Opinion piece on HIV education and cultural attitudes in Africa and the US

The people who live here themselves are divided about what fidelity means. Be Faithful, or Zero Grazing? Multiple wives, or divorce and remarriage? They themselves are working towards gender equality, but have just as many arguments about its implementation as Westerners do. They themselves are proud of their culture, and yet there's one anti-HIV slogan that always leaps out at me when I spot it among the myriad of posters and stickers: There is nothing cultural about dying of AIDS. te Ok ok The original version of this article can be found on the Internet, but please note that I've done some editing for clarity. Here's the original: http://carnalnation.com/content/45680/1 133/sexual-abcs-africa-part-2-be-faithful EDUCATION: [theory] Sexual ABCs in Africa, Part 3: Condoms This article followed the previous two articles, published at CarnalNation.com in January 2010. I think a lot of people would like to believe that Africans are "different from us" and that's why HIV has had such an impact in Africa. And it's accurate to say that certain cultural patterns influence the spread of HIV, as I described in the previous piece, "Be Faithful." But the truth is, also, that people are similar everywhere: we respond to certain incentives, and sexuality is one of our most powerful incentives. The terrifying truth is that Africans are not especially different from us... and given the right circumstances, the West can and will be equally vulnerable to this awful epidemic. And as I learned more and then came home, I began to see just how vulnerable we are. There are poor, marginalized areas of the USA where HIV is reaching the same proportions that it has reached in Africa. And even among privileged young Americans, HIV rates have been rising for the first time in years. te Ok ok Sexual ABCs in Africa, Part 3: Condoms In America, the common argument against explicit sex education -- and promoting condom use in schools -- is that it will encourage kids to be promiscuous. The idea is that if we portray it as normal for kids to be having sex and tell them how to do it safely, they'll be more likely to go and have sex. As for the kids who'll have sex anyway... well, they're sinning and don't deserve to know what they're doing. Some things don't change, even across oceans. I occasionally hear the same arguments against promoting condom use in southern Africa. But here, HIV is ripping the populace HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_018589