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To: happygrl; Mr. K; INSENSITIVE GUY; MonroeDNA; RnMomof7; GOPJ; TLBSHOW; Bryan; EdReform; ...
See preceding post. Do you think that if the apartheid government were still in power over there, they might not put so much faith in witch doctors -- and the juvenile HIV rate might not be so high?
30 posted on 12/14/2002 2:16:56 AM PST by CenterRight
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To: CenterRight
No, I don't think that the government in power has anything to do with peoples' belief in witchcraft. I have lived in Southern Africa. Government operates on one level, customs and beliefs on another level.

What I do believe is that the nonsense spouted by Mbeki and others on this post about HIV and AIDs (no such link) would not have been promulgated by the previous government. South Africa had a western medical establishment, even accomplishing the world's first heart transplant. They would not have rejected aid to provide AZT.

Those who spout this disinformation have not seen ther reality of the severe increase in mortality rates of those in the prime of their life. It is not malaria or TB, diseases which are commonly recognized in Africa. It is HIV and its accompanying diseases of the suppressed immune system. No Zimbabwean families with which I am acquainted has not lost at least one sibling to this disease. It is spoken of furtively, as there is a great stigma attached.

31 posted on 12/14/2002 5:59:06 AM PST by happygrl
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