Bush Spends $350 Million for AIDS with strings attached

[RedGlitter]

I'm watching this video at CNN.com telling us that Bush is fighting AIDS around the world by promoting abstinence, marital fidelity and condoms. While I think fidelity is A-OK and condoms are a necessity, I have a biiiiig issue with abstinence. I don't see this as any form of common sense, but rather as a mandate with an overbearing religious overtone and that infuriates me. Sure, don't have sex, you won't catch anything, but why is the US government blowing our tax money on an abstinence based program for other countries? Other countries have different societal values and different religious aspects that aren't as puritanical as those of the West. It doesn't always fit in other words. Many cultures are quite free about sexuality and don't need our puritanical views imposed on them. Hell, I don't even want Bush's views imposed on me! The amount we are giving other countries in total is $350 million for HIV prevention and $200 million of that is to be used for teaching abstinence.

If we weren't talking about sex, I might have a different view on giving money with strings attached, but this really frosts me because it already seems set out to be ineffective and I don't think we need to be telling people how to run their sex lives.

WHat do you think? The video is at www.cnn.com. It isn't one I can embed or post a link to.

[gmc]

It's not just american faith based aid that is the problem, the catholic church is arguably causing a great deal of harm because of it's opposition to the use of condoms and not just in africa.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/ ... ws/?page=3

In Nigeria, Idoko said that more money should be spent in all areas of prevention, especially in the education of young people.

``It's not that people in Africa are having more sex than anywhere else, it's just that sex in the West is a lot safer because of the information they have and because of the technology that is available," Idoko said. ``For many Africans, buying a pack of condoms is a huge problem. Many don't have enough money."


On the other hand

http://hrw.org/reports/2005/uganda0305/ ... oc98378360

To the U.S. Congress

* Repeal sections 402(b)(3) and 403(a) of the United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act. These provisions require the expenditure of 33 percent of HIV prevention funds on abstinence-until-marriage programs that exclude consideration of other approaches to HIV prevention. In light of existing government-funded evaluations showing abstinence-only programs to be ineffective and potentially life-threatening, enact legislation prohibiting the expenditure of federal funds on these programs pending further research and evaluation.

* Redirect U.S. funding for abstinence-until-marriage programs to proven interventions that guarantee young people complete information about HIV prevention, including the use of condoms. Encourage the U.S. Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator to revise sections of the U.S. global AIDS policy that make false claims about the effectiveness of abstinence-only programs and promote abstinence-until-marriage as an HIV prevention strategy for young people. Ensure that age-appropriate information about condoms and condom promotion strategies are provided to all youth and not limited to “high-risk populations.




Remember all the delighted faith based "Gay Plague" stories that led to aids not being taken seriously in the first place?

[sunny104]

RedGlitter;731724 wrote: I'm watching this video at CNN.com telling us that Bush is fighting AIDS around the world by promoting abstinence, marital fidelity and condoms. While I think fidelity is A-OK and condoms are a necessity, I have a biiiiig issue with abstinence. I don't see this as any form of common sense, but rather as a mandate with an overbearing religious overtone and that infuriates me. Sure, don't have sex, you won't catch anything, but why is the US government blowing our tax money on an abstinence based program for other countries? Other countries have different societal values and different religious aspects that aren't as puritanical as those of the West. It doesn't always fit in other words. Many cultures are quite free about sexuality and don't need our puritanical views imposed on them. Hell, I don't even want Bush's views imposed on me! The amount we are giving other countries in total is $350 million for HIV prevention and $200 million of that is to be used for teaching abstinence.

If we weren't talking about sex, I might have a different view on giving money with strings attached, but this really frosts me because it already seems set out to be ineffective and I don't think we need to be telling people how to run their sex lives.

WHat do you think? The video is at www.cnn.com. It isn't one I can embed or post a link to.


then we shouldn't be giving them any money. Why are we paying for other countries sexually transmitted diseases anyway??

[Sheryl]

Exactly Sunny! STD's are on the rise in America, and not just AIDS. Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, and Syphilis are on the rise.