What the World Needs Now is Love Sweet Love and Oh Yeah don't forget the 42 Million Condoms

I know it seems I have a condom fetish but really this just makes me sick. The World Cup is to be held in South Africa and what are they most concern with? The 40,000 expected prostitutes that are expected to come in to Cape Town to Johannesburg. So the President of South Africa has requested from Great Britain 42 million condoms. Personally I didn't know that the Brit's were so sexually active that they had that big of a stock pile lying around, but whatever it’s the quiet ones you have to worry about or so they say.

Here is why the country will be in such great need: The South African government estimates that up to half a million visitors could travel to the country, raising fears of a rise in prostitution and sex trafficking from neighboring countries and eastern Europe, and creating a potential HIV time bomb. Well I’m sure putting a band aid on this problem will keep it from exploding don’t you?

It does sadden me to think of the people behind the politics of South Africa. The suffering of the children and those who are infected without knowing or consenting is not to be taken lightly. An estimated 5.7 million South Africans are living with HIV, about one in every five adults. There are about 1,400 new HIV infections and nearly 1,000 Aids deaths every day.

But it is hard to understand a country where on one hand they are asking from help from all resources to cure this disease but are being lead by men who have no regard for the lives of others, even those close to home.

Critics accuse South Africa's leadership of undermining the fight with denialism and hypocrisy. Former president Thabo Mbeki's unwillingness to act has been blamed for the premature deaths of 300,000 people. President Jacob Zuma, while being tried on charges of raping an HIV-positive family friend in 2006, was ridiculed for testifying he took a shower after sex to lower the risk. He was acquitted of rape. Earlier this year he again did not use a condom when having sex with the daughter of a family friend, who subsequently gave birth to his 20th child. (Sarah Boseley, health editor, and David Smith in Johannesburg The Guardian, Tuesday 9 March 2010)