THAT WAS NO FIGHT !
Anyone who has observed and studied about our continent of Africa would ask themselves the question WHY. Why we do things the way we do them and why can a continent that is blessed with much have little to show.
Africa was already saddled with such problems as the inability to control such infectious diseases such as tuberculosis,malaria and diarrhea ailments before the AIDS pandemic hit the continent in the early 1980's.I can understand part of the reason for its rapid spread was due to the presence of such problems as wars,famine and to some extent economic mismanagement, but an interesting question one could ask themselves is "has Africa done enough to protect itself from been the continent with the most infected people" No,simply no it hasn't. From government,media to to the populace , we all are to be blamed because we with arms folded watched this whole debacle.
You see, our African society has clearly missed the opportunity to prevent the invasion of H.I.V to a population which was not born or not old enough in the 1980's. I do believe the situation would not have been what it is today had we as a people adopted a well thought out modus-operandi but sometimes reality is what it is and very little depends on what we do or do not believe.
And for those of us who continue to postulate a cure should have in our minds as well that virus don't have cures and if such common viruses that causes cold has eluded a cure,then how possibly should we expect a cure for such complex ones like H.I.V, so the notice has been served.
In this part of the continent , we often ignore information on personal behavior and rather continue indulging in such acts which make us susceptible to acquiring the virus and very strange indeed is the realization that in this age of technology with countless journals and magazines devoted entirely to the subject of the AIDS pandemic ,there are still a lot of people who aren't still enlightened on the subject and continue laying prostrate at the mercy of HIV/AIDS. Today, more is known about the the structure , molecular composition , behavior and target cell of the the H.I.V than any other virus in the world thanks to ardent research and study that has gone into it ,this i know because i do not want to be an ignoramus.
It is extremely difficult to fathom why most youth imbibe a thinking that they are invincible to the threats posed by the Virus thus having multiple sexual partners and not using protection , as jest as it may seem , this is the situation on the continent and in my country Ghana. Also, society has a tendency of stigmatizing the few who dare to approach the pharmacy,very crazy and funny but a reality.
It is incontrovertible although distressing that the continent would completely be wiped out if nothing is done urgently to turn the situation around.
It isn't far fetched to say the media actively plays a role in the national conversation of a country. In a bid/attempt to help control the situation, we are told to reduce such cravings for things alcohol,drugs and sex. This move has backfired thanks to the media continuous glamorization of the aforementioned. Today, when you look at the media , there is unlimited content on the topics of sex,drugs and even alcohol.The youth as vibrant as it is would naturally like to exploit those stuffs the media idolizes and at the end of it all, this same media now turns around to start a National campaign to help kick out those things they themselves have been catalyst of, What a Paradox !!!.
Now even as i try to elucidate some reasons why we are the continent with the most infected people, i cannot within myself really understand why even with an already disadvantaged political,economic and health infrastructure systems, we continue as a people making it so easy attracting the virus, GOD.
We've already been at the disadvantaged end of things including suffering such weird assertions as ; Aids in Africa was different from Aids in other countries.As ridiculous as it may seem now,its okay to forgive students of school of thought because it is difficult to understand why a virus which is so much feared is so easily contagious among a people and our collective attitude as a people has most certainly not been helpful either.
In 1991, D.r Samuel Duh wrote ; "AIDS is not killing millions of Africans now but it has the potential to do just that if the world permits". Twenty-Eight years later ,not the world but we Africans ourselves have permitted the horrendous to happen . Important questions we should be asking ourselves should be ; What went wrong , Why was the epidemic not controlled when the number of cases were relatively low , Why did the epidemic spread so fast in Africa at a time it was slowing down in the other continents. These a very necessary questions we must try answering for ourselves.
Its so not comprehensive why we continually give the issue a blind look even as it has shown glimpses of its potential to decimate a whole population in some parts of the continent and also lead us to more political and economic instability , disturb social structure and change the cultural landscape of the continent , of-course for the worst,how can we blindly invite all these troubles.
In Africa, there have been some very funny sex myths which has further fueled the rate at which people are infected , some of which you about to read.
(i) A man with HIV could rid himself of the virus by having sexual intercourse with a virgin girl.Such men would lure and sometimes rape the unsuspecting young girls and without revealing their HIV status would go ahead and have sexual intercourse with the girls.And this has increased the spread in such countries as Kenya and South Africa.
(ii)Wife stealing is a practice among the WODAABE tribe of Niger ,West Africa.The custom allows women to choose from among men other than her husband for sexual activities.During a seven day ceremony that usually holds in the community.
(iii)Potency test among the BANYANKOLE tribe in Uganda where the aunt is to test the potency of the groom by having sex with him.
Now anybody who reads the aforementioned would agree with me all these are favorable scenarios for the acquisition of the virus.
It is a thing of interest the relative number of lesser cases been recorded in the Arabian and Muslim dominated (except Nigeria) countries.So the natural question to ask is ; What are these Muslims doing so well to prevent the threat and invasion of the Virus.I think it is pretty obvious their go-to-strategy but are we willing to learn from these people in order to win these long running tiring distressing battle.
Africa must stand up and on it's own fight this war if we want to positive results and we must know the Western world cannot be pressured into cleaning the mess we ourselves have created,We must LEARN and take responsibility of our own actions NOW!!!
