Forgot....Yesterday was World AIDS Day (for Dee and Hoops)

[aabram]

My Seventeen-year-old has recently got involved with LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisesexual and Transgender) and was involved with a small production surrounding Public Education on AIDS. Her 'Glasgow Accent' is very good and she knows just how to carry all this forward :) Anyway, this would have been turned into a DVD in front of Stephen Fry and other stuff, but Stephen Fry got stuck in Glasgow. So anyway they sang their song and left it at that. It seems as though they'll be making a CD, and other stuff, so I'll keep you all posted. Meanwhile here's a link

http://www.lgbtyouth.org.uk/

Annabel

[hoops]

thank you annabel, that was sweet of you to think of us
peace
hoops

[Dee]

Well, every day is AIDS Day for me.

I have to admit I've grown rather cynical about having one day a year marking the plight of this scourge of a disease. People continue to become infected despite knowing the ways to try to prevent it. We’ve been “talking” about this for more than a quarter of a century and it’s not changing much of anything. Countries that have lower general education or whose cultures live by mythology and superstition and such is where education is really needed.

For all the years of promoting taking precautions against new infections, the statistics say that even now one in three people who are infected doesn’t even know it. And so, the spread of HIV continues either through lack of self testing, complacency about it, through poor blood product management, or flat out denial of its realities.

Others (usually young adults) don't worry about getting infected since they say now there are drugs to manage it. Yes there are drugs, but in reality they only work in conjunction with major behavioural changes. And taking drugs guarantees nothing. The associated problems of having HIV are complex and not easy to live with and too numerous for me to include here.

Sorry to be a downer, but that’s World AIDS Day to me.

[aabram]

Dee,

I have always been sorry to learn about your disease. Public awareness is the name of the game here, and if my dear sweet daughter has the presence of mind to get involved with this, then good on her. Should she continue to volunteer with LGBT then I shall encourage her every step of the way. She could even end up training as a Suicide Counsellor. I have every faith in her.

The main problem in this world IS public ignorance, and if she can do just a little bit to help out, same as I do with AfA, then that is all I ask of her. Please know that every person who helps out in this way contributes to a knowledgeable world and one in which we would all rather live. Unfortunately that is the ideal world and as we know this world is far from ideal. Every contribution, however small, though is worth while, don't you think?

Annabel

Noel

Thanks for that :)

Annabel

[Dee]

Unfortunately, unless someone has been disconnected from the world for the past quarter century, "the public" already knows what AIDS is and what HIV is and how not to contract it. They just don’t want to believe it can ever come to them.

Every day there are more and more newly-infected people (hetero and homosexual – all ages) turning up on an HIV support forum I belong to. And 99% of them are there because they didn't think it could happen to them or they were careless. In some cases they contracted the virus from deceptive partners.

These may be harsh realities to accept, but they are facts nonetheless.

So no, I don’t think these feel good campaigns or having an “AIDS day” once a year are making a bit of difference.

[Eva]

Dee, unfortunately words don't make up for this. Not even kind or supportive ones. Hugs won't cut it either, I know. Nevertheless I do want to send to send that entire package to you because it is all I can do for you personally.

Annabel, I think it is a good thing that your daughter is involved in creating awareness. Everybody who doesn't get infected is worth it. No, one day a year as a kind of rememberanceday is not enough. Especially because, as Dee puts it, every day is AIDS day for those who are infected with HIV and their loved ones. I hope that it will get better.

Eva

[hoops]

Dee,
you're right, having one day to "remember" something like AIDS that you live with every single day of your life seems ...just...not right. and education has been out there for decades. people who lived and died with AIDS in the late 70's and 80's are unknown to young people these days. the lessons that these people tried to live are no longer being seen because people are surviving longer and longer with AIDS and HIV no longer is a a death sentence. young people are passing over the dangers of AIDS as if it were syphillus or the clap. so the rate of young people being infected with HIV is going up while the rate of people over thirty being infected is still going down. education still needs to be out there and i know you know this, it needs to reach people in new and different ways or young people today will fall into the trap if ingnorance whether it is chosen or is set upon them. education needs to be everyday. someday hopefully there will be a cure for HIV and AIDS a vaccination a pill, something as easy to take as the drugs that have made the clap an mere pain in the butt. one day a year to educate about AIDS is sort of like one day a year to remember to care for our earth. it doesn;t seem to be enough. i hope i don;t seem preachy here, i just don;t know how to say i hate this disease and the fact that it has touched people that i care about, and that includes you and i want and i wish, there was something i could do right now to stop it. i don;t know. i just ...i don;t know
peace
Noel

[Darlene]

Hi just got this in my Myspace invitations to be a friend!

