Just A Short One

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

Just a short one today, and no pun or admissions intended, by the way.

Africa is a wonderful continent, full of unbelievable scenery and animals. If like spectacular scenery or to see animals in their natural habitat, and you have the time and the money for an unforgettable vacation, you could do a lot worse than try some of the great safari parks they have.

But that aside, Africa has its problems and many of them. One of those problems is endemic sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies.

The Republic of South Africa, which would be one of the more modern and progressive countries in the continent unfortunately has it share too. However the government has tried several  initiatives to help to alleviate the situation.

One of these happened in 1999, when David Horowitz, marketing manager of the Society for Family Health in Johannesburg undertook to run a campaign to promote safer sex.

It turned out to be the worst safe-sex campaign  -  EVER!

In fact Horowitz later had to admit that the campaign had actually dramatically increased the danger of sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy, rather than curtailing them.

The Society for Family Health had distributed thousands of pamphlets in Zulu, Xhosa, English, Sotho and Afrikaans, all featuring the character Johnny the Condom and warning against unprotected sex. A free government condom was attached to the leaflet.

Great job you would think. But think again, is anything the government ever does a ‘good job’? Not really and certainly not in Africa where money is scarce and everyone is trying to make their resources go as far as possible.

“We made a deal with a low-budget distribution company,” Horowitz admitted.

And unfortunately all the condoms had been stapled to the leaflet!

Whoops!!!

And then there is this apparently true story, that happened just a few years ago, of a German couple who went to a fertility clinic after eight years of marriage to try to find out why they’re still
childless.

This is hard to believe but the answer was apparently that they weren’t having sex. Yip, that’ll do it every time – er, or not, you know what I mean!

The medical crew at the University Clinic of Lubeck said they’d never heard of a case like it.

Doctors subjected the couple to a series of examinations and found they were both apparently fertile and should have had no trouble conceiving.

“When we asked them how often they had sex, they looked blank and said: ‘What do you mean?’”

“We’re not talking retarded people here, but a couple who were brought up in a religious environment who were simply unaware, after eight years of marriage, of the physical requirements necessary to procreate.’”

The 30-year-old wife and her 36-year-old hapless hubby are now being given sex lessons therapy.

Have you had similar experiences? No, forget it, I’m not even going to ask the question today…