Quoting from the original article:

What I don't understand is why the discussion of solutions focuses so heavily on AIDS drugs when condoms are cheaper and more effective in preventing spread of the disease.

I live and have lived in South Africa all my life and I believe I have some of an understanding of this issue. It's "politi-cultural" (my new word of the day). To explain:
AIDS infection rates appear to increase inversely to poverty levels in the population. Of course there are people from all walks of life who are infected, but as you go down the income bracket, you go up the infection scale.

Largely, this has to do with lack of education but extends in other directions too. For example, the majority of South African people living below the poverty line are black. This is largely due to the years of persecution of black people in this country by the apartheid government. The persecution resulted in less education amongst many, many other things. Then, there are many, many black people in this country who believe that condoms are an invention by white people to curb the birth rate of blacks - they don't believe that white people use them! Furthermore, promiscuity and polygamy are far more culturally accepted to black people that they are to whites. Polygamy is legal here. This does nothing to help the fight against AIDS.

I’m not sure how badly I’m going to be flamed for this post, so I’d like to point out that I’m not a racist, I’m merely stating my observations and certainly not judging anybody.

→ Posted by: Chris at March 2, 2005 11:53 AM

My girlfriend is South African (I've been there a couple of times myself over the last two years) and she's outlined similar concerns. There are of course lots of judgments that can be made (the ANC hasn't exactly been leading the way in terms of Aids prevention, for starters) but if there's any blame to be put, it should be shared by all.

→ Posted by: MacDara at March 3, 2005 1:05 AM