The AIDS virus is spreading rapidly throughout India and Brazil. Due to the differences in culture and political policies, these two countries are attacking the AIDS epidemic problem in two totally different ways. On one hand, Brazil plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars for teaching public AIDS awareness mainly to married women and Carnival goers. In comparison, India's government has identified specific targets of their society in order to reach the public and spread the information about AIDS awareness. Brazil's ApproachThe Brazilian Health Ministry has already conducted a majority of its research first hand, gathering much of the primary research needed before spending the earmarked $300 million next year for fighting this epidemic. However, the Health Ministry's plan to distribute 250 million condoms, primarily in urban slums, would be inefficient and a waste of money. In the first place, the fact remains that Brazilian men apparently refuse to wear condoms for protection because they are expensive to buy and the men do not like to wear them. Also, Brazilian women do not have much say as to whether the male in the relationship wears a condom or not during sex. Therefore, even if they know that their sexual partner is sleeping around, these women are afraid of being beaten, or losing their spouse, and will not insist upon condom usage for protection. Since asking their mate to use a condom is considered an insult to a Brazilian male, consequently, distributing condoms in this atmosphere would be a futile waste of resources. Instead of spending a majority of the funding on the purchasing and distribution of male condoms, the ministry should buy more of the female version. As a result, this would allow some of the females in the Brazilian population to take control of arming themselves against the epidemic. Unfortunately, because this version is three times the cost of male condoms, they would not be able to bu...
