Popery, prophylactics and poverty

 In Thailand, condoms are called mechais.  That's because one man, through sheer energy and enthusiasm, Kuhn Mechai (head of Public Health at the time, I believe), could be seen standing up in buses, on trains, selling the advantages of using condoms. And doing so with humour! As a result, the country achieved remarkable changes in people's safe sex practices early on in the onset of the HIV epidemic.

I have a dream.  Someday, the stubborn man that leads the Roman Catholic Church will walk into the favelas of Sao Paulo, or the shantytowns of Kinshasa, or the bastis of Kolkata and  open his eyes. The light will suddenly shine on him. He will then see the reality of how people behave (even those who follow his leadership).  He will drop to his knees in the mud and the slime, and shout out:  'Father, forgive my wicked arrogance! I have sinned'.   And he will finally start to proclaim from his perch in St Peter's Square in Rome, the importance of safe sex through people doing 'whatever it takes' for them to be safe from the hazards of unprotected sex.  As a result, condoms throughout the world, but especially in Africa, will be known as popes. People will say to each other, as they go out dancing of a Saturday night, or walking out together, on a hot evening in the African bush:  "Don't forget your popes!"

Photos

100,000 condoms for Olympic sex sessions

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When that happens, I too will revere the pope, not for his pig-headed doctrines or his huge power or his pretty dresses, but for his imaginative compassion.  Just in the way that I admire Archbishop Desmond Tutu for his courage and integrity.  Or Barack Obama for going on the talk show with Jay Leno to talk to the people about greed. And finally, the rate of HIV infections world-wide will fall steadily, everwhere. Mothers and fathers will not be dying pointlessly, depriving their children of love, support and hope, or obliging grandmothers or aunts, older brothers or sisters, to look after the little ones, some already living with the virus.  People will not be destined to a life of abject poverty through their or other people's unsafe sexual practices: or the stubborness of biggots like Thabo Mbeki from South Africa and the pope in Rome. Instead, people will remember with pride the contribution of leaders like Uganda's president, Yoweri Museverni, who talks frankly and frequently about "ABC" habits:  'abstain, be faithful, use condoms'.  And people will go down in history for what they did to prevent any poverty brought about as a result of AIDS.  Many unsung heroes, whose names are known only locally, and others...people like Mechai in Thailand. And, just maybe, one day, even Pope Benedict!