Thursday, May 12, 2005
HIV/AIDS and Infidelity in Africa
Following up on my discussion about HIV/AIDS in Africa: Yesterday afternoon, NPR ran a story about the topic in its program, "The World." This story examined how infidelity was helping to spread HIV/AIDS in South Africa, especially among women, and how a Soweto radio station is trying to stop this practice by hosting a show called "Cheaters." The focus of this two-hour program is to identify, interview, and shame so-called "cheaters" and those who were cheated on. Evidently, the radio station's listenership triples during the show, and many community members believe that it has made people think twice about cheating for fear that they will be exposed on the show. It's a very interesting story, and it is accompanied by photos of the radio show.
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4 comments:
Is there a better way? I don't like the use of fear here.
Hey Chris:-) I have mixed feelings about this approach as well-I don't think it would fly ethically here in the U.S. In South Africa, however, the context of the HIV/AIDs situation is quite different; HIV/AIDS rates are incredibly, almost unbelievably high, and most cases result from heterosexual sex. Given these high rates, coupled with the fact that the country does not have enougn financial and institutional resources to deal effectively with the HIV/AIDS problem, I can see why cities and communities are working to find creative and inexpensive ways to stop the behaviors that are causing HIV to spread in their region. In the case of the radio station's efforts, with so many people in South Africa being HIV positive, heterosexual infidelity is much riskier there than it is here in the U.S. So it's not a bad issue for the community to take on. I'd be curious to learn if the show is actually effective in helping to prevent further HIV infection. I wonder if anybody will do some sort of follow up study on it.
How are you doing?
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