AIDS and houses
Protocol
I am astounded by the things you've said about the African AIDS crisis, such as "If male Africans are promiscious and sleeping around, it's not my fault, or the west's fault."
It's certainly not the fault of the AIDS-infected babies who are born as a result of such a coupling either. And women's rights in many African countries don't have a good track record either - how many women become infected as a result of non-consensual contraceptive-free sex? For example, The "west" stood by for far too long in Rwanda while many of the women that were lucky enough to escape slaughter by machete were gang-raped and infected with AIDS. How many African people don't have access to basic education to understand the issues involved in the first place, nevermind that access to proper contraception?
Contraception is not always widely available and/or affordable in Africa at the best of times. I don't have any data (but neither do you!) but I'd be willing to bet that the Western pharmaceutical giants producing condoms are not dropping them down in bales from aeroplanes. God knows, plenty of people in Ireland seem to have a hard time sorting themselves out contraception-wise - we're just lucky that AIDS is not so widespread here.
To make matters worse, AIDS treatments (such as they are) have been priced exhorbitantly by the Western pharmaceutical giants that developed them and only recently have generic alternatives become available and even then they are not cheap enough.
I find it particularly galling that the trials and research necessary in the hunt for an AIDS cure are carried out on the people of Uganda and for many people infected their only chance of prolonging their life by getting hold of the drugs, is to risk their (already shortened) lives in trials. And all so the companies can develop better drugs (or hopefully a cure) that they can sell to rich Western hospitals and then deny to the neighbours of very human guinea-pigs that had such an important role in their development.
Obviously none of this is directly anyone's fault, especially not the people who have been infected but trade structures and agreements in the developed world certainly don't help or give a fair shot at people from less well-off parts of the world. If we accept a responsbility for any human being beyond "us and ours", then surely each human being is as important as the next. I am an atheist but I do wonder if the decline in so-called Christian charity with all it's flaws just basically leaves a selfish void.
On the house front .. I live right beside a brand new Council estate of 36 houses in a small town. There are the usual rumours that 2 or 3 of the households could well afford their own but this is just the usual annecdotal stuff. I'm sure there are people that are good at "working the system" and that the line between those that deserve houses and those that don't is a fine one but I don't think it is bad system overall. What I do object to though is that the houses are built beside an old council estate and I thought that this kind of thing was going to stop to prevent "ghetto-isation". The quality of the build looks really good (private contractor) but the sites themselves are very small and there is no green area - I doubt planning permission would have been granted to a private residential complex in the same spot. It still feels like the Council are flinging them any old where because they are "only" council houses. Mind you, the "planning" dept in my local authority area is so bad it's practically an oxymoron.
Rebecca
