12 Responses to “AIDS aid”

1. Sanisha says:
   August 20th, 2006 at 5:03 pm

   …this is ironic…the messages I get in SA is that : AIDS is not so bad, there is hope & you are not being punished. You can live on ARV’s for years, the catchphrase being that you are HIV positive referring now to your attitude and not your status as someone with a potential terminal disease.

   The other irony is that this “I am African” campaign is great marketing for the sake of raising money from the Western nations but its a pity that those sentiments do not exist in real life. An article I read just today confirms what I have always heard from my friends of Zimbabwaen, Zambian, Congolese origins…xenophobia is almost as rife as AIDS is!

   http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/articles/article.aspx?ID=ST6A203078

2. Nureen says:
   August 21st, 2006 at 9:20 am

   lets be realistic……….AIDS is bad but it does not have to be the death sentence we assume it to be.With ARVs ,support groups etc-one can lead a fulfilled life.As Sanisha mentioned it has alot to do with your attitude.

   I had a look at the “I am African ” campaign.I think it is a great campaign.Any effort to make people aware of the plight of AIDS victims is great in my eyes.

   I hate to admit it but we Africans really need to start believing in Africanism ourselves.

3. Saleem says:
   August 21st, 2006 at 11:13 am

   Of course AIDS needn’t be a death sentence; it is a catastrophic event in one’s life, but not perforce terminal. The work of the Gates and Clinton Foundations, of Pepfar and UNAIDS, and of many smaller NGOs on the ground, are all hugely important to the AIDS effort. The attitudes of certain African governments are less conducive, but surely even more inane than Thabo Mbeki downplaying the ravage the disease is spreading in his country, are Hollywood stars permanently removed from the issue, the crisis, its victims and its activists, who hand over stock headshots to a marketing monkey with enough Photoshop skills to apply some “African” face paint more neon than anything naturally extracted.

   Awareness? We’re all aware of AIDS: everyone who can and will do something about AIDS is already doing it: everyone else can take a back seat, because they are detritus in the efforts. Bill Gates doesn’t need Hollywood-worshipping Jane Nowhere to care about AIDS, because he already does. So does Warrent Buffet. Their combined sixty billion dollars joins Bill Clinton’s sixty billion dollars of political capital.

   AIDS? Don’t worry, they’re on it.

4. Sanisha says:
   August 21st, 2006 at 12:00 pm

   yes, we are aware that the right people are pledging this help and we are all quite tired of statistics but if were that simple then don’t you think that all Africans with AIDS would be on ARVs now and living a more quality life ?

   no…they are not! why ?

   even if ARV’s were available to every person the dilemma is that all people have to first be aware of AIDS, take the test despite the stigma attached, is educted about the spread and does not infect others…these are still issues ! and then,

   If he or she is fortunate enough to be a candidate for ARVs then they have to stay on the course of medication, for life, a cocktail of pills, in specified amounts sometimes as many as three times a day…try doing this when you have no car, no house, sometimes no food or water to wash it down with.

   …thats where i think Mbeki sounded like a fool, he focused attention on the issues which perpetuate the problem.

5. Sanisha says:
   August 21st, 2006 at 12:15 pm

   as with war … great ideas and brilliant innovation come out of crisis, i hope some of those $billions go here :

   http://www.cell-life.org

6. Saleem says:
   August 21st, 2006 at 12:17 pm

   I fully agree that the taboos in African societies must be overcome so that AIDS programmes can have the greatest impact. But my original point was addressed simply to the wannabe activism of these celebrities: that campaign is targeted at western ‘awareness’, and believe me, the west cannot be any more aware. Every shortfall of action in the west is not from lack of awareness any more: it’s from lack of caring.

   Meanwhile, if you think Gwenyth Paltrow et al are going to be useful in the awareness necessary amongst Africans, you’re out to lunch. The “I AM AFRICAN” campaign will surely be loudly plastered over western newspapers, magazines and train stations: let me know if they plaster it over Soweto walls.

7. nureen says:
   August 22nd, 2006 at 2:14 pm

   wannabe activism…..?
   I think it’s better to have “wannabe activists” use their fame to bring attention to a cause, than not .

   You right those ads are not likely to be posted anywhere in SA let alone Soweto !

   SA has its own Awareness campaigns -of which the biggest is the LoveLife campaign.(Not very effective though)

8. Saleem says:
   August 22nd, 2006 at 2:32 pm

   Live 8 was one of the greatest western-centric grassroots awareness campaign ever executed. It was quite good; ministers at the Gleneagles G8 summit felt compelled to make various declarations and commitments. But: “Let deeds, not words, be your adorning.” The G8 has only partially met its commitments thus far. Lower intensity grass-roots campaigns to keep the pressure on the G8 have had limited success; meanwhile, citizens of the west are completely distracted from the Live 8 movement of a year ago. Today we are far too spooked by shampoo bottles to give a toss about Africa. At the time of Live 8 I hoped that it would prove the spark for a new civil rights movement, extending across the globe and encompassing the civil, economic and human rights of all peoples, completely inclusive of Africans. But I fear that the westerner is too isolationist, too deluded by a notion that its material civilisation can be guarded against the anger of other citizens of the world, the starvation and disease of yet more, and indeed even their own spiritual deprivation. This delusion causes inaction. And the problem of action is something that Lincoln will return to, shortly.

