I don't even have the time to read this article at the moment, but a quick scan made it look fascinating. So if you have time or are looking to procrastinate, or are interested in keeping up-to-date on current HIV issues, take a read:
When a Pill Is Not Enough from the New York Times.
I particularly enjoyed the comment about a certain little south of Southern African government:
The government can get nevirapine, condoms and AIDS treatment out to the most remote corners of the country — by truck or wheelbarrow, to modern hospitals and to clinics with no electricity. But it cannot penetrate what has become the most difficult terrain in AIDS work: the insides of people’s heads.
I was asked the other day about stigma & why do people not just start saying openly that they have it, then we will stop hiding from the problems. But one problem is, is that there is so much stigma attached to HIV. As this article says:
A significant minority of women in South Africa refuse to take an AIDS test. It’s not only that they do not want to confront painful facts that could lie buried a while longer. It’s also that being tested can be dangerous.
It began with the stigma of HIV being associated with homosexual sex in America (which back then and for rightwing USA is sadly so wrong), then the association that Africans are promiscuous AS WELL AS homosexual sex AND prostitution. But what I can never grasp, is that EVERY ADULT is either having sex or having the urges to have sex. It is the most natural feeling the world.
If someone is having sex before or only after marriage, with multiple partners or just one person or even no-one, with same gender or both genders or the opposite gender.... it is all their own choice!
And so one way for you to fight stigma, is to realise what your principles are about sex, and realise that these are yours alone and not shared by the whole world, so do not judge someone who holds and acts on opposing sexual principles.
I am sure I have blogged this all before, but it is a busy uninspired day, following a great fun-filled weekend.
9 comments:
Hey sugar
I gotta tell you - whilst I may prefer to keep my views on government, crime, AIDs etc to myself - I admire your commitment and passion. It's quite phenomenal.
Thanks very much!!
I blame my father really. Making me so strong willed, opiniated, & independent. Which I remind him of everytime my debtor comes past with his knee-tapping sledge hammer. I am doomed to be broke my whole life!! Unless my dad starts sponsoring me. Which he is not falling for, after yesterday's attempts proved. Or unless I find a sugardaddy. Which is a threat that means nothing to my dad it would appear!
All in all, everyone is getting a cheeky amount of flack from me today. (Just told a colleague that no, it was not great news we'd finally resolved some assignment issue, as all it meant was we established I have more work to do!)
Ah Thanks Flower! And you keep doing what you're doing, cause I'll be needing you & your historical knowledge at many stages in the future!
Party is still in a coupla weeks time, which is good reminder...I need to put that deposit down!
Whats the deposit for, you still haven't explained exactly what the party is? Seeing as you write this blog in a semi-anonymous way there is surely no harm in letting us know. C'mon now.....
Ha Ha, Dave, the deposit is for nothing too kinky, and also less of a deposit than actual payment. R150 for the food & drinks.
Though, speaking about kinky & this party, I do remember us all at some point wearing masquerade masks like in EYES WIDE SHUT...
Also, nothing in this town, and especially considering I am as outspoken enough in real life as in this blog, is semi-anon. I often wonder who I know has clicked on about this blog. Or even how many degrees of seperation there are even between you and me, considering your age and schooling and background.
Champs, I don't post anonymously, my mugshot is up for everyone to "recognise", that means you know a lot more about me than I know about you! I have met people in London who read my blog and I don't even know them. Obviously my non-anonymity precludes me from writing about some of the stuff you write about. My mother, sister, girlfriends etc read my site and I often end up curtailing certain stories or making them slightly more palatable to my audience of family and friends. I reckon I get up to more stuff in one day than Tucker Max does in a year, ok, not quite, but you know what I mean!
That scene from EWS is one of the greatest directoral sequences ever shot. There is practically no acting due to the abscence of facial expression and yet the tension and energy in the scene is amazing.
I agree that it would be pretty simple to work out who you are if somebody, who already knows you, discovered your blog. I reckon there are probably only a couple of degrees seperation and you never know, we may bump into each other when I'm back in Jozi at the end of the year, the problem is I wouldn't have clue who you are!
Dave, I'll be the hot chick in the club wearing an AIDS ribbon on my jacket, handing out condoms & dancing up an uncoordinated storm.
No, actually I don't wear the ribbons too often, and I know other hot chicks that do. Plus I dance damn well, and don't dance very much cos I prefer to bar and tequila.
But I am pretty certain if I did bump into you, I'd confess who I am, knowing me. And then I'd make you drink several tequilas.
See you in December then!
(It's that music in EWS that creates all the tension. Freaked me out enough, all the piano bashing!)
Tequila is not my poison of choice, you have no chance of even getting me to look at tequila, never mind smell the stuff and over my dead body will I ever drink it!
Looking forward to my Jozi visit end of the year, get your party dress on and your dancing shoes ready!
It's tequila or a suitcase. I don't venture much further. Why I venture there at all I do not know!
And I am pretty certain I have said several times in one month the same thing you say here about tequila.
Just give me a shout in Dec.
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