Condoms for Catholics - Brazil leads the way

by expatbrian

I read the BBC everyday because they carry interesting stories that often don't appear in the US online press, at least not the press sites that Google News collects.

Brazil has started a program of harvesting rubber from rubber trees in the Amazon rain forest to be used to make latex condoms. To me, what's significant about this program is the fact that Brazil has the largest Catholic population on earth. Way to go!

This is truly a win-win situation. Poor villagers will be employed to harvest the rubber and work in the processing factory. There is no damage to the Amazon rain forest areas where the trees are located. And the condoms produced will be given away free in Brazil's ongoing effort to fight AIDS.

The new state-run factory is in the north-western state of Acre, and will initially produce 100 million condoms a year, which will be known by the name Natex.

Officials believe that not only will it generate income for Amazon residents, but it will involve using a product which is widely available and can be obtained without destroying large areas of the rainforest.

The Catholic Church has always criticized Brazil's policy of distributing free condoms with their tired, archaic argument that it promotes promiscuity. Using that logic, it follows that the church itself must be issuing condoms to it's own priests thus, explaining their promiscuous behavior. Jerks. I can't wait to read the church's response to this latest and truly inspired idea.

The factory will benefit at least 500 families and provide 150 jobs in the town of Xapuri which has a population of around 15,000 people. The health ministry says the condoms will be the only ones in the world made of latex harvested from a tropical forest, and will reduce the reliance on foreign imports.

According to the Brazilian government, they are the world's single largest buyer of condoms and have purchased over a billion in recent years to give away free to their people.