(CNSNews.com) - The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has so far awarded $1.44 million in federal funds to a project that, among other things, is estimating the size of the population and examining the “social milieu” of male prostitutes in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
“In Study 1, formative ethnography will be used to describe the settings, venues, and overall social milieu in which male sex work is being situated,” says the NIH abstract for the grant. “In Study 2, we will conduct a Capture-Recapture Survey to estimate the size of the male sex worker population in each city.”
The grant project began in July 2008 and is scheduled to run through March 2012. In fiscal year 2008, the NIH awarded the project $534,201 in federal funds. In fiscal year 2009, the NIH awarded the project $465,974; and in fiscal year 2010, the NIH awarded the project $442,340. So far, a total of $1,442,515 in federal funds have been awarded to the project.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/68628
Your tax dollars at work...
Your tax dollars at work...
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Your tax dollars at work...
Why??? 
I'm all for academic research with a legitimate purpose, but in what way does this research potentially benefit the average American taxpayer who is footing the bill?
I'm all for academic research with a legitimate purpose, but in what way does this research potentially benefit the average American taxpayer who is footing the bill?
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
~ Carl Sagan
Re: Your tax dollars at work...
bigskygal wrote:Why???
I'm all for academic research with a legitimate purpose, but in what way does this research potentially benefit the average American taxpayer who is footing the bill?
male prostitutes
sex tourism
HIV
public health costs.
Preventing even a few cases of HIV will save a lot more than $1.4 million (which is a very small amount of money as these things go). Having accurate information about this kind of thing can also be valuable in framing public policy in a number of areas.
yrs,
rubato