.
The big one is the "AIDS is not a gay disease" myth. I agree with you completely on that one. HIV clearly doesn't spread easily from woman to man; therefore, men who don't use intravenous drugs or have sex with men have almost no chance of getting HIV. Women can get HIV from infected men, but they have a hard time passing it on. So, heterosexuals can not cause an AIDS epidemic no matter there level of promiscuity. (NBA hall of famer Dr. J. tried to make this exact point many years ago after Magic Johnson announced he was HIV positive. Dr. J. claimed to have had sex with 10,000 women. Many people missed the point Dr. J. was making, he could have made it more clear by saying, "I had sex with 10,000 women and zero men."
Amen to that! If you want to help blow the lid off the AIDS scandal, give my profile page a once-through, and if you agree, I’d be honored to add you to the Rethinking AIDS ping list.
All the best—GGG
There are two big predictors of HIV in the US:
1) Population density
2) Race
No other factors can predict the HIV rate. What we get from that is that if you are black, the test is statistically biased to show that you have HIV. It has nothing to do with sexuality, drugs or anything else: it has to do that, for some unknown reasons, blacks have a higher likelihood of reporting HIV positive.
In Africa, when you add it to all the false positives associated with various infectious diseases, it is probably likely that there is no HIV epidemic in Africa whatsoever, at least when viewed at in comparison to developed countries such as the United States.
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