Brazil's HIV funding pulled

7.20: news.pol/brazil's hiv funding pulled:
7.21: summary:
. after hearing that brazil had low HIV
and knowing they are highly hiafric*,
I got interested in comparing them to
usa's HIV program which is not doing well;
but they are not comparing the same things:
they have free anti-virals,
and if that prevents a case of AIDS,
then they are not counted in the AIDS roles;
they don't keep track of HIV status
-- but usa does count that (it's very high here,
because while the hiafrics* are
no more promiscuous than others,
the hieuropeans* are serial polygamists,
whereas the hiafrics are concurrent polygamists .
*: "(hiX)
means "(of X ancestry, from hispanic
from hierarchy, tree, family tree) --9.27 .

. brazil's adult AIDS* was kept under 1%
(compare to africa's 18%),
by funding free condoms and drug treatments;
but it was done with international money;
the usa later pulled out when
brazil wouldn't denounce prostitution;
and, later other money was diverted to
Africa's much worse condition .

*: (this article says HIV was kept at 1%,
but the msmgf.org source indicates
only AIDS not HIV is measured in brazil ).

web: compared to blacks in usa:

. an estimated 1 in 16 black men
[6% of black males in usa]
and 1 in 32 black women
[3% of black females in usa]
will be diagnosed with HIV infection.

. this can't be compared to brazil's 1% rate

because it applies to AIDS not HIV
as HIV is not a reportable event in brazil .
. the HIV rates can be much higher, because
Infection precedes by 8-10 years
the appearance of symptomatic disease .
. it used to be mostly a disease of
the educated bi- or homo-sexual;
but now it is mainly among uneducated hetero's .
. the rate of 1% of brazillians
likely applies fairly to hiafrics too
because brazil is 45% hiafric -- nearly half .
[. npr's portrayal is contradicted by this part]:
    "( Commercial sex work is not legal in Brazil.
    A nationwide evaluation of
    HIV prevention programs
    for female commercial sex workers (CSW)
    found high levels of HIV awareness,
    but significant barriers to
    implementing safe-sex practices,
    including fear of violence,
    increased payments for unsafe sex,
    and competition for clients.
    . In addition, non street-based CSW
    reported more safe-sex practices
    than did street-based CSW.
    Informants also felt that
    stigmatization of their profession
    contributed to violence
    from both clients and the police .)
[. this report also points out that
Brazil has a lot of catholics,
though some strains of it
are mixed with african traditions .]

global warming bugs killing trees for fuel #overpopulation vs #ark-investing

7.18: news,co.pol/fires/global warming bugs killing trees for fuel:
climate central org

. the massive fire seasons recently
were the culmination of a trend:
between 1986 and 2003, western forests saw
a nearly fourfold increase in the number of wildfires,
and those fires burned six times the amount of land
and lasted five times as long
when compared with the previous 16 years.
In response, states and the federal government
adopted policies and legislation,
such as the Bush administration’s
Healthy Forest Restoration Act,
which were designed to head off
increasingly catastrophic wildfires
by thinning forests and reintroducing fire
to areas that were overgrown with fuel
from a century of fire suppression.
Some wildfires would be allowed to burn
in hopes of improving overall forest health.
The fires, however, have continued to grow
in size, frequency, and intensity,
while the policies meant to tame them
have sputtered and stalled.
Air quality issues
increasingly limit the number of days when
prescribed burns can be lit,
and the public is often resistant to them,
particularly after incidents in which
forest managers lose control .
Residents of fire-prone landscapes
are often unwilling to cut down the trees they love,
even when removing a few trees increases their safety.
And building with fire-resistant materials
is often more expensive
and doesn’t fit with mountain traditions.
. between 2000 and 2010,
more than 100,000 people moved into
Colorado’s most flammable forests .
. global warming means that
bugs are killing more trees,
so we have a lot more to burn through;
and, there's less water in the area
to naturally suppress that burning .
Wildfires nationwide cost the federal government
up to $3 billion annually
— twice what they cost a decade ago.
Today wildfires take up nearly half
of the U.S. Forest Service’s budget,
up from 13 % in 1991.

. even with climate change,
the real problem is that people who should be
investing in fire prevention systems
like irrigating the property around them,
are instead relentlessly spending on
expanding the population .
. use solar energy to pump oceans into deserts
and this will make solar do more desalination too .
. the problem is not too much affluence,
it is too much poverty:
high-tech could survive global warming;
but this 3rd-world mentality cannot .