Page 202 - The Power to Change Anything

Find Strength in Numbers 191

But what if every worker demanded protection and always
refused the financial incentive? Then there would be no place
where clients could find sex workers who offered unprotected
sex and eventually every client would practice safe sex, thereby
stopping the spread of AIDS. But once again, this plan called
for an all-or-nothing deal. If one sex worker broke ranks or one
brothel eased its demands, the game would be off.
To ensure that everyone complied, Wiwat held a meeting
to which he invited all sex business owners. Then he held a
meeting for all their workers. In both forums he explained the
economics of why every single person had to participate in the
plan or AIDS would eventually kill them all along with their
businesses. He then informed them of HIV growth rates and
detailed what would happen if any individual or establishment
refused to sign up for the program.
Eventually, when every worker bought into the plan and
the entire population banded together by demanding pro-
tection, compliance rates increased from around 14 percent
to over 90 percent. As a result of demanding solidarity and
providing needed social support, an estimated 5 million peo-
ple have been spared the horrific consequences of contracting
HIV/AIDS in Thailand.
What role might solidarity play closer to home? When
studying parenting, it doesn’t take long to uncover the simple
yet important notion that, with effective parents, no means no.
Effective parents help bring predictability into a child’s turbu-
lent life by letting him or her know that parents’ word is their
bond. If a child hits her sister, she’ll pay a consequence. If a
teenager comes home after curfew, it’ll come with a cost. With
two parents in the home, the expectation that no actually
means no can of course be achieved only when both parents
stand unified, shoulder to shoulder. Otherwise, the child plays
one parent off the other, and anarchy prevails. When it comes
to disciplining children—as is the case with many profound
and pervasive problems—solidarity rules.