Africa was already saddled with such problems as the inability to control such infectious diseases such as tuberculosis,malaria and diarrhea ailments before the AIDS pandemic hit the continent in the early 1980's.I can understand part of the reason for its rapid spread was due to the presence of such problems as wars,famine and to some extent economic mismanagement, but an interesting question one could ask themselves is "has Africa done enough to protect itself from been the continent with the most infected people" No,simply no it hasn't. From government,media to to the populace , we all are to be blamed because we with arms folded watched this whole debacle.
You see, our African society has clearly missed the opportunity to prevent the invasion of H.I.V to a population which was not born or not old enough in the 1980's. I do believe the situation would not have been what it is today had we as a people adopted a well thought out modus-operandi but sometimes reality is what it is and very little depends on what we do or do not believe.
And for those of us who continue to postulate a cure should have in our minds as well that virus don't have cures and if such common viruses that causes cold has eluded a cure,then how possibly should we expect a cure for such complex ones like H.I.V, so the notice has been served.
In this part of the continent , we often ignore information on personal behavior and rather continue indulging in such acts which make us susceptible to acquiring the virus and very strange indeed is the realization that in this age of technology with countless journals and magazines devoted entirely to the subject of the AIDS pandemic ,there are still a lot of people who aren't still enlightened on the subject and continue laying prostrate at the mercy of HIV/AIDS. Today, more is known about the the structure , molecular composition , behavior and target cell of the the H.I.V than any other virus in the world thanks to ardent research and study that has gone into it ,this i know because i do not want to be an ignoramus.
It is extremely difficult to fathom why most youth imbibe a thinking that they are invincible to the threats posed by the Virus thus having multiple sexual partners and not using protection , as jest as it may seem , this is the situation on the continent and in my country Ghana. Also, society has a tendency of stigmatizing the few who dare to approach the pharmacy,very crazy and funny but a reality.
It is incontrovertible although distressing that the continent would completely be wiped out if nothing is done urgently to turn the situation around.
It isn't far fetched to say the media actively plays a role in the national conversation of a country. In a bid/attempt to help control the situation, we are told to reduce such cravings for things alcohol,drugs and sex. This move has backfired thanks to the media continuous glamorization of the aforementioned. Today, when you look at the media , there is unlimited content on the topics of sex,drugs and even alcohol.The youth as vibrant as it is would naturally like to exploit those stuffs the media idolizes and at the end of it all, this same media now turns around to start a National campaign to help kick out those things they themselves have been catalyst of, What a Paradox !!!.
Now even as i try to elucidate some reasons why we are the continent with the most infected people, i cannot within myself really understand why even with an already disadvantaged political,economic and health infrastructure systems, we continue as a people making it so easy attracting the virus, GOD.
We've already been at the disadvantaged end of things including suffering such weird assertions as ; Aids in Africa was different from Aids in other countries.As ridiculous as it may seem now,its okay to forgive students of school of thought because it is difficult to understand why a virus which is so much feared is so easily contagious among a people and our collective attitude as a people has most certainly not been helpful either.
In 1991, D.r Samuel Duh wrote ; "AIDS is not killing millions of Africans now but it has the potential to do just that if the world permits". Twenty-Eight years later ,not the world but we Africans ourselves have permitted the horrendous to happen . Important questions we should be asking ourselves should be ; What went wrong , Why was the epidemic not controlled when the number of cases were relatively low , Why did the epidemic spread so fast in Africa at a time it was slowing down in the other continents. These a very necessary questions we must try answering for ourselves.
Its so not comprehensive why we continually give the issue a blind look even as it has shown glimpses of its potential to decimate a whole population in some parts of the continent and also lead us to more political and economic instability , disturb social structure and change the cultural landscape of the continent , of-course for the worst,how can we blindly invite all these troubles.
In Africa, there have been some very funny sex myths which has further fueled the rate at which people are infected , some of which you about to read.
(i) A man with HIV could rid himself of the virus by having sexual intercourse with a virgin girl.Such men would lure and sometimes rape the unsuspecting young girls and without revealing their HIV status would go ahead and have sexual intercourse with the girls.And this has increased the spread in such countries as Kenya and South Africa.
(ii)Wife stealing is a practice among the WODAABE tribe of Niger ,West Africa.The custom allows women to choose from among men other than her husband for sexual activities.During a seven day ceremony that usually holds in the community.
(iii)Potency test among the BANYANKOLE tribe in Uganda where the aunt is to test the potency of the groom by having sex with him.
Now anybody who reads the aforementioned would agree with me all these are favorable scenarios for the acquisition of the virus.
It is a thing of interest the relative number of lesser cases been recorded in the Arabian and Muslim dominated (except Nigeria) countries.So the natural question to ask is ; What are these Muslims doing so well to prevent the threat and invasion of the Virus.I think it is pretty obvious their go-to-strategy but are we willing to learn from these people in order to win these long running tiring distressing battle.
Africa must stand up and on it's own fight this war if we want to positive results and we must know the Western world cannot be pressured into cleaning the mess we ourselves have created,We must LEARN and take responsibility of our own actions NOW!!!
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