It is interesting the story of HIV-AIDS spread around the world. My experience here in the US is that people don't really think much about it, because they read the numbers that say that, although the disease is still on upsurge, it is more concentrated on homosexuals, black and hispanic population, and not that much on the rest. So they pretend they don't really care.

In Brazil I remember that, at least in the group I lived, people were always very concerned with this. There are lots of government-sponsored advertisement around, especially around Carnival, with even distribution of free condoms. Here? I may not be a big TV guy, but I never saw anything of the sort.

Why this came to my mind today? Actually it was yesterday when I heard the drama the Red Cross is going through right now. It actually scared me to hear about something this big! Not as much as when I saw the numbers in Africa for the first time, the life expectancy dropping absurdly in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana (check it yourself - click on "The impact of Aids" on the sidebar for more scary facts about the way things are in Africa).

I don't know why I'm in a mood thinking about social issues lately. Maybe I just want to keep my mind out of my research problems... Later I'll blog about my Wal-Mart experience this morning. I didn't want to take the focus out of this issue.