9 March 2000, 852 words
People who fornicate deserve to die. That, it seems, is the opinion of the devout amongst us.
At last week's AIDS conference, Catholic fundamentalist Professor Courtenay Bartholomew stated: "Whereas the faithful use of a condom may indeed lower one's risk of HIV infection, unfortunately, on the other hand, it promotes and increases promiscuity world-wide." In other words, even though Bartholomew seems aware that proper condom use reduces HIV infection rates, he still opposes it because he believes that condoms may encourage people to fornicate.
Bartholomew's comments were made at a panel discussion titled "Spirituality and coping with AIDS". In this country, any discussion with "Spirituality" in its title is guaranteed to be well-attended, though mostly by fools. And, sure enough, the crowd applauded and cried "Amen!" when Bartholomew said that God often sent plagues to punish mankind, in disagreement with Fr. Winston Joseph who asserted that AIDS was not divine punishment, but who got no applause. So much, it seems, for Christian love, charity and forgiveness.
But Bartholomew was at least less dishonest that Dr. Wilfred Chen. Chen, a medical doctor and staunch Catholic, has written a letter to the newspapers in which he claims that condoms do not help prevent HIV infection. Given the easily available information on HIV transmission and Chen's professional qualifications, one can hardly dismiss this as simple ignorance.
Chen says that "Electron Scanning Microscopic Studies have shown that there are five micron size pores in the condom. The diameter of the AIDS virus is 0.1...A virus can pass through the pore as easily as a cat can walk through a garage door," he asserts.
This is not true. The five micron figure is based on rubber gloves, not condoms. Gloves are dipped only once in latex, while condoms are dipped twice. A study of latex condoms by the National Health Institute in the United States found no holes at a magnification of 2000. Many laboratory studies show that sperm and disease-causing organisms (including HIV) cannot pass through intact latex condoms.
Chen betrays himself when he writes a little further on that "Doubly-dipped condoms are supposed to be free from pores" but "The real problem of the condom is its propensity to burst, tear and slip." So, although confessing that condoms are not porous as he initially claimed, he continues to mislead.
Properly used, condoms are not prone to burst, tear or slip. Studies show that it is a minority of users who are responsible for a disproportionate number of breakages. The real problem is that people often don't use condoms properly: they use them with oil-based lubricants like baby oil, petroleum jelly or hand lotion; they store them in wallets and glove compartments; they stretch them like socks; they use them after the expiry date, and so on.
So the "real problem", therefore, is actually ignorance - an ignorance fostered by the Vatican's official position that teaching safe sex is "a dangerous and immoral policy based on the deluded theory that the condom can provide adequate protection against AIDS."
So is it the theory or the Vatican that is deluded? One study in the New England Journal of Medicine observed heterosexual couples, over an average period of 20 months, where one person was HIV-positive and the other not. Among 124 couples who used condoms consistently and correctly, no infection occurred. Where condom use was inconsistent, however, 10 percent of the HIV-negative partners became infected. The US Food and Drug Administration says that proper condom use decreases exposure to HIV 10,000-fold. Other studies show that, when combined with a spermicide, condoms are 99.9 percent effective in preventing STDs (sexually transmitted diseases).
So, if the authorities in Trinidad and Tobago are serious about containing AIDS, there needs to be more education about condom use, as well as about fidelity and abstinence. This, remember, is a place where one in every 25 persons is HIV-positive, with the majority of them between 24 and 25 years of age. It is a country where five times more females than males are infected in the 15 to 19 age group.
Given such statistics, Dr. Rawle Edwards's suggestion that condoms be made available to sexually active teens is eminently sensible and, in a sensible society, the facts and the opinions of experts would determine public policy, not religious beliefs. But ours is a society where Catholic, Hindu, Pentecostal, Anglican and Muslim leaders immediately shot Dr. Edwards down, and where the Prime Minister has been calling for religious values to be taught more in schools, not for condoms.
That is because, as with the religious leaders, Mr. Panday knows his authority rests on ignorance and brain-washing. Meanwhile, people - including children - continue to suffer and die. But I suppose that hardly matters, once we preserve morality.
Copyright ©2000 Kevin Baldeosingh