All Hail the Condom King

Back in college I had the great fortune of going to Thailand for 3 months and working for Mechai's non-profit. The man is a legend for real and this article barely scratches the surface. While it started with condoms his organization has done so much more since.

My student group worked with Thai students and we visited villages where the PDA had installed solar powered water pumps. We were basically tasked with checking in and seeing how it was going.

The whole experience really changed my perspective on a lot of things. Mechai's approach is based on empowering communities instead of telling them what to do. And guess what? It works.

As a bonus, here is a picture of me with an anthropomorphic condom I met at a Cabbage's & Condoms restaurant: https://imgur.com/a/pRnCrh9

Also, Mechai's TED Talk is worth checking out: https://www.ted.com/talks/mechai_viravaidya_how_mr_condom_ma...

Meanwhile in Mississippi, public school educators have had to resort to teaching kids how to put on socks[1] due to state legislation disallowing condom demonstrations[2,3].

1. https://youtu.be/06kT9yfj7QE

2. https://law.justia.com/codes/mississippi/2013/title-37/chapt...

3. https://mississippitoday.org/2016/03/29/mississippi-extends-...

Gates also has interest in condoms as a technology: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/201...

Resnic is not the only one who has been trying to build a better condom. In November 2013, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation began distributing $100,000 grants to teams of researchers who’d submitted proposals for “the Next Generation of Condom.” The Gates Foundation hopes that at least one of the grantees will develop a product that men in the developing world want to use, which will consequently have “substantial benefits for global health, both in terms of reducing the incidence of unplanned pregnancies and in prevention of infection with HIV or other STIs.” The winning proposals include Resnic’s; a condom made of graphene, which is a form of carbon that’s a single atom thick; a condom incorporating plant-based antioxidants; and an “ultra-sheer wrapping condom” made of polyethylene, a type of plastic often used in packaging. Meanwhile, in 2014 a California inventor raised more than $100,000 on the crowdfunding site IndieGoGo to develop the Galactic Cap, a condom designed to fit snugly on the head of the penis while leaving the shaft bare.

I don't know what's happened since 2013, though; there do not seem to be any readily available updates in the last couple years.

> When people in Thailand want a condom, they don’t call it a condom. Instead, they refer to it by the name of the man who taught them the importance of using one—they ask for a “Mechai.”

In Thai culture as I understand it this is indeed quite an honor. What an achievement.

I remember last time I went to Bangkok, there was a condom themed restaurant that was pretty good. It was on the first floor of the ministry of health, which I thought was pretty interesting.

Still a really weird concept for a restaurant though.

A couple of unrelated notes.

(1) I love the "nerdiness" of not realizing that his (caveat) doesn't fix what he was trying to fix.

I’ve never met anyone who knows how to have as much fun with condoms (in public, anyway)

(2) Reading gates notes these last few years, I really like Bill, or at least the literary Bill. There's an honesty in the way he writes that's just likable. A lot of Warren buffet in his style.

That's all awesome! Now can we get some funding for trials of RISUG? Mr Gates? or at least thoughts on that.

What's with the comment section. Has anyone else noticed more and more word-salad-AI-bots in comment sections? To what end are ppl building and deploying these things?

"Nice someone replied, we can make the debate hot and up the discussion. I saw, maybe, with defined purpose, to motivate me to participate, people kidding with de Funny Balloons the Condom, so, if I could elaborate a campaingn, (Please don't get me in touch with politicians, prefer tech tycoons, movies tycoons....). Anyways, returning, I would elaborate a campaingn with a "kids kit" with real fun balloons, trying to avoid, the people use the Condom to fun. If people use the Condom to fun, the real utility get lost. Resume: LOL; Campaing, explaining about don't use Condom to other purposes. If can the involved combine the 2 pratices? The Condom, besides the female, so usefull, indispensable in fact but, I guess, with any Medical or public health formation, injectable, more effective and some, 3 months of safety. Doing the math maybe a little expensive for governments, 3 to 3 months, the women getting a injection, vacine. Maybe doing the math, more efective to try to resolve the populational growth without control. We have to remember the following. Abbandoned people, in anyway tend to search for bad things. Crimes, drugs, go out home, etc. I see some times, rich people abbandoned, so, maybe, worth to think what is more expensive for the system. A correct, effective born control or the troubles caused with the excess of sons or not structured families. Many questions need to be checked. Religion, Value, if worth, ages, fertility, anyways, it's a multi disciplin debate. Health workers, politicians, activists, companies, government, technology, my old area, is the less useful and THERE ARE A LOT OF SOLUTIONS READY."