9. Sanisha says:
   August 22nd, 2006 at 2:41 pm

   yes true , good point…ok, I am on my way home now, i have one… luckily :) and i just want to say quickly that I brought up the poverty issue and the realities of ARV’s because as much as Westerner know about AIDS they probably dont all know the grassroots practicalities and that there is where they can still help and should be reminded (Habitat,Oxfam, Bahai external affairs ).

   yes they need a new shift in priorities but no need to re-invent the wheel.Yes, we need Bill Gates’s money but I guess we also still need Iman’s cheeleading to make the programmes work. This is the kind of awareness and activism that I think both Nureen and I are applauding.

10. Saleem says:
    August 22nd, 2006 at 2:51 pm

    Iman should shut up! I don’t care if she was the daughter of a Somali diplomat. She’s Hollywood now.

11. Laila says:
    August 22nd, 2006 at 5:02 pm

    Yes Iman is Hollywood now, but we cannot deny that Hollywood has an influence on the world. And if people are donating money because they support a cause or just because they are star struck is immaterial. Speaking as an African from a medical background, we dont care about the motivation behind the funds, we just need the drugs!!

12. Sanisha says:
    August 23rd, 2006 at 12:32 pm

    Laila, I have never actually seen a person die of AIDS and so perhaps it is easier to ‘prescribe’ some things that may sound disconnected from real people who are dying of this and other ailments but … I think drugs/aid is a solution but it’s like a plaster on an infested wound, if you see AIDS as another symptom of a spirititually wounded or sick world.

    Over sixty years ago, in His Tablet to Queen Victoria, Bahá’u’lláh, addressing “the concourse of the rulers of the earth,” revealed the following:

    “Take ye counsel together, and let your concern be only for that which profiteth mankind and bettereth the condition thereof…. Regard the world as the human body which, though created whole and perfect, has been afflicted, through divers causes, with grave ills and maladies. Not for one day did it rest, nay its sicknesses waxed more severe, as it fell under the treatment of unskilled physicians who have spurred on the steed of their worldly desires and have erred grievously. And if at one time, through the care of an able physician, a member of that body was healed, the rest remained afflicted as before. Thus informeth you the All-Knowing, the All-Wise…. That which the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and mightiest instrument for the healing of all the world is the union of all its peoples in one universal Cause, one common Faith. This can in no wise be achieved except through the power of a skilled, an all-powerful and inspired Physician. This verily is the truth, and all else naught but error.”

    Abdu’l-Bahá, further states in Foundations of World Unity:

    All the heavenly books, divine prophets, sages and philosophers agree that warfare is destructive to human development, and peace constructive. They agree that war and strife strike at the foundations of humanity. Therefore a power is needed to prevent war and to proclaim and establish the oneness of humanity.
    But knowledge of the need of this power is not sufficient. Realizing that wealth is desirable is not becoming wealthy. The admission that scientific attainment is praiseworthy does not confer scientific knowledge. Acknowledgment of the excellence of honor does not make a man honorable. Knowledge of human conditions and the needed remedy for them is not the cause of their betterment. To admit that health is good does not constitute health. A skilled physician is needed to remedy existing human conditions. As a physician is required to have complete knowledge of pathology, diagnosis, therapeutics and treatment, so this world physician must be wise, skillful and capable before health will result. His mere knowledge is not health; it must be applied and the remedy carried out.
    The attainment of any object is conditioned upon knowledge, volition and action. Unless these three conditions are forthcoming there is no execution or accomplishment. In the erection of a house it is first necessary to know the ground and design the house suitable for it; second, to obtain the means or funds necessary for the construction; third, to actually build it. Therefore a power is needed to carry out and execute what is known and admitted to be the remedy for human conditions; namely, the unification of mankind. Furthermore, it is evident that this cannot be realized through material process and means. The accomplishment of this unification cannot be through racial power, for races are different and diverse in tendencies. It cannot be through patriotic power, for nationalities are unlike. Nor can it be effected through political power since the policies of governments and nations are various. That is to say, any effort toward unification through these material means would benefit one and injure another because of unequal and individual interests. Some may believe this great remedy can be found in dogmatic insistence upon imitations and interpretations. This would likewise be without foundation and result. Therefore it is evident that no means but an ideal means, a spiritual power, divine bestowals and the breaths of the Holy Spirit will heal this world sickness of war, dissension and discord. Nothing else is possible; nothing can be conceived of. But through spiritual means and the divine power it is possible and practicable.

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AIDS aid
Saleem | 19-8-06 | 12

AIDS is bad.

George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Bill Gates are all doing a good job at fighting AIDS. They really are: Bush’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief; the Gates Foundation; the Clinton Foundation: these bodies work with UNAIDS to genuinely redress the pandemic and heal the future.

Not so Hollywood: but they sure are good at putting on a show. For the latest entertaining episode, go to Keep a Child Alive - click here - and then click on the I AM AFRICAN graphic. Enjoy the show: but remember, it’s just a fiction.

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