Annie Lennox has teamed up with 23 of the world's most acclaimed female superstar voices for the charity record Sing, to raise money and awareness for the HIV/AIDS organisation, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC). The original track, already available to download through all online retailers; will be accompanied by special remixes available from SATURDAY 1st DECEMBER – WORLD AIDS DAY. The track is taken from Annie's new album Songs of Mass Destruction released this week. Annie Lennox recently spent 2 weeks in South Africa with the TAC, recording the real situation millions are facing every day, so the people unaware of the pandemic might gain some understanding. There are few resources to help medicate sufferers or educate the people about the prevention of HIV/AIDS. The trip will be documented across online, TV and print media produced by Annie Lennox herself.

Here's the Link: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=277130778

Darlene

Included among the group of superstar voices are TAC local activist members own vocal group, known as "The Generics", whose CD of social / political activist songs inspired Annie to make Sing a reality. Annie then personally approached each of the female artists by letter and the recordings were made all over the world in each artist local studio over the spring of 2007.

TAC was founded on 10 December 1998 in Cape Town, South Africa. They campaign for treatment for people with HIV and to reduce new HIV infections. Their efforts have resulted in many life-saving interventions, including the implementation of country-wide mother-to-child transmission prevention and antiretroviral treatment programmes. The TAC also runs a treatment literacy campaign: this is a training programme on the science of HIV treatment and prevention.

[Dee]

The challenge of reaching HIV prevention education to the people of Africa who are in need of it most is an enormous one and every effort there is worthy of attention.

“A continued rise in the number of Africans living with HIV and dying from AIDS is not inevitable. There is growing evidence that HIV prevention efforts can be effective, and this includes initiatives in some of the most heavily affected countries.

In some countries there have been early and sustained HIV prevention efforts. For example, effective HIV prevention campaigns have been carried out in Senegal, which is still reflected in the relatively low adult HIV prevalence rate of 0.9%. Also, the experience of Uganda shows that a widespread AIDS epidemic can be brought under control. HIV prevalence in Uganda fell from around 15% in the early 1990s to around 5% by 2001. This change is thought to be largely due to intensive HIV prevention campaigns.

More recently, similar declines have been seen in Kenya, Zimbabwe and urban areas of Zambia and Burkina Faso. However, the extremely severe AIDS epidemics in South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique continue to grow.

Overall a massive expansion in prevention efforts is needed, and although there is no single or immediate tool to prevent new HIV infections, the major components of a successful HIV prevention programme are now known.“

from: HIV prevention in Africa (http://www.avert.org/aafrica.htm)

[lucille]

Our ABC had a special doco on on World Aids day. One of the observances was that the US spends more on Aids prevention and research than any other country. Unfortunately the current US administration do not condone condoms or clean needle pick up points. Once again religious extremism rears its ugly head.

We had a hard hitting ad here basically saying if you have sex with one person, you are actually having sex with every person that person has been with - wear a condom. We are having an upsurge amongst younger people, so they are reviving the ad.

[aabram]

Dee,

This all seems to be a very positive outcome. That one day per year is not enough goes without saying. The most famous storyline over here is that of Mark in Eastenders who died of AIDS in that particular storyline. To have Annie Lennox involved is a further bonus, and one for which we should all be grateful, so yes while I believe not enough is being done, that people as diverse as Annie Lennox, Stephen Fry and my daughter are getting involved are all good signs that the status quo shouldn't remain so for very much longer.

I hope I'm right

Annabel