you can't hide behind social graces

Since Sepia Mutiny appears to be playing their usual April Fool's prank, let me just point out two interesting stories that are down with brown. First, a drop in new HIV cases has been reported in Southern India. In the midst of news about how woefully under target the WHO fell of getting antiretrovirals in the hands of 3 million in the underdeveloped world, this is a nice change of pace. The drop is attributed to two factors I thought (cynical as I am) would be impossible to implement in India- an increase in condom use by men and an increased insistence by prostitutes that their clients wear condoms. I have friends who have worked in this field in India, and they have often complained at how hopeless the situation appeared to be for women, who often have little voice in sexual practices. This, therefore, was truly heartening news.

In a far more complicated angle, an Indian doctor was imprisoned for revealing the sex of a fetus to its parents. I will be honest- I was not even aware that in 1994, an Indian law passed to bar doctors from using ultrasounds to predict the sex of a fetus.

Now, I was a bit conflicted about this on the surface. Why is it that physicians are shouldered with the responsibility of preventing the abortion of a female fetus? Is that not the responsiblity of the parent, or at the very least the physician performing the abortion, and not the physician performing the ultrasound? All these thoughts were swirling around in my head, until I read this excerpt:

The doctor was secretly videotaped telling one woman that the scan showed that she was carrying a "female fetus and it would be taken care of."

Um, yeah, never mind- you can go directly to jail as far as I am concerned, Dr. Sabani.

A part of me goes to my most base level when I read about this sort of thing. This nonsense about women leaving the family when they are married is one of the most disturbing traditions that never seems to die in several cultures. It was prevalent in my family, and perpetuated by many women. I find that particularly disheartening. At the same time, I have seen reversals in thinking on this. Maybe my cynicism will be once again refuted, and the tides will turn. The NYT points out, however, that this is not such a great victory, since the practice is far more widespread than the punishment. Sigh.

Since I am observing Cesar Chavez Day by working from home today, oodles and I are going to lunch. Okay, I might also be working from home today because I have a million TPS reports to write. If the reports are finished, I am hoping to make scones this evening. My plan is to distract J with the smell of something baked so that she may less notice she is staying in a crack shack. I feel certain she is far too smart to fall for this, but I am grasping at straws here. Oh well- if nothing else, I should give her plenty of material for her comic genius to do its thing.