Today is AIDS day...of particular importance in Africa. I stole the following bit from the Dave Matthews Band website. Staggering statistics: Africa has been hit harder by the HIV/AIDS virus than any other region of the world. More than 25 million Africans have HIV. Today on World AIDS Day, 6,300 people in Africa will die of HIV/AIDS and another 8,500 will become infected with the virus. Tomorrow the cycle will repeat itself. The African continent is losing an entire generation of teachers, nurses, farmers, mothers, and fathers, leaving behind 12 million orphans. ___________________________________________________ there's a website that has an online petition for those interested: www.theonecampaign.org
That number seems exaggerated. 2,300,000 people are dying of AIDS every year in Africa? What's the population of Africa?
Did some googling. About 680 million live in Africa. The birthrate is out of control. Congo's population could triple to 181 million by 2050. Nigeria's could double to 307 million by the same time.
That's why I was seeing a lot of AIDS info on TV last night... Safe Sex is a must, but there are countless people who don't keep themselves away from high risk activities...and in some cases, even low risk activities cause such pain... God bless...
One of the causes of the AIDS epidemic in Africa is caused by the prevalence of rape. Those people (at least the women) are not engaging in high risk behavior, they are having that behavior forced on them because their governments cannot or will not provide basic security and human rights.
Sadly there is a sever lack of education in Africa about AIDS. There has been too much dishonesty for too long. A friend of mine was working in Africa trying to help and a lot of the people didn't believe condoms would help because they thought it was just another of the white man's tricks. There was also a myth going around that sleeping with virgins would cure those with AIDS. That only led to more AIDS. It is such a real shame what is going on there.
