My Dear Hard Drive

Last night there was a documentary, No Past to Speak of on the television about the virgin rapes in South Africa. And if that wasn’t enough, the correct term would be an infant rape. In South Africa, certain parts of it, AIDS is very common. Nationally, the HIV prevalence percentage is a staggering 28%. That is more than every fourth person. In the worst affected province, KwaZulu-Natal, the percentage is as high as 37.4. What makes it disturbing that there is a myth going about that having sex with a virgin will cure you of AIDS. If you are ignorant enough to believe that, the logical conclusion to make is to have sex with as young child as possible, to make sure she is a virgin. Mothers leave their infant daughters knowingly to be raped, possibly for money, possibly to save a loved family member, who knows, but it happens. In the documentary, the focus was on a young child, who was raped at the age of 5 months, in her home, with the acceptance of her mother. She was adopted by a midwife who worked in the hospital to everyone’s great relief.

They are working hard in South Africa, to dispel the myth of virgin cure, but naturally it is not easy. People who believe it won’t be easily swayed, they have no respect for women or children, or female children at that, and they are desperate to find a cure. They have a task group Men as Partners working on influencing the men to stop raping, and stop hurting women in general. What was shown on the program, their tactics didn’t really seem that effective to me. They got the first part right; There is no use having women talk to the men, they will not even bat an eyelid for what a woman would want to say… But are they really going to believe a group of “preachers” who clearly are not their peers, who carry banners around about being a partner… If I was one of those rapists, I would probably laugh at them and pretty much hate their guts. Naturally, this group is taking the civilized approach to the problem, but I’m thinking the first priority is to change the way people think about rapists. It’s not about growing a respect for women and children, it is about gaining respect amongst your peers that should be stressed.

In western society, it is seen that a man who hits or rapes women or children is the scum of earth. In prisons, men serving for rape are the lowest of the low, and naturally the spit bucket of the lot is the man raping children. This same mentality should be infused into the troubled areas of South Africa. It should come from the inside, or seemingly from the inside, from people who have respect in the community. Who have the power to deny respect or to give it. At this point, it is important that men start despising each other for raping, so that the act will take away your status in the society. They should be laughed at, ridiculed, made to understand that their act is not an act of masculinity or bravery, or even a logical response to fear of death, but ridiculous, despicable, LAUGHABLE display of ignorance and weakness. It should come from movie star -like figures, heroes who resonate with the community. If there isn’t any, put some there. Under cover cops will have tips for you, and actors will give some more tips on how to act brave and admirable. Get the young men and train them to be heroes amongst men. Change it from the inside – that’s what I would do anyway.

Clearly, it is easier said than done, and going into the society won’t be safe. These people would truly be heroes in the good old fashioned sense of the word, and who knows, maybe there isn’t such people around. If not, then there’s always the option of making movies. Now there’s a good one for you Hollywood folk to work on. Oscar guaranteed. Chop chop, get to work now!

Why not start another rumor?
One thing that could work is alter the above rumor a bit. If they want magic, give them magic, but in a less harmless form: Tell them that you can cure yourself from aids by having sex, but you can’t just rape any virgin! It has to be a virgin with HIV, she must be at least 16 years old and she has to want to have sex with you too. If they don’t believe you, ask them if they have ever heard anyone being cured by raping a virgin? When they say no, that’s a good well there you go. This is why. You could create a whole story around it. A virginal HIV-positive girl has a type of AIDS that will cancel out the male AIDS, because she got it from her mother, and not from a man. They are much more likely to accept a similar truth to the one they have, than to completely wipe it out of their world because someone told them it won’t work. Consider it a white lie, it’s a far better one than the one they go by right now. This is how religions started, you had to make people behave badly – tell them that there’s an invisible God that will punish if they do. Works like a charm, still.

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