The position of the Catholic Church is fully borne out by the facts, and is unique in being so. Certain people might consider applying some journalistic or scientific objectivity to the question of where in Africa the condom use relentlessly promoted by Western nongovernmental organisations and compliant governments has ever arrested, never mind reversed, the rate of HIV infection. There is nowhere.
However, such a reversal is under way in Uganda, where the government's message is the same as the Catholic Church’s: “Change Your Behaviour”. Huge numbers of condoms have been distributed in Botswana, and the result has been for President Festus Mogae to declare, “Abstain or die”. Who, exactly, is incapable of fidelity within a monogamous marriage and abstinence outside such a marriage? Women? Black people? Poor people? Developing-world people? Or just poor black women in the developing world?
Much to my own chagrin, while all of the above is in the forthcoming Confessions of an Old Labour High Tory, I neglected to put in that there are the closest ties between my native Saint Helena and Cape Town, gateway to and from AIDS-ravaged South Africa, yet Saint Helena is one of extremely few territories in the world never to have had a case of HIV infection. Not one. The book is now with the publisher, and far too close to publication to be changed. I am just going to have to make this very good point elsewhere. For example, here.
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How many Catholics are there in Saint Helena?
ReplyDeleteNext to none, but that is either beside the point, or it is the whole point, depending on how you look at it.
ReplyDeleteThere are not all *that* many Catholics in mainland Africa, either. So how can the spread of HIV infection there be the fault of the Church?
Have a look at this interview with Jon Snow and Joanna Bogle a couple of years ago about AIDS in Africa. Unfortunately, Joanna loses her cool on these occasions, but then who wouldn't when the (partial)interviewer accuses the Pope of condemning millions in Africa to death. The ignorance of many of our commentators is appalling and just beggars belief.
ReplyDeletehttp://catholicactionuk.blogspot.com/2009/03/joanno-bogle-with-jon-snow.html
"There are not all *that* many Catholics in mainland Africa, either."
ReplyDeleteBy mainland, do you mean all except Madagascar? And by not that many, do you mean relative to the whole?
Thanks.
Yes, on both counts. There are a lot of Catholics in Africa, and they are a high proportion of the world's Catholics. But there are far more non-Catholics in Africa.
ReplyDeleteIf your social views were not so unbelievably reactionary you would probably be good enough to receive mainstream recognition as a political commentator. You could be quite the thorn in the side of the establishment.
ReplyDeleteAs a devoted fan of Thatcher, Blair, Cameron, Osborne and sado-monetarism, I would obviously consider this a very bad thing. Long may your self imposed irrelevance continue.