Here is the story as explained by the Ugandans I have met. AIDS hits Uganda and people start dieing off. People start using condoms to save their lives. Anti retroviral are introduced and people can start living a "positive life". People are less interested in using condoms and the HIV infection rate increases.
My time is short so I will blurt out some raw, unrefined thoughts for your digestion.
Here are my thoughts.
If anti retroviral were not invented until later, would vast cultural change regarding condom usage have taken a stronger hold in society?
One level deeper
Is a certain amount of suffering needed before long lasting change is made? Europe suffered war after war calumniating in two world wars before Europeans created institutions that would decrease the likely hood of another war. Maybe a certain amount of awfulness needs to be expressed and told as stories in a culture before a furious drive for reform is born.
Other Thoughts
What if aid and development never came to Africa? What solutions would have been created by what I have experienced to be a hard working and innovative people? What African solutions is the world missing because the west is giving easily available and cheap solutions away? I was in a woodworking shop where all the mechanical tools were antiquated tools donated by Italy after the woodworking industry there took a change for digital technology. What tools would Africans develop if no free tools were given as charity? Could a woodworking technological breakthrough occur in the outskirts of Gulu, Uganda, due to the right amount of need, innovation and time?
I look forward to developing some of these thoughts more and forming stronger connections, but for the meantime I am sharing them with you.
This is so very true of every human being regardless of the level of development. It is so easy to want to give the answers to someone, but much wiser and more difficult to sit back, and guide them into developing there own new tools. It is amazing to see how my clients will develop and grow emotionally in ways I never would have thought of and then I in turn take their new ideas and incorporate them into my own life :).
ReplyDeleteSome cultures have a solution already, I mean of course, arranged marriage. Arrange a marriage and marry them off at a young age, it seems to me like that would go a long way towards improving the situation.
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