AIDS Epidemic in Africa

* Walter Mosley (“Applying Holocaust Awareness,” Commentary, April 18) trivializes both the Jewish Holocaust and the tragedy of slavery by comparing them to the epidemic of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. This epidemic is not due to genocide, as Mosley alleges, but rather to a tragic combination of polygamy, infidelity, dangerous sex practices and female subordination. This in no way can be characterized as genocide--the systematic extermination of a race or culture.

Furthermore, AIDS in Africa is not “an inexplicable disease” and it did not come “out of nowhere.” Mosley professes no understanding of the problem but somehow knows that our government and corporations are to blame. In spite of this indictment, any effective solution will instead come from a radical shifting of values and attitudes within Africa.

KIRK MOFFITT

La Quinta

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Mosley’s blames “drug cartels” and their “profit-rich patents” for the fast-spreading African AIDS epidemic. This is leftist nonsense. The profits from patents on successful drugs are what pay the costs of developing new drugs. These costs are enormous, and for every one drug that pays off, nine are dry holes. Without these “profit-rich patents” AIDS drugs would not even exist.

CARL MOORE

Lomita