A law is expected to pass in east Indonesia mandating that people with HIV be implanted with a microchipping device so that the government can "monitor" the disease and hold people accountable who are "deliberately" passing it on.
Err....what?
Ok, let me get this straight, instead of, you know, EDUCATING people about the disease in a mass public health campaign, providing condoms and programs to destigmatize condom usage, working to make sex work safer, confronting the issue of drug abuse and substance abuse etc., you want to MICROCHIP PEOPLE???
Wow. Just, wow. Because, you know, having HIV doesn't already SUCK ASS ENOUGH, they should definitely take away personal freedoms and infringe on people's civil/human rights. Because sex is evil people. Sex is evil and if you have sex and you get an incurable deadly disease as a result of having sex, well, then it's your own fault you're treated like dirt (and this totally includes victims of rape, incest, etc. btw. Oh and child sex workers too. EVIL SINNERS ALL OF YOU!) I love it when governments and religion combine and create oppressive openly-hostile regimes that use their power and moral superiority to further victimize already vulnerable populations. Oh and this will TOTALLY stop the spread of AIDS btw. Because now, instead of utilizing health facilities, people who don't want to be implanted, tracked, and potentially criminalized are going to completely avoid getting tested at all. And ignorance is bliss. No doubt the rate of HIV will drastically plummet- a success story for the Indonesian government! (Non-alcoholic drinks all around!) Strangely though, people will keep dying at about the same rate.... hmmmm.... Well, you can't solve everything!
Using religious values to legislate ends up hurting people time and time again. Religion, at its best, is supposed to appeal to our better natures, to bring out our better selves. Every religion acknowledges that this is a process and that everyone makes mistakes and everyone slips up. Unfortunately, (leaving out the small little detail that everyone's concept of religion is different, even if you fall under the same name umbrella), religion is not working with what is real. The reality is that, like it or not, legislate it or not, people have sex and do drugs and get diseases. When we stop looking at what "should" be and start looking at what "is," it's very easy to realize that rather than castigating people for actions that we may not approve of, it's far more productive to stop all the judgemental bullshit, roll up your sleeves, and start utilizing methods and techniques that WORK. And, just in case you were wondering, Indonesia, the whole microchipping thing? Not on that list.
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