Getting Ready for Carnival
Down in Brazil, they will be beginning their Carnival celebration on February 25th, with several days of parties, parades, and all-out carousing. The government wants to make sure that everybody is safe:
Twenty ... five ... million ...?
I don't know, I guess I was just struck by the contrast.
PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - The Brazilian government will distribute 25 million free condoms to promote safe sex during the country's Carnival holidays, the Health Ministry said Monday.
The condoms, provided under the government's acclaimed anti-AIDS program, will be given out at health clinics and in sites like public squares and dances.
"It's that time of year when we boost distribution because of the increase in demand," an official from the Health Ministry's anti-AIDS program said. 25 MILLION condoms? Who's watching Carnival?
Twenty ... five ... million ...?
I don't know, I guess I was just struck by the contrast.
posted by JimK at 2:48 PM
14 Comments:
Man, down in Brazil they know what government is for: Enabling safe carousing.
how about posting the crime statistics from the pre-Lent celebrations?
Anon, it was very sly the way you oh-so-subtly began building your case that condoms cause crime. Luckily, I caught you, or you would have taken us completely by surprise with your dramatic and irrefutable conclusion.
JimK
No, I didn't mean that Jim. Promiscuity and prostitution would never have anything to do with crime.
Yeah, man, And I mean, condoms would never be used for used for, like, promiscuity and prostitution.
No, they're distributing them to the housewives from Germany who come down for the festivities and like to blow 'em up and draw faces on 'em. Y'know?
What? They do not.
They use them for the water balloon tossing contest.
Well, at least they'll have some clean wholesome fun. Why didn't Mayor Ray in N'awlins think of this?
Your point is unclear.
Governments, governments, governments...
It seems like their government kind of actually cares about its people.
How much money are we spending on New Orleans?
And Bush just asked for $120 Billion more for Iraq.
What they're doing is curbing the problem.
What we're doing is ignoring all sorts of problems.
"What they're doing is curbing the problem."
What problem is that, Alex?
AIDS and other STDs.
Jim writes,
"It's that time of year when we boost distribution because of the increase in demand," an official from the Health Ministry's anti-AIDS program said.
25 MILLION condoms? Who's watching Carnival?
Twenty ... five ... million ...?
I don't know, I guess I was just struck by the contrast.
I lived in Brazil for 14 months back in the early 80's; I lived in the southern most state, the State of Rio Grande de Sul.
I am not in the least bit surprised by such a distribution scheme. As much as anything it is a reflection of a lack of self-restraint. The best place to view this lack of restraint is in none other than Rio, perhaps the most violent city of its size anywhere in the world.
Actually, Orin, I have friends who've been to Rio, and it's basically two cities. One is grossly poor and violent, the other a typical modern city where Carnival plays out. A lot like Cairo and many other global metropolises.
Have you noticed that it is in rigidly Catholic countries such as Brazil with a tributary in the old New Orleans where these binges occur? The Church was smart enough to set up these releases for their people because they recognized the severe difficulties in controlling sexual passions. Sexual desire has always been a problem, and probably always will be. Lectures about God from the likes of the divorced Michelle Turner and Anon are not going to change that, and now that marriage for heterosexuals is often delayed for fifteen years past puberty we had better come up with some other solution besides self-righteous literalist chest thumping.
Well, I would never consider visiting Rio...
Dana writes,
Have you noticed that it is in rigidly Catholic countries such as Brazil with a tributary in the old New Orleans where these binges occur?
New Orleans...another extraordinarily wicked city...another city that is on my "do not visit" list. Besides, while I do not know about New Orleans, I do know that Brazil is no longer the rigidly Catholic country, as I lived there in the early 80's and say everywhere a church in decline.
The Church was smart enough to set up these releases for their people because they recognized the severe difficulties in controlling sexual passions.
Are you sure this is the case? Or, have the people simply set this up themselves?
Sexual desire has always been a problem, and probably always will be.
Yup...that's right...humankind's fallen nature, what we Catholics call Original Sin.
Lectures about God from the likes of the divorced Michelle Turner and Anon are not going to change that,
Just a moment here...what do you know about the nature of Michelle Turner's first marriage and subsequent divorce? Could there have been issues of abuse? Absent a knowledge of such details, your mentioning it is about as relevant as me mentioning that Sen. Ted Kennedy is a poor excuse for a Catholic...besides being unfair.
and now that marriage for heterosexuals is often delayed for fifteen years past puberty we had better come up with some other solution besides self-righteous literalist chest thumping.
Ever heard of self-control? Nah, that is just too quaint, isn't it? A tad old fashion, right?
Frankly, I would not mind it at all if those that want to sexually "express" themselves bore the burden of such "expression". Regretably, the negative consequences inevitably spin out to reach every strata of American society.
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