May 19 2005
Damned Cowards
U.S. Backs Down on AIDS Stipulation
The U.S. has backed down on a plan requiring overseas AIDS groups that are partly funded by this country to publicly declare their opposition to prostitution and sex trafficking.
Overseas AIDS organizations that receive money directly from the U.S., or through a federally funded U.S. charity, are already required to state their opposition to prostitution.
The new plan would have placed a similar demand on AIDS groups funded by organizations that receive money from other countries as well as the U.S.
Many AIDS groups have protested what they term the anti-prostitution “loyalty oath,” saying it would make it harder to reach a crucial risk group - prostitutes - with prevention messages, the Washington Post reports.
Great. So now we can hand them money to subsidize their porn and prostitution industry. Brazil must be thrilled.
PEPFAR supporters feel prostitution should never be condoned or legalized, the Post reports, “because it creates a market for trafficking in women and girls and encourages the resulting cruelty, coercion and disease.”
Well, yeah. And now we’re subsidizing it.
Sleep well, kiddies!
Source: Newsmax
May 19th, 2005 at 3:33 pm
Actually, I think legalized prostitution is a good idea.
But if it’s OUR money and they don’t want to comply with our rules, then to hell with them.
Let them curb their own AIDS issues.
May 19th, 2005 at 3:38 pm
Why Gordon, that’s downright libertarian of you
May 19th, 2005 at 7:03 pm
There isn’t any subsidy of porn or prostitution in this. Brazil’s anti-HIV program is probably the most successful in the world and is primarily self financed. The $40 million they turned down wouldn’t have made up for the damage caused by the conditions of the grant.
“We can’t control HIV with principles that are … theological, fundamentalist and Shiite,” said Pedro Chequer, director of Brazil’s AIDS program.
May 19th, 2005 at 7:22 pm
You’ll never stop prostitution so you mine as well as control it.
Cleaner. Safer.
You’d see a huge descrease in STD’s.
May 19th, 2005 at 7:35 pm
That’s fine and dandy. But on the other hand, if countries like Brazil refuse to do anything to crack down on their illicit porn industry and their “screw everything for money” industry, then the problems are theirs to solve, not ours.
As long as there is one AIDS case in this country, I don’t think we should be helping any others. And I certainly don’t think we should be funding condoms for countries like Brazil so they can ease the tension of having to get them for their hookers.
Sorry. Wrong priorities there.
May 19th, 2005 at 10:09 pm
What “illicit porn industry”? Prostitution is legal and regulated there. All that sick as shit animal porn they produce is legal also. (The same is true in the Netherlands also). It is “illicit” because…? Some kind of International Law or UN mandate?
In any event Brazil is relatively wealthy (not to us but rather to the rest of the world) and they were able to grandstand on this because they are addressing and paying for their HIV program without any outside help. I agree with you in principle on the foreign aid stuff but what we are spending isn’t a fraction of what you probably think it is and it might actually be cheaper than some of the other options the government would be considering if they weren’t handing out money to corrupt foreign governments.
May 19th, 2005 at 10:21 pm
Okay… Illicit was a poor choice of words. But I still stand by my statement that I don’t like taking the condom responsibility away from a government that does nothing to curb one of the things that’s spreading AIDS throughout the country requiring help controlling.
I just don’t feel any sympathy for this sort of thing. Call me a bastard, I guess.