Reuters-Cultural Approach Urged Aga

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Subject: Reuters-Cultural Approach Urged Against Asia AIDS Epidemic 

Cultural Approach Urged Against Asia AIDS Epidemic
07:41 a.m. Jun 16, 1999 Eastern
By David Brunnstrom

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Countries in Asia's upper Mekong River region lack the
resources to cope with AIDS and must combine their cultural resources to
deal with the crisis, a UNESCO consultant said Wednesday.

Anthropologist David Feingold said a regional AIDS conference in the
northern Thai city of Chiang Mai this week called for a cross-border
approach that would pool experiences and social resources of the region in
the fight against the disease.

``It's painfully obvious that no country has the resources to confront the
epidemic on its own,'' Feingold said.

The conference, which drew representatives from Thailand, Cambodia, Laos,
Myanmar and southern China, heard that more than seven million people in the
Asia-Pacific region are now infected with the virus that causes AIDS.

``No country has the resources without involving their cultural resources.
There is too little money and too many people to take a public health
approach,'' he added.

Feingold said social institutions like the Buddhist monkhood, the media and
practitioners of traditional medicine had a crucial role to play in AIDS
prevention and care of victims.

``One of the things that came out of the conference was a commitment to
create a cross-border relationship between monks to help utilize them in the
fight against AIDS,'' he said.

Monks had already played a key role in Thailand in getting across the AIDS
message and in providing care.

``The idea is to reinforce links that monks have in different countries,''
Feingold said. ``It is often easier for monks to travel between countries
than other people -- for example it's much easier for Burmese monks to visit
Thailand and vice versa.''

Feingold said the Thai media had played a crucial role in warning people of
the dangers of AIDS and restrictions on press freedom had direct
consequences in terms of infection rates.

``The fact that Thailand has a very aggressive and free press probably saved
thousands, if not tens of thousands of lives because the press confronted
the government on this continuously,'' he said.


``If you have a closed society, if you do not allow public debate and public
criticism, that's going to cost lives directly. People are going to die
because of that choice.''

Feingold said this was one reason authoritarian Myanmar (Burma) had the
potential to become ``the AIDS disaster area of Southeast Asia.''

However, gradual progress was being made in Myanmar. ``It's in denial but
the sense of denial is less strong than before,'' Feingold said.

One of the problems raised at the conference about Myanmar was that the
Buddhist hierarchy was more conservative and monks would not, for example,
discuss the merits of condoms.

``The people who came from Burma said people would find this offensive --
this is not a political statement, it's a cultural statement,'' Feingold
said.

``But they can play an active role in saying: 'You must educate yourself
about AIDS, you must protect yourself, we must be compassionate about people
who are ill'. They can make people more receptive to detailed information,''
he added.