Condoms Handed Out Across the Globe

As a young woman growing up in south Texas, my mother taught me that there was no sweeter sound in the English dictionary than the word, “free.” Oh, how our chubby hearts would soar when we came upon the sample lady at our local grocery store handing out free samples of hot pepperoni pizza or tiny cups of the latest yogurt flavor. Sure, we would pass on the free samples of the new healthy, flavorless bran cereal, but, hey, who wouldn’t. Even those seeking out free samples have to have SOME standards. Moving around Texas and coming into contact with friends from different parts of the globe, I came to realize that the love of free things was not only a south Texas thing, but a worldwide pleasure. Thus, it is no wonder that the distribution of free goods would make front page news.

Every Father’s Day is a great day for those men in our lives who have children. Who doesn’t appreciate a day of grilling, pampering and gifts? In Escobedo, a town in north Mexico, fathers were celebrating this special holiday for a slightly different reason. In a quest to increase the education and awareness of health problems afflicting men of this region, the female mayor, Margarita Martinez, decided to launch a campaign wherein men would receive free condoms and free samples of Viagra. According to Mayor Martinez, a strong family unit “requires a healthy man, and a healthy sex life is part of general health.” A team of volunteer nurses and doctors were on hand to administer complimentary health assessments, partly to see which men qualified for the Viagra pills donated by local pharmacies. One of the men fortunate enough to qualify for the free pills, Jose Rico, a security guard, said, “Of course I’m going to use the pills. We’ll see what they do.” Only he and his partner that night will ever know the answer to that one.

In a related story, just a bit south of Mexico…okay, much farther south of Mexico in Antarctica, a United States funded research facility got a very large shipment of necessary items before the dark and bitter cold winter season began. In this shipment were enough condoms to last one year for the 125 researchers and scientists at this home base: 16,500 condoms to be exact. Just in case you are wondering, that breaks down to 132 condoms per researcher for the year, or 11 condoms per researcher per month. That seems a bit ambitious for a large group of scientists, but, hey, winters must get pretty cold and lonely in that hostile territory. The manager of the research facility, Bill Henriksen, justifies the shipment of free condoms by stating that the condoms would be available to every member of the staff so they would not be embarrassed later if they ever came upon a situation when they needed to buy them. He goes on to say, “Since everybody knows everyone, it becomes a bit uncomfortable.” Uncomfortable, indeed.