by Mj Ferruzza

Created on: November 19, 2007

Not only could Aids stabilize population growth, but also decimate it.
When the virus first appeared and ravaged as a silent killer, it was
touted as the next plague. Now after years of deciphering its cause
and how it is spread, it has become disease of irresponsibility and
behavior. I will not argue the emotional side of HIV, just the logical.
African nations spread HIV from poor medical conditions and practice,

drug use and sexual behavior. But the same can be said anywhere else
in the world. Places where the HIV virus rate has slowed may be seen as
progressive countries that teach safe sex, preach birth control (deemed
as a step in stabilizing population growth)and spread information about
the disease at a faster rate than the disease itself.
We come from our own history of horrid population control. In recent times,
we have lived with attempts at ethnic cleansing in Europe. Our own history
can reveal the stories of Americans spreading small pox among native Americans
through gifts of blankets and the like. These are examples of superseding
the course of natural selection. By standing on the sidelines while the virus
spreads in Africa or the Third World is tantamount to population control.
It is almost impossible to force behavior on a people and claim to be a free
society. There are implications of civil, religious and traditional customs
interference. So we sit on a global see-saw. One one side, the population
explosion means more hungry mouths to feed and the shrinking resources needed
to feed them. On the other side, the uninformed, unprotected and affected are
necessary to reduce world numbers in a very unnatural natural section.
If the current numbers on people infected with HIV are true, more than
half of Africa and a quarter of the Third World have the virus. The
repercussions from this growing number may bear violence and anger more than
any continued growth. The virus may stabilize population growth, but does that
mean only informed and progressive countries have a future?

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