World News and Trends- Africa: Four out of 10 HIV-positive
AIDS continues to claim a devastating toll in southern Africa. Botswana, the world's worst-hit country, has an HIV infection rate of 38.5 percent.
In neighboring poverty-stricken Zambia, dependent on its copper mines for 90 percent of its income, mining companies "have to train four people for each skilled job in the knowledge that three will die." Other nations in southern Africa are similarly affected.
Why is this region of the world suffering more than others?
One reason is its migrant-labor system. Many of the region's peoples have homes in their ancestral homeland but spend most of the year living in hostels near their places of work, leaving their families behind. Almost all of these workers are men who frequent prostitutes or have girlfriends, two groups with high rates of HIV infection. In this region of the world, AIDS is almost exclusively a heterosexual problem.
"A typical pattern is as follows. One of southern Mozambique's 40,000 migrants to the Rand (South Africa's mining belt) comes home on leave. He may have been infected by a prostitute (surveys suggest 80 percent of these are HIV-positive) or perhaps by a local girl in a nearby township with whom he has been having a longer-standing affair (60 percent infection rate). He probably knows about condoms; indeed, they are generally dished out free at the mine. But with his township girl he does not use one, nor with his wife. She then becomes infected. In due course a child is born who is probably infected at birth or, if not, through breast-feeding.
"The father is usually the first to die. Then, in Mozambique and Zambia, the father's brother will often step in to help look after the children. He will, by tradition, take the mother as a second wife. He will then be infected too. In due course, she will die"
Most poverty-stricken countries have no social-security system other than the extended family system. "The social security system is the family, and this is now in ruins." In some villages all the people of reproductive age (15-45) are dead, leaving elderly grandparents to raise young children, with little or no support.
Although intensive educational programs warn people of the dangers from HIV, and condoms are readily available, little progress has been made in dealing with the problem. Ignorance and superstition add to the problem, with many placing their faith in traditional witch doctors or taking a fatalistic approach to the problem. Others believe that sex with a virgin is a cure, resulting in babies as young as 3 months being raped.
The Bible shows that the only solution is for sexual relations to be confined to a couple in a committed heterosexual marriage. The Seventh Commandment sums it up: "You shall not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14). Any sexual relationship outside of marriage is a sin. Simple obedience to God's laws in this area would soon stop the spread of AIDS in southern Africa and everywhere else. (Source: The Economist.)
An Article from:
Good News Magazine: July - August 2002
Course Content
John Ross Schroeder
John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.
Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.
John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.
In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.
John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.
Melvin Rhodes
Melvin Rhodes is a member of the United Church of God congregation in Lansing, Michigan.
Scott Ashley
Scott Ashley was managing editor of Beyond Today magazine, United Church of God booklets and its printed Bible Study Course until his retirement in 2023. He also pastored three congregations in Colorado for 10 years from 2011-2021. He and his wife, Connie, live near Denver, Colorado.
Mr. Ashley attended Ambassador College in Big Sandy, Texas, graduating in 1976 with a theology major and minors in journalism and speech. It was there that he first became interested in publishing, an industry in which he worked for 50 years.
During his career, he has worked for several publishing companies in various capacities. He was employed by the United Church of God from 1995-2023, overseeing the planning, writing, editing, reviewing and production of Beyond Today magazine, several dozen booklets/study guides and a Bible study course covering major biblical teachings. His special interests are the Bible, archaeology, biblical culture, history and the Middle East.
