Not a Headline you See Everyday
Steven L. Taylor
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Thursday, September 1, 2011
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2 comments
Via the BBC: Zimbabwe MPs shun circumcision
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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Interesting that this pops up. I had just heard an interview with a sociologist studying AIDS in Africa. There was a lot of interesting stuff about how gossip (who might be promiscuous and risky, who might be sick) slows transmission.
At the end of the interview the sociologist was asked about what she would do, and she turned in a different direction entirely. She said she’d halt all abstinence campaigns, and put all the money toward encouraging circumcision. It was she said, the most effective, documented, way to reduce transmission.
(It was a public health innovation in semitic peoples.)
Zimbabwe has not been known as a shining example of good government.