You know, people are capable of controlling there sexual appetites. It’s really quite a historical rooted and effective form of birth control. It promotes lifelong monogamy and has a host of benefits other than disease prevention.
The propensity of western liberals to stroll into a country and face down its moral norms with the promotion of sexual hygiene seems to be the height of cultural imperialism.

Fitz, it's not "western liberals" who are pissed and freaked out by the abstinence-only shite, it's the activists working within their own countries.

People are capable of controlling their sexual appetites, but history has shown us that from the beginning of time right down to our busy little chastity pledgers that they aren't.

To advise against wearing condoms anywhere, particularly in a country that has been ravaged more than any other by AIDS, is the height of foolishness.

And as for monogomy in marriage, well, isn't the story of countless women (particularly in Africa) who were monogomous and yet received the HIV virus from their husbands telling enough?

The times, they do move forward, and we as a world culture have to move with them. It's not a Western thing, it's not a white thing, it's not us rich Americans imposing our beliefs upon other people -- it's a reaction to a very real worldwide epidemic, and to quell this disease until there is a cure the best thing we have right now is condoms.

You need to read the article and understand the abstinence approach in the context of the battle against aids in Africa.
First Lady Lucy Kibaki supports a multi tier approach that supports condoms in some instances. She was referring specifically to young peoples understanding of sexuality.
(I quote from the article)

“Lucy Kibaki called on students at a school prize-giving to abstain from sex in order to avoid infection with HIV. Her statement contradicts government policy that promotes condom use. The BBC's Caroline Karobia says Mrs Kibaki is influential, as she chairs the Organisation of the 40 African First Ladies Against HIV/Aids. This stance puts her in line with Ugandan first lady Janet Museveni, who backs a campaign for young Ugandans to pledge abstinence until marriage.�

If we truly want to be “realistic� and objective, we should look to Uganda, the only African nation that has substantially curbed the rate of AIDS infection. Through an intense abstinence-based campaign, Uganda managed to reduce the infection rate from 29 percent to 4 percent in just ten years.
Compare Uganda’s success with the dismal failure of the two most condom-flooded African nations, Botswana and South Africa. South Africa has been inundated with condoms and its rate of AIDS infection continues to soar at 22 percent of the entire population. Botswana’s situation is even worse, with 37 percent of the adult population infected by AIDS. Professor Norman Hearst, of the University of California at San Francisco, notes that in Botswana condom sales rose from one million in 1993 to 3 million in 2001, while HIV infection among urban pregnant women rose from 27 percent to 45 percent. In Cameroon, as well, condom sales rose from 6 million to 15 million, while HIV prevalence rose from 3 percent to 9 percent.

Moreover, despite critics’ accusations that Catholic moral teaching is the cause of Africa’s woes, the facts demonstrate the contrary. The World Health Organization puts the figure for HIV infection in Swaziland at 42.6 percent of the population, where only 5 percent of the population is Catholic. Similarly, in Botswana, where 37 percent of the adult population is HIV infected, only 4 percent of the population is Catholic. Compare this to Uganda, where 43 percent of the population is Catholic, and the number of HIV-infected adults has dropped to only 4 percent.

Its seems to me that the cultural imperialism is a sexual revolutionized west that cannot philosophically promote restraint between consenting adults to any degree. While countries like Uganda enjoy success with condom usage being one part of a multi faceted approach that understands human sexuality within their larger culture.

Fitz,
I don't know where you got your information about Uganda. It's way off base. The country’s success in curbing the AIDS crisis came because they allowed local community groups to craft their own educational campaigns that best fit their own communities. Some were about condom use and some abstinence. This community-based comprehensive approach is widely credited with Uganda’s unique success. Only recently has the country completely abandoned this strategy in favor of importing a US-lead abstinence-only doctrine. Now, the organizations that yielded such amazing results with their comprehensive approach to AIDS/HIV prevention are being de-funded because they don’t comply with the restrictive abstinence-only message. To credit abstinence-only with Uganda’s success is to shamefully misrepresent the facts. It is actually the abstinence-only message that should be deemed "cultural imperialism". Read more here: http://hrw.org/reports/2005/uganda0305/

Madeline

“To credit abstinence-only with Uganda’s success is to shamefully misrepresent the facts. It is actually the abstinence-only message that should be deemed "cultural imperialism"�

I’m afraid it is you who are misrepresenting what I have said. I never mentioned “abstinence- only� . (whatever that is) I was referring to Uganda’s ABC program (abstinence, be faithful, condoms). I hope you read what I wrote again (I can assure you the are accurate) . If something is “off-base� as you say. I want to know what it is. I stand by my charge of cultural- imperialism.

