World Aids Day

Yesterday as we all know was World Aids Day. According to Wikipedia it's

...dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection.

I posted on my Facebook page, Twitter Feed and Google Talk status the following:

Today is World AIDS Day. I think it should be called World Abstinence Awareness Day. #RED

Apparently some people had problems with that. So I will try to explain what I meant.

One person wrote:

"World AIDS Day" defines the problem, for which there are multiple

solutions. Calling it "World Abstinence Awareness Day" defines Aids

only in terms of a single solution. And "World Abstinence Awareness

Day" has other meanings too, which extend far beyond the scope of the

Aids issue

My response:

You say that calling it "World Abstinence Awareness Day" defines AIDS in terms of a single solution, forgetting about the other solutions. I disagree. "World Abstinence Awareness Day" is not one solution. It is not a "solution" at all. It's prevention. While the people who have AIDS need help, I strongly believe that the larger issue at hand is the main cause of AIDS. When a person has frequent nose bleeds, of course he goes over and grabs a tissue. However his big concern will be why it's happening and how to get it to stop. I truly believe that the world should work more on prevention then they do. (More on that later.)

He then mentioned:

Many people get Aids who are not promiscuous. Married people who

have a spouse that was not monogamous, drug abusers, and babies born

with Aids. They would directly benefit from other solutions than

abstinence, and deserve to be helped.

My response:

I never said that ANYONE with AIDS doesn't "deserve to be helped". For no matter what reason they have AIDS, the bottom line is that they have it and are sick and need help. Just because people make mistakes, or had people make mistakes for them, doesn't mean that they don't "deserve to be helped". However, all the types of people could have saved from prevention and I think that's the much bigger issue.

Another person asked:

What about all the people that have contracted AIDS through blood transfusions? Should we all abstain from giving and receiving blood?

My response:

If people only got AIDS from blood transfusions, trust me they wouldn't make a big deal about it. They have World Hepatitis Day and World Pneumonia Day. They even World Malaria Day. But almost no one heard of them nor does anyone make a big deal about it. The reason why World AIDS Day is so huge is directly due to a lack of abstinence - and not abstinence of blood transfusions.

I want to add that I don't think a "World Abstinence Awareness Day" will do ANYTHING and "World AIDS Day" brings awareness to the problem. I am in no way or form against World Aids Day. However it bothers me that we are ignoring the elephant in the room. This all can be avoided in the future yet we don't say anything about it. I don't really think it should be called "World Abstinence Awareness Day", I do however feel that a part of it should be dedicated to stressing abstinence. Now the truth is, that I don't even think that will do anything, because todays society is so filthy and morally corrupt that you could scream abstinence from today until tomorrow and it will barley do anything about it. But once again, I think you can't ignore the elephant in the room and not say anything. It sort of becomes like they are approving it.

Hope that helps explain. Looking forward to hearing your comments.