Criminalizing HIV: Well-intentioned legislation is paving the road to stigmatization and discrimination in Africa.
In Burundi, a willful transmitter of HIV can be tried for murder. In Benin, failure to disclose one’s health status to a sexual partner, regardless of whether a virus is actually transmitted, is illegal. In Togo, it’s unlawful for anyone—regardless of HIV status—to have sex without a condom.
These laws, which are increasingly common in Africa, are intended to stem the spread of HIV, writes social justice blogger Julie Turkewitz in The Indypendent, but the legislation has the opposite effect—it further stigmatizes carriers and discourages testing.
More than a decade ago, Susana Baca was one of the standout voices on The Soul of Black Peru, a compilation on David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label that found its way into the collections of many budding lovers of global music. Her version of the classic song “Maria Lando” was hauntingly memorable, and it launched her successful career at the forefront of an Afro-Peruvian music revival. 
In an effort to combat drought conditions, some farmers in Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries, have adopted a simple technique known as “micro-dosing,” which involves the application of a small bottle cap full of fertilizer directly to the roots of crops, and spares farmers the time and expense of fertilizing an entire field. According to the October 2010 issue of New Internationalist, micro-dosing can increase crop yields by as much as 55 percent. In addition, it’s estimated that if even a quarter of Niger’s farmers micro-dosed, the savings in food aid costs in 2010 would have been greater than $60 million. 
