Mr. Simon Baker

Mr. Simon Baker, Chief Coordinator, HIV/AIDS and School of Health Unit, UNESCO

"Thailand needs a stronger sex ed programme," says Simon Baker, chief of UNESCO's Asia-Pacific HIV/Aids Coordination and School Health Unit, noting that because sex education is not compulsory nor subject to time or content guidelines, it is taught (or not taught) at the discretion of teachers who often lack training and comfort with the subject.

Simon Baker of UNESCO expressed frustration with Russian authorities' unwillingness or inability to fight the disease more honestly and aggressively.

Baker, who is based in Bangkok, Thailand, which has been ravaged by AIDS, said he had watched the disease spread from the same high-risk groups into the wider community in Thailand in the late 1980s and early 1990s. "In Thailand, no one could say the word 'condom' or 'penis' because it was socially unacceptable and against the culture and religion of the nation," Baker said."It's the same situation here.I have been here for a few days now and have not heard the word 'condom' mentioned once."

Baker added: "The signs are that there is a big disaster coming."

or Simon Baker, UNESCO Bangkok at s.baker(at)unescobkk.org