039.5 From cows to STD's

Dear Quibbles,
     Having the same history teacher as you, I was aware the significance of the cow in modern day Africa, but was not aware of the interrelation between cows and the growing number of women contracting HIV. However, I want to challenge your argument!
     If cows are a symbol of status, wealth, and when marriage time rolls around, a currency of sorts, it's probably not a wild assumption to predict that most of the women who don't have enough cows to get married are on the poor side. Poor within their community or country that is. My claim is thus: I feel that in any sort of less affluent situation, there will undoubtedly be more STI's, such as HIV, due to lack of proper education, medical centers, contraceptives, etc.      This may be vastly more evident in Africa than say, a first world county. Firstly, far too few Africans attend school, and almost definitely not sex ed. Moreover, the children who attend school tend to be far more male than female. Frankly, teaching women rather than males about preventative tools they can use to prevent STI's and unplanned pregnancy is just logical, because as someone once said, "Women think with their minds, and men think with their genitals." I think someone said... Haha, that might have been too far. But honestly, women are far more mature than men.
     The more rural parts of Africa also suffer from a desperate lack of medical facilities, which means no contraceptives or treatment for contracted STI's. I can imagine trivial injuries or sicknesses that America could prevent with a simple shot taking advantage of Africa's often medical vulnerability. Injury and sickness may leave permanent conditions or marks that could further inhibit marriage. Conclusively, my point is this; If cows are money (somewhat) and lack of cows means poor education, leading to the unknown dangers of STI's, perhaps it's not directly the cow's fault?
     I have one more brief point I'd like to make. Traditions can't simply be done away with, and for what point? Were you referring to the whole "cows as the dowry" thing or doing away with the significance of cows all around Africa? If it was the former, I'd be all for it! Just plain give money as the dowry. But I can see how to an African family, cows might be of more significance. As for the latter, the ancient Bantu people, as well as the Khoi were large herders of cattle, a tradition that's still practiced today. If the roots of this "tradition" are located so extremely far back in history, I'd hate to see it vanish; traditions should be altered as the world around people changes.

Love Always,
- Nargles 10/16/14