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"Taiwan wants betel nut girls to join
in anti-AIDS drive"
The
Star (www.thestar.com.my)
(08/04/07)
TAIPEI: Health officials want to turn the scantily clad women who sell
betel nuts at stands along Taiwan's roadways into anti-AIDS campaigners.
Betel nuts, chewed as a mild stimulant, are popular among truck and taxi
drivers – and vendors often compete by staffing roadside sales booths with
young women in bikinis, translucent blouses or nurse's uniforms with
miniskirts.
The government plans to have the women give their customers boxes containing
condoms and an AIDS warning, Yang Shih-yang, an official at the Centre for
Disease Control, said yesterday.
“Research done from Africa to Himalayan countries has proved one thing: The
AIDS viruses are spread along the highways,” Yang said.
He was apparently referring to truckers and cab drivers engaging in
prostitution or sex with multiple partners.
However, Yang said the plan is still under study because authorities do not
want the act to accidentally promote the sale and chewing of betel nuts –
which many physicians say could cause cancer.
Several of the saleswomen, interviewed recently by Sanli Cable News,
dismissed the anti-AIDS proposal as too sexually suggestive, and said it
could expose them to risk of assault. — AP
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