immune to hiv, but not immune to poverty

Posted on May 28, 2007

ran across this article today, apparently there are a small number of female prostitutes in Nairobi who are functionally immune to HIV. researchers have been taking blood samples and studying them for 20 years now as billions of dollars in funding go to study them. apparently the immunity is at least partly the result of the fact that they are constantly being exposed to the disease and so their immune systems stay on high alert.

and yet, even though the women themselves say that they’d give anything to escape sex work and find a better way to make a living if only there was someone – anyone – who could offer them a job, none of those billions of dollars have gone to help them get out of the poverty trap. why? well the article doesn’t give a good answer, but the cynical part of my mind wonders if perhaps it has something to do with the fact that if these women were no longer prostitutes they would no longer be regularly exposed to the disease, and western medical researchers would be unable to continue studying them.

meanwhile, i can’t help being reminded of Sarah Bartman

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,,2087394,00.html

More on mormons and race

Posted on May 24, 2007

I just found these quotes on wikipedia and they mesh rather nicely with what I remember reading in the church library way back when i was a confused little mormon kid ……

check it: Read more

another gun control article

Posted on May 23, 2007

I just saw an interesting article on gun ownership posted up at the Phoenix Insurgent website. It analyzes the origin of gun laws a bit differently then I did in my recent post on the same topic, but I don’t think the two pictures of history are mutually exclusive. Rather, they show two different sides of the same phenomenon, viewing the same process from two different angles. Their article is also very relevant because it looks at class and race as factors in the modern gun control regime. Interesting stuff.

They’ve got a bunch of other great articles up as well, including one on intelligence and wealth that should be required reading for every social darwinist. check ‘em out.