AIDS Danger Taught Like Magic

Officials at an AIDS clinic in Palm Beach County, Fla., faced a big problem when trying to tell Haitians in the community of Belle Glade about the dangers of the incurable disease. The clinic recently distributed a pamphlet about AIDS printed in Creole, one of Haiti’s two languages, since Belle Glade has a large Haitian farm worker population and has had the highest rate of acquired immune deficiency syndrome in the United States. Then the officials learned that many of the Belle Glade Haitians are illiterate. As an alternative, the nonprofit clinic has recruited four voodoo priests to get the message across. “When some Haitians have an illness, they consult a voodoo priest to see if they can have the spell removed,” said David Cueny, a staff member with the Comprehensive AIDS Program. “We’re trying to get them to build into the rituals some good advice. . . . We’ve had to tread very carefully. If the voodoo priest is perceived as having sold out, he loses his credibility and loses his clientele.”

--Former President Gerald R. Ford received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Hope College in Holland, Mich., on Friday. Just as the academic sash was being placed on his shoulders, Ford reached up to remove his mortar board--apparently to assist in the process--and became ensnared in a tangle of arms and ceremonial clothing. He recovered and delivered a brief acceptance speech. “I have received degrees from all over the nation, and I will treasure this degree more than those,” Ford said.

--Miss Manners helped Harvard’s law students brush up on etiquette, advising them it might give them an edge in court. Lawyers don’t need to be more gentle, Judith Martin, columnist for the Washington Post, told the Harvard Law School Forum, but manners are a tool needed in every profession. “The polite, but wily, lawyer has a tremendous advantage over the lawyer who is not aware of effective manners,” she said. If nothing else, good manners might help young attorneys to stay in one piece. “Etiquette keeps the conflicts on a manageable level,” she told a crowd in the school’s mock courtroom. “We all know what is meant by a statement such as, ‘My distinguished colleague seems to be unfortunately misinformed.’ When you say something like that, you can go on to the matter at hand. But if you put it in common parlance and say: ‘That bastard’s lying,’ you have a fistfight.” Martin was asked if, given the insider-trading and drugs-for-stocks scandals of Wall Street, her speech might have been more appropriate for Harvard Business School. “I am not Miss Morals. I am Miss Manners,” she said.