Anything Less Would Be Uncivilized

I fight HIV in Africa from a desk in Baltimore. A major thorn in the prevention of HIV is rape. Mass rape in the Congo, Nigerian Militants raping pregnant women, and over one million annual virgin and infant rapes in South Africa are enough to disgust even those with little social conscience. This sort of cultural behavior is viewed as unique to the third world where human rights, social values and education are antiquated at best, barbaric at worst. There is no way we would allow such horrors here in the U.S. No way we'd abandon women, children and turn our cheeks when the most hanus crimes are evident in our own backyard. Aside from a television in every home, maybe we're not as first world as we believe we are.

Recently, a wave of gross disappointment has hit Baltimore that probes the question, just who can we trust? According to several reports, we cannot trust MTA Officers, Security Guards, or Baltimore City Police. A friend of mine involved in one of these cases says this is the tip of the iceberg. Other reports suggest hospital staff also neglect to test and treat women reporting rape. All of this on top of Baltimore City Police having to defend themselves in response to a recent report claiming that Baltimore has the nations highest rate of unfounded rape cases.

This suggests that the U.S. and African countries both perpetuate the problem thanks to shared deep-rooted denial and corroboration with perpetrators. But this sort of news rarely makes the front page so I hope major media follows these cases to the end. It's pretty rare that you hear about rape in Africa. It's a downer; acknowledging and discussing the rape epidemic in Africa might call too much attention to our own insecurities. Regardless of what comes of these local rape cases, I'm sure the results will only make the back page. Our only other option would be to confront the problem. Maybe after after elections... until then, women and children live at their own risk.