"The country’s success in curbing the AIDS crisis came because they allowed local community groups to craft their own educational campaigns that best fit their own communities. Some were about condom use and some abstinence. This community-based comprehensive approach is widely credited with Uganda’s unique success"

So you subscribe to the idea that abstinence education has a place in AIDS prevention and can be effective? When you say “comprehensive approach� are you referring to the ABC program? Were else would a community base its approach except within the community?

Fitz:

You know, people are capable of controlling there sexual appetites. It’s really quite a historical rooted and effective form of birth control. It promotes lifelong monogamy and has a host of benefits other than disease prevention.

Uh, what? Can you name a place where this has ever been effective? Bastards were abundant prior to effective birth control, as were orphanages, forced marriages, and a host of other social ills, including what you might call post-natal abortions, or in more common parlance, infanticide. Reference, for instance, the infant skeletons found under the church walls at Reculver, Kent, dating back to 100-250AD.

Can you name a single location that has gone from condoms to abstinence-only and actually seen a statistically significant decrease in rate of pregnancy, disease, or an increase in monogamy?

Every time this has been studied, to my knowledge, it has resulted in the reverse -- more pregnancies, more disease, which is why states have started actively refusing federal funds for teaching abstinence-only. It's significantly more expensive in the long run.

Fritz:

I’m afraid it is you who are misrepresenting what I have said. I never mentioned “abstinence- only� .

Well, specifically, you said:

Through an intense abstinence-based campaign, Uganda managed to reduce the infection rate from 29 percent to 4 percent in just ten years.

Uganda's program isn't an "intense abstinence-based campaign". It relies heavily on condoms, depending on area.

You know, it's really not that hard to not have sex.

Who the hell keeps using my name?

Zed

Here’s something timely.
(warning pdf file)

http://press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/may/res1189.pdf

You should learn more about Uganda’s ABC program and it’s effectiveness.

Hey Fitz.....get your facts straight:

June 2006, Vol 96, No. 6 | American Journal of Public Health 1098-1103

Reborn a Virgin: Adolescents’ Retracting of Virginity Pledges and Sexual Histories

Janet E. Rosenbaum

Janet E. Rosenbaum is a student in the Health Policy PhD and Statistics MA programs at the Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge, Mass.

Objectives. We examined retractions of virginity pledges and of sexual histories among adolescents taking part in waves 1 and 2 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.

Methods. Logistic regression analyses were used to compare respondents’ reports of virginity pledges and sexual histories at waves 1 and 2.

Results. Among wave 1 virginity pledgers, 53% denied having made a pledge at wave 2; after control for confounders, pledgers who subsequently initiated sexual activity were 3 times as likely to deny having made a pledge as those who did not initiate sexual activity (odds ratio [OR] = 3.21; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.04, 5.04). Among wave 1 nonvirgins who subsequently took virginity pledges, 28% retracted their sexual histories at wave 2; respondents who took virginity pledges were almost 4 times as likely as those who did not to retract reports of sexual experience (OR=3.88; 95% CI=1.87, 8.07).

Conclusions. Adolescents who initiate sexual activity are likely to recant virginity pledges, whereas those who take pledges are likely to recant their sexual histories. Thus, evaluations of sexual abstinence programs are vulnerable to unreliable data. In addition, virginity pledgers may incorrectly assess the sexually transmitted disease risks associated with their prepledge sexual behavior.

404 not found, Fitz. And I would say the same to you.

i know the above article i posted it has nothing to do with africa, but lets be honest, it shows the no sex approach not only does not work, but is dangerous as well. you are completely out of line with reality fitz. and as for the "its not that hard not to have sex"-yeah well, once again, maybe for you, however, you cant force that on everyone. jeeeez wheres the logic here.

People keep talking about "abstience only" & now "virginity pledges" while I'm talking about the Uganda ABC program.
Maybe your all locked ideologically into a "sex positive" aproach.

I can see the utility of the C. Cannot you see the utility of the A & B?