The Impact of AIDS on the Botswana Civil Service: A Case Study of the Police and Prison Services

That HIV/AIDS has had an enormous impact on southern Africa in general, and in Botswana in particular, is not in doubt. Numerous studies have documented certain aspects of the problem—high HIV prevalence rates, increasing numbers of orphans and vulnerable children, declining average life expectancy, and a high number of deaths among adults during their most productive years. Scholars have engaged in speculation about the possible impacts that this disease might have on social relationships, economic growth and development, and governance in both the near and the long terms. But these studies are only forecasts of possible futures, not data driven analyses. This study closely examines data available from two agencies in the Botswana civil service, the police and prisons services in an effort to assess, albeit indirectly, any impact that the HIV/AIDS crisis may have had on the workforce. Although the AIDS epidemic in the country as a whole was reflected in the experience of these services, neither agency suffered the devastating effects some feared.     

Sexuality,identity and dissidence: new scholarship on sub-Saharan Africa

In this review essay, I consider three recent monographs on sexuality and sexual cultures in Africa. Each of these three books grapple with the “problem orientation” of scholarship on African sexuality, in which sexuality is conceptualised primarily with reference to AIDS, homophobia and violence. The authors move beyond this problem orientation through a common concern investigating the poles of “modernity” vs “tradition”, “global” vs “local” and “authentic” vs “imported” as these concepts are deployed by activists, policymakers, and ordinary people talking about sex. All three authors also engage the question of how and why social changes happen, treating sexual identities and practices as dynamic, emergent phenomena.     

Developing a Tripartite Prevention Program for Impoverished Young Women Transitioning to Young Adulthood: Addressing Substance Use,HIV Risk,and Victimization by Intimate Partners

Little is known about the transition to adulthood for adolescent females and young women who are impoverished and homeless. Co-occurrence of drug use and abuse, HIV risk, and victimization is notable among homeless women, highlighting the need for comprehensive interventions. Unfortunately, evidence-based prevention approaches addressing these inter-related problems among impoverished women transitioning into adulthood are lacking. To address this gap, we designed an innovative prevention program by utilizing open- and closed-ended interview data from impoverished women (n = 20), focus groups with community experts and providers (2 groups; n = 9), and a theoretical framework to direct the research. Information provided by our focus groups and interviews with women supported our theoretical framework and highlighted the importance of addressing normative information, providing skills training, and utilizing a non-confrontational approach when discussing these sensitive issues.     

Towards a holistic theory of speaker credibility

ABSTRACT

Recognising that the credibility of speakers is important, especially within the political context, this article argues that an adequate conceptualisation of the construct of speaker credibility is needed and that such a conceptualisation should be premised on an acceptable ethical framework. The article then evaluates the often used ethical systems and, subsequently, proposes criteria for ethically acceptable persuasive communication, to which political communication belongs. The major theoretical perspectives within which speaker credibility has been conceptualised, labelled structuralist, functionalist and constructivist, are critically evaluated. A holistic theoretical view of speaker credibility is then proposed, in which speaker credibility is understood as a construct with a hierarchically ordered stock of universal and context-specific dimensions of relational, content-related competence, performance and moral qualities.     

Managing and controlling HIV/AIDS talk among Ghanaians living with HIV/AIDS

Abstract

This study explored the meanings people attribute to talking about living with HIV/AIDS. Framed by interpersonal and health communication scholarship based on disclosure and the meanings of talk about illness, people living with HIV/AIDS are asked to describe how and why they discussed their health condition with others. Interviews (focus group and one-on-one) were conducted with 120 people living with HIV/AIDS. A grounded theory analysis of the interviews revealed how communication about HIV/AIDS may be particularly meaningful because it is something people feel they can control during what is already a highly stressful and turbulent time. However, attempts to manage communication are challenged by constraints imposed by others, such as unfavourable and unpredictable reactions to disclosure, which ultimately place limits on how people living with HIV/AIDS control information about them.     

越南毒品政策：变化中的十年

HIV在毒品注射者中的迅速传播引起了越南政府的高度关注,并在1992～2011年间对毒品政策进行了重大调整。发现和分析促成政策转变的因素,探讨毒品政策与实践之间存在的矛盾,及其对吸毒人员获得有效的公共卫生服务的影响,对政府加强毒品问题防控尤为必要。政府应当发现政策冲突对社会及公共卫生可能造成的影响;不同管理部门应协调一致;应建立鼓励公民参与政策制定过程的制度,以强化毒品政策与实践的联系等对策。     

Sex workers’ responses to the HIV and AIDS epidemic in Aotearoa New Zealand

ABSTRACT

This article engages with the voices of women sex workers during the peak of the HIV and AIDS epidemic in New Zealand. The late-1980s saw the formation of the New Zealand Prostitutes’ Collective, a sex worker led organisation that contracted with the government to provide a community-based national response to HIV and AIDS. The article explores the challenges sex workers faced to sustain and implement the use of condoms in their daily professional and personal lives. These included pressure from clients to forego the use of condoms, the risk of carrying condoms amidst the threat of arrest, and the struggle to manage the use of condoms in their personal sex lives. The paper traces both the widespread support for safe sex and the fractures and tensions that emerged as many sex workers mobilised to establish a community-based response to one of the most devastating health crises of the late-twentieth century.     

论HIV感染者/AIDS患者的婚姻自主权

政府歧视性对待HIV感染者 /AIDS患者婚姻自主权的法规在一定程度上加剧了社会本就存在对HIVAIDS相关者的羞辱与歧视 .维护社会公共利益成为剥夺HIV感染者 /AIDS患者的婚姻自主权的理由 ,其根源是要求个人人权屈服于政府的干预手段 ,使人权的目标与社会公共利益对立起来。正确的法律选择是尊重HIV感染者 /AIDS患者婚姻自主权 ,采取正确合理的干预措施 ,真正维护社会公共利益。     

A Community-Based Feedback Process for Disseminating Pedestrian BAC Levels

SUMMARY

During National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Weeks of 1992, 1994, and 1995, blood alcohol concentration (BAC) feedback was offered to pedestrians. Two BAC feedback stations were set up near bars frequented by many university students, and were staffed for either two or three consecutive nights. These stations provided passers-by with their. BAC, as determined by portable breathalyzers. Across the three years of the study, a total of 1,590 individuals (1,192 men, 398 women) participated. The mean BAC for all participants was 0.063 (S.D. = 0,039), ranging from 0.0 to 0.310. Data analysis revealed a main effect for BAC across days, with average BAC being significantly greater on Thursdays than Fridays. A main effect was also found for time, with BACs becoming higher as the night progressed. No main effect for gender was found. However, a significant gender by day of the week interaction resulted from female BAC levels being higher than those of males on Thursdays but male BAC levels being higher than those of females on Fridays. Implications of findings for intervention efforts aimed at curtailing DUI and other alcohol-related problems are discussed.