Thabo Mbeki, notoriously touchy on the topic of alleged 'African promiscuity' (see end of posting) will find the following a relief. If you haven't picked up on the fascinating research into a gene that helps/helped Africans cope with early variants of Malaria, but which now potentially makes them more vulnerable to HIV infection, then read this report. It's one of several from around the world this week and may well account for some of the awful HIV/AIDS stats in this country. Let's hope the scientific gurus can look at gene manipulation, rather than purely a vaccine, in the fight against the pandemic. Click on the image to open a larger version, in another window.
This is what Mbeki had to say on topic in an address at the University of Fort Hare. He later made more angry and quite crass statements in a similar vein. This particular snippet is excerpted from the Financial Mail online. Danke.
In an address at the University of Fort Hare in late 2001, (Mbeki said) that people "who consider themselves to be our leaders take to the streets carrying their placards, to demand that because we are germ carriers, and human beings of a lower order that cannot subject its passions to reason, we must perforce adopt strange opinions, to save a depraved and diseased people from perishing from self-inflicted disease".
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