Abuse of a different kind

This time, it's abuse of the English language.

I was sitting in the unicef office yesterday and Latheef says to me, "Tony, can you explain what this means"?  From the look on his face I could see he felt some disquiet in what he was reading.  It was World Aids Day yesterday and he had found the following on an HIV/AIDS website.  As soon as I read the second line I could see the cause of his concern.

While male to male sex is often discouraged from a moral or religious point of view, from the public health perspective it is desirable to engage men having sex with men in an attempt to help them reduce HIV transmission; not only between men...

It was the use of the term engage which has been adopted in recent years by many people as a replacement for a much simpler word, talk.  The closest definitions of the word engaged for the meaning intended in the about sentance are

To attract and hold the attention of; engross: a hobby that engaged her for hours at a time.



To draw into; involve: engage a shy person in conversation.

But how much clearer it would have been to just write 'talk to'.  Somehow by engaging with people it conveys more importance in the engager and what they are saying.  I think it is probably meant to suggest that a two way discussion will take place but there is no guarantee that the engagee will actually be engaged.

What of course it does not mean in the context of the above is encourage men to become engaged to other men!

Unicef engaging the wider community