Devangshu Datta: CC: Two solutions to AIDS are here

VIEWPOINT

From the papers yesterday, I learnt that Bill Gates belongs to the pro-circumcision lobby of the IT industry and Paris Hilton belongs to the no-sex lobby of the bimbo sorority.

Now I'll lay long odds that, if anybody had prophesied circa 1996 that Gates would be evangelising circumcision circa 2006, he would have been strapped into a nice, white jacket and asked to take a long rest in a nice cell with soothing music and padded walls.

I'll lay even longer odds, if readers will forgive the use of the word "lay", that Paris Hilton's revelation about quitting sex to concentrate on work caused just as much incredulity. Damn""I thought that sex was how she defined work with perhaps, an occasional diversion into petting Chihuahuas.

Both of them are doing what they're doing""or not doing what they are not doing, in Hilton's case""for entirely sane reasons. Hilton has discovered that sex distracts her focus.

Like so many harassed execs, she's decided that the work comes first and has quit sex. She's scarcely a trend-setter in this regard, though few people are likely to talk about this aspect of their lives with quite her candour.

Bill Gates advocates circumcision because statistics on AIDS show that the operation significantly reduces the risk of infection. Without getting too graphic, if people indulge in unprotected sex, as humans so often do, the circumcised are liable to be less at risk.

Gates is, to put it mildly, an influential man and this is an unexceptionably Noble Cause (perhaps even a Nobel Cause). So the IT industry could get solidly behind Gates on this issue.

Warren Buffett is also backing Gates with the largest endowment in history. So, Wall Street, Madison Avenue and the insurance industry are all likely to develop a pro-circumcision stance.

I would not be surprised if there is soon a mega-campaign in favour of circumcision with catchy slogans ("Just Snip It!") and theme songs (how about "The Kindest Cut"?) echoing around the globe.

And, even more likely, given Buffett's influence in the insurance industry, premium calculations in health insurance may soon come with a differential in favour of the circumcised.

I have no argument with the cause. AIDS is a killer threat. You, I and the local panwallah may disagree as to its priority on our personal agendas. But we would all agree that AIDS prevention is a good thing.

But there are far more important initiatives than the encouragement of circumcision and Bill Gates backs a lot of those, as well. It just comes through as absurd that this circumcision would be the specific aspect played up in the headlines.

And, that it seemed to get approximately the same amount of space as Paris Hilton's epiphany about celibacy in the mainstream print media.

Now, the media is a business like any other business. If the marketing guys discover through the commissioning of cutting-edge surveys that circumcision and celibacy are two subjects that arouse reader-interest, they ask for larger doses of C&C reportage.

If circumcision does catch on though, it would change global social dynamics. Before you can indulge in the good, old-fashioned communal riot or pogrom, you need to have mechanisms for distinguishing between communities.

In Nazi Germany and in its European colonies, circumcision was the mechanism. It also featured as a signal in the recent French riots and in the genocide across the patchwork of nations, formerly known as Jugoslavia.

It is used as a rough-and-ready differentiator in India, as anybody who has been in a communal situation knows. If circumcision for medical reasons became normal, communalists would have to develop different signals and that might buy us a period of relative peace.

So, counter-intuitive though it seems, Gates was entirely right in his advocacy because there are larger positive externalities to circumcision. And Paris Hilton? If only more people followed her example, there would be higher productivity and no AIDS problem at all!