bookmark_borderA.I.D.S.

Support World AIDS Day

Auto Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

Doesn’t sound that bad really, when you say it like that. Just some medical term you can ignore. When was the last time you were tested for it? Yes YOU.

This year in the UK, World AIDS Day is about reminding us all that HIV is an issue for everyone. There are many ways you can offer support.

bookmark_borderWorld AIDS Day

I don’t know where to start. Just this morning another news article about rising figures in the UK, are we heading back to the hedonistic days of the 80s? Haven’t we got the message?

“The global HIV/AIDS epidemic killed more than 3 million people in 2003, and an estimated 5 million acquired the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)—bringing to 40 million the number of people living with the virus around the world.”

The Link and Think campaign urges participants to publish links, discuss personal stories, comment on news headlines, and more. The frustrating thing is why we need to at all. The information and knowledge is already out there, yet people seem to be choosing to ignore it. A quick fuck, a quick hit from a shared needle, such transitory pleasures. Is society to blame? The buy everything, do everything now, faster, faster, faster environment we find ourselves in may be one of, the many, traps which are causing the figures to rise again.

In parallel, the ban on using mobile phones whilst driving is seen as the first step towards making that activity socially unacceptable, something I thought had already been achieved in the fight against AIDS.

Yet it doesn’t seem to be going away. Do we make the message harder? Shock treatment? Or try harder to educate? CAN we do more in this country? Or are we resigned to the fact that AIDS cannot be beaten? What do we do when we reach 100 million HIV+?

Picture this: How many people work in your office, or live in your street? On average 8,000 people die from AIDS every single day. CAN you picture that?

And the reason that you, statistically, don’t directly know someone who is HIV+ or has died after contracting AIDS is because 95% of all AIDS cases occur in the world’s poorest countries.

Today is World Aids Day – do you have the time?

bookmark_borderBloody Sunday

Mark your calendars, 10:15pm on Sunday, BBC 1, Panorama.

It seems that the Vatican is claiming, condoms don’t stop Aids: “The Catholic Church is telling people in countries stricken by Aids not to use condoms because they have tiny holes in them through which the HIV virus can pass”.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Despite overwhelming evidence, researched by the World Health Organisation and other groups, that condom use reduces the risk of HIV infection by 90%, the Vatican’s Cardinal Trujillo said:
“They are wrong about that… this is an easily recognisable fact.”.

I’m almost at a complete loss of how to express myself about this. I’m no fan of the catholic church (nor religion in general to a degree) but this is astonishing.

It is probably easily explained, if not understood: as the catholic church loses place in society the Vatican staff look for other ways to enforce their ‘teachings’, and become more radical as they get more desperate. More worrying is the level of control and influence that they hold. They seem to be successfully trading on traditional values ‘gained’ through the Inquisition, than trying to adapt to modern times.

World Aids Day
I’m lucky, neither I, nor anyone I know are HIV+. That said it is not a subject I know much about in detail. So, to mark Worlds Aids Day, I am taking the opportunity to broaden my understanding of HIV, AIDS, it’s history and how it effects people all over the world.

Take a moment today to improve your knowledge or change the way you think about HIV, AIDS and the many sufferers throughout the world.

bookmark_borderBert and Ernie

“Hey Bert”
“Hey Ernie”

The odd couple of Sesame Street. Are they gay? Are they just close friends?

As a medium devised to educate children in both basic arithmetic and language, and social awareness, Sesame Street has been the model for many similar shows throughout the world and, typically, if the handling of the introduction of an HIV+ muppet is considered, the show treads carefully in ‘controversial’ areas, and takes a sensible approach to the education of children about such social issues. They don’t force the information, they merely present it as something that happens in every day life, and hopefully the children will then discuss it with their parents. Very sensible.

So I can only hope the film that made it’s debut at the Sundance festival is not viewed by children. Let’s bring up our children to not care whether someone is gay or not, let’s bring up our children to accept the blank canvas as a starting fact. Let’s bring up our children without the prejudices that we have, or have inherited. At the very least, let’s bring up our children to think for themselves, and to question the values of others.

On the same topic, this article seems odd, considering it comes from a Gay and Lesbian Youth magazine. I’m not that attuned to gay culture, but I would imagine, like ANY culture, that the re-enforcing of stereotypes would be something they wanted to avoid.

Or maybe, considering this is a ‘spoof’ movie and was no doubt produced tongue-in-cheek, I’m getting all worked up about nothing.

Maybe.

bookmark_borderBAD bad

And finally… Good news and bad news.

My sister is happy. This is good news.

The bad news; A friend of mine recently had some distressing news concerning a car getting broken into, the guy who did it cutting himself and bleeding all over the interior over the car. My friend then drove the car home only to receive a call from the police helpfully informing her that, as the man himself stated when he was arrested minutes after breaking into her car (thanks to a chance police van that happened to be passing), the blood did have traces of HIV+ and Necrotizing Fasciitis (also known as Flesh-Eating Disease). I have struggled to find the right words for both here and when I speak directly to my friend. I’m not sure I will find them. My thoughts and prayers are with you K, as are many others, it will be alright.