On air: Is Zuma’s private life of ‘public interest’?

President Zuma’s office says he has 19 children, though we’re not sure if that includes the most recent one which he confirmed this week was born last October to a woman who isn’t one of this three wives.

What Jacob Zuma has had to say:

He says he’s done all the “cultural imperatives” that the child brings. He goes on…

Talking points 18 March

How far should a parent go to find a sexual partner for her disabled son? That’s exactly what one woman in the UK is actively doing. She’s even going as far to say she would consider paying for a prostitute for her son who has Downs Syndrome.

This blogger asks How many mothers seek hookers for their sons?

Here are some of the conversations going on on a BBC messageboard. This agony aunt in the UK says she believes this young man Otto Baxter, who has Downs, has the right to sex.

On air: Should adultery be a crime?

She is a leading South Korean actress and today Ok So-ri has been given an 8 month suspended prison sentence for adultery. In South Korea adultery is a criminal offence punishable by up to 2 years in prison. The country’s top judges have always ruled that adultery is damaging to social order, and the offence should therefore remain a crime. But should it?

Has AIDS hijacked the world health agenda?

Is the illness getting the funding it deserves, or are illnesses like TB and Malaria suffering?

Here are a few facts:
*TB kills an estimated 2 million people each year and is the leading cause of death for people with AIDS.
*At least 1 million people die from malaria each year, mostly children in Africa.
*AIDS is the world’s fourth leading cause of death.

Talking Points August 8

Goodmorning, it’s Karnie..

Thanks to everyone who stepped in last night to moderate the blog!

As the International Aids conference in Mexico comes to an end, Red Cross representative, Dr Mukesh Kumar says that despite unprecedented financial support for the disease, this was still not good enough. He says: “We are still confounded by the fact that we’re not doing enough against the epidemic”.

Would legalising cannabis benefit your community?

Today we’re talking about Cannabis on the programme, it comes from a debate you started here on the blog on the talking points page. Two states in America, California and Oregon, are considering whether cannabis should be legalised and sold alongside alcohol in stores. The argument goes that it would boost the local economy by employing more people, farmers would be able to grow it, it would raise more taxes and free up police to focus on catching the “real” criminals.