So You Think Sending Condoms to India is a Good Idea?

Published on April 23, 2005 By Gideon MacLeish In Current Events

The following is from a Yahoo! news article. Yet another (albeit humorous) example of how money spent to help other nations is used in ways other than intended (and WHY we might want to reconsider using our money this way):

NEW DELHI - Only a quarter of condoms made in India are used for sex, most of the others are used to make saris, toys and bathroom slippers, a newspaper reported Saturday.

The condoms are valuable to manufacturers because of the lubricant on them. Sari weavers place the condoms on their thread spools and the lubricant on the prophylactics is rubbed off on the thread, making it move faster through their sewing machines, The Economic Times newspaper quoted an Indian industry official as saying.

Sari makers also turn the condom's inside out, place them on their fingers and use the high-quality lubricant to polish gold and silver threads used in the traditional Indian women's outfits.

India manufactures more than 1 billion condoms annually to check population growth and curb the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Comments

Jamie Burnside

on Apr 23, 2005

If only a quarter are used for sex, donating agencies should quadruple the supply. That way the original allocated amount will actually be used to prevent STDs.

Reiki-House

on Apr 23, 2005

It's interesting. India and Pakistans as we all know hate each other and wish nuclear death on each other. Though it's not big news over here, one thing the Indian and Pakistani soldiers like to do is cut off the penis of the enemy and send them over the opposing border for the enemy to find. Of course the reason being to show the other side how some are no longer able to reproduce, hence cutting their baby making parts off. It's dirty over there, and there is no respect for human life among those types of soldiers. Now I don't know if it's standard behavior, or if it's more like a few bad apples acting on their own. With the long lasting hate over there, it's reasonable to think it's policy rather than infrequent. Sending condoms to another nation is kind of silly really. Kids make ballons, hell, even men make balloons out of them. Fill them with water, and I don't mean penis water which is all that comes out once your sperm is fully ejaculated. I mean H2O water. Anyways, neat post.

PJ_

on Apr 23, 2005

A better idea would be to allocate some resources to educating people on what the condoms are actually for and why they should be used for that purpose. And possibly make the lubricant available seperately, if it's so useful for industrial purposes.

Dr Guy

on Apr 23, 2005

Well, you got to admit. The Catholic Church would endorse the use of 75% of the condoms in India!

The liberals should be happy!

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