I complained about the unbalanced media views on the Pope’s comments regarding the use of condom for the AIDS prevention. I should have been patient to wait more responses from traditional media.
I am glad to introduce a Dr Green’s column titled “The pope may be right” on Washington Post on March 29.
Besides, I found a very good analysis of the issue on the William Crawley’s Brodcasting diary. He is a journalist and broadcaster with BBC Northern Ireland. His post titled “The pope and condoms” echoes all different perspectives from the Catholic church, WHO, Dr. Green, and so on. It also describes who Dr. Green is and how he became to change his view on the usefulness of condoms in Africa. The conclusion of the article says,
Against Dr Green’s claims that condoms have been ineffective in countries such as Uganda, the World Health Organisation maintains that “recent analysis of the AIDS epidemic in Uganda has confi rmed that increased condom use, in conjunction with delay in age of first sexual intercourse and reduction of sexual partners, was an important factor in the decline of HIV prevalence in the 1990s.” This statement references a 2003 research paper exploring the Ugandan experience, “The Roles of Abstinence, Mongamy and Condom Use in HIV Decline”, published by The Alan Guttmacher Institute in Washington DC. Read the paper in full here. This analysis concludes that “positive behavior change in all three areas of ABC, abstinence, being faithful (monogamy) and condom use have contributed to the decline of HIV in Uganda to sustained lower levels.” It’s a long way from that statement to the claim that condoms are making the problem of Aids worse.
My thought of the day
- Would it be possible for traditional media – the one with limited space- to deal with a complicated issues, e.g., the condom use in Africa- while providing fair information with all supporting proofs in the same way Williman Crawley did on his post?
- The condom controversy will not end soon and should not. By the way, for whom do we discuss this issue? It should be for people, not for the debate itself.
