When HIV and AIDS splashed on the radar of the American consciousness in the early 1980s, the reaction turned from horror, suspicion, and panic to unity, with icons like Ryan White and Magic Johnson putting the human, if not celebrity, face on AIDS. For several years, when the incidence of HIV infection in the United States seemed to growing at an alarming rate, AIDS was one of the vogue, darling causes of celebrities.

However, when we all were inculcated with education about safer sex, that we couldn’t contract HIV from shaking hands and sharing glasses, when the populations in the United States with the fastest growing rates of HIV diagnosis changed from being white and male to black and female, the war on AIDS was won. American college students sing along with the soundtrack from “Rent,” invincible as ever, because despite the plague that has struck in our lifetimes, we are largely untouched.

Saturday commemorated World AIDS Day. At the beginning of the 21st century, AIDS symbolizes an issue that is no longer glamorous, but a labyrinthine policy battle involving drug companies, globalization and foreign assistance measures. This is because HIV/AIDS and the other diseases associated with it, including tuberculosis, reached their horrific height in sub-Saharan Africa, not in the West.

The West has treated African nations with extreme condescension, deploring its burgeoning populations, high dependency ratios, and high birth rates as an excuse not to respect the cultural considerations for those developing states. Thus, many of the approaches for offering aid to Africa have involved a dictatorial attachment of aid to following Western AIDS prevention practices. The United States threatened to pull aid from African nations who didn’t implement U.S.-authorized AIDS reduction strategies.

For example, in 1999 the United States threatened to halt aid to Kenya for HIV/AIDS related programs if the programs did not emphasize using condoms. Major Kenyan religious groups, like the Roman Catholic bishops and the Muslim clergy, found government programs endorsing condoms unacceptable.

In addition to the religious objections, a policy of increased condom use in Africa is an unrealistic approach which failed to address the heart of the matter – that a largely rural, traditional population with limited literacy and access to the media still do not have basic information about the causes of HIV/AIDS. Couple this with a society that is still largely patriarchal and traditionally accustomed to functioning in a polygamous family unit and the role of women in demanding safer sex is virtually nonexistent.

That the United States averted a pandemic of African proportions may be attributed less to condoms than to public awareness and socialization, and that the choice to use condoms in the United States is a matter of parting with disposable income rather than daily bread.

For those who do not live in nations replete with Walgreens, Wal-Marts and strip malls, the inaccessibility of condoms is compounded with evidence that African health authorities distribute subpar condoms that fail to pass quality assurance tests. Thus, even those in South Africa who regularly used condoms were dissuaded from the practice when it was found that millions of the condoms available in the country were expired or compromised, offering no more protection than unsafe sex. Thus, the AIDS infection rate in Africa marches on, with educational programs poorly funded in favor of condom initiatives that are totally unacceptable to many Africans.

World AIDS Day was barely a post-script in the daily lives of most Americans, who spent their Saturday busy on patriotic shopping sprees. However, President Bush approved $200 million to the United Nations’ fight against AIDS.

Hopefully, the money will be thoughtfully appropriated to educational programs and culturally relevant prevention measures. With more than 300 million victims of AIDS already lost, we can hardly afford to let the infection rate skyrocket in a climate of condescension and misunderstanding.

Rachel Faber Machacha is a graduate in international development studies from Emmetsburg.