Miracle Doctors

The cherry on the cake so far is that I think I might have discovered the source of all that spam so many of you get in your email. There is a doctor here that not only offers to make your penis larger, but also to enable you to have children, not to forget that he can make your wife love you and many other miracle remedies to your (men) woes. Not to go on a tangent, but people here listen to quality music with titles as “my wife loves me.” Whoever was concerned to promoting fidelity in that part of the world seems to have strong allies. End of the circumlocution. Any one who has been to a major city has seen these falsely inconspicuous posters with a mysteriously attractive name accompanied by a phone number. Here also they have those, that's how I learned about the internationally renowned miracle doctor. For women, they have something a little bit short of a miracle cure, they advertise one day abortion, fast, affordable and painless, just rip the little dangling piece of paper with the magical phone number, could sound like a miracle.
There seems to be an issue regarding sexual behavior in South Africa. Either that or people tend to be reluctant to talk about it in more righteous societies? When there are two possibilities like that I usually go for the combination. Still, South Africa is the highest rape rate in the world, a HIV positive prevalence in the vicinity of 30%, the second highest in the world, a presidential candidate that has raped a HIV positive teenager before showering to "wash off the virus" and refusal on the part of members of that society to change even when faced with the risk of... suffering a horrible death and inflict the same fate on others.
It is an issue that I will come back to more than once I am sure, but today I read something so encouraging. After years of hearing about the evilness of female genital cutting, I read once again that male circumcision is being promoted as a way to prevent AIDS... What kind of message is that likely to send? As the author of the article rightly pointed out, cut the tip of your possibly aggrandized penis thanks to the services of mysterious spamming doctor and no more risk of HIV? To my knowledge there is no studies that proves that male circumcision prevents HIV transmission unless coupled with other modes of prevention, it merely decreases the likelyhood for the man to get infected by up to 50%. In other words it is far, very far, from a viable solution. The men are less at risk, good. The women? Not at all. The men that do have AIDS, circumcised or not, and sleep with mutliple partners, consenting or not, will still spread the virus exponentially. Furthermore, it is likely to send a distorted message unless there is a highly efficient campaign of education to go with it. Am I understanding that it is easier and cheaper to circumcise and educate than to educate and use condoms (which are necessary anyway and do not require taking the risk of transmission when people take the initiative to chain circumcise with the same knife). There is simply no justification. It is not easier, cheaper or more efficient than the other means of prevention. Finally, wait! Female cutting is wrong, but not male cutting? somebody explain that to me. Isn't it ironic that some encourage male cutting in cultures that do not practice it and others (though, possibly the same) are advocating the banning of female cutting in cultures that have practiced it for eons?