God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

12/01/2009 • 10:05 pm Comments Off on 01.12.2009 World AIDS Day..

01.12.2009 World AIDS Day..

It doesn’t matter where I look, it is obvious: it is World AIDS Day and it seems everybody is on this day aware of the pandemic and it’s consequences. Even our president Jacob Zuma – he will go for a test, he vows to treat all children tested positive from April next year, statistics are run up and down in all newspapers – every bit of good news are squized again and again – the challenges mentioned – and somehow I think it is every year the same for one day.. and then it ceases again – and the lives of the millions of people infected and affected is shelved again until next year same time. One could be cynical about it, if there wouldn’t be hope – or HOPE.. 🙂

Here in Cape Town, the FIFA draw on Friday overshadows anyhow the World AIDS Day – streets are closed, traffic jams, police helicopters all day long, a city preparing for another special day where the world will be watching what is happening at the convention centre of the mother city. All over the city workers trying to finish off for the big draw – and then, for the next half a year, soccer will rule South Africa and everything else has to wait until August 2010.

I am just coming back from a reception marking 100 years of South African – Japanese relationship – and one can see the typical Cape Town syndrome beginning of December: Everybody somehow tired from the rush of November – the hectic of all-has-to-be-done until the summer holidays arrive in a couple of days.  My little success today was just to get the internet up and running again – the second time in two weeks that the line collapses and the reason is clear now: Telkom sells an ADSL speed which are too fast for the old lines… 🙂 also a way to make business..  Now the speed is down again and the line stable and up again….

Also with HOPE Cape Town we are short before the holiday season starts for most of our employees. We still got some visitors on our list until mid December, so enough to prepare and time is flying. I must admit that I am also happy if it all slows down a bit for the festive season. This year was an amazing one and I have seen the best and the worst from church colleagues, I have been trapped in empty promises and saw myself almost at the end of my church career, my life has been turned up side down so many times at will of other people, and now, at the end it looks like the uneven lines of life are leading to a years end with the promise of meaningful work for the years to come. It almost sounds like a years end blog, but all the traffic and times of stop and go are ideal times for reflection of past and present times. The rest of my thoughts then at the year’s end blog.. but it might well be only in the new year… Then New Years Eve this year, I will celebrate in Thailand – and I am sure I  will be out of the streets to celebrate with the crowd on the streets of Bangkok.  It is one of the last festive times, I never had the time to celebrate in the East, so I am looking forward to it. But before still some hard work – and some sleep. 🙂

Filed under: General, HIV and AIDS, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Networking, Reflection, Society and living environment, , , , , , , ,

11/28/2009 • 2:34 am Comments Off on 28.11.2009 Malicious journalism and great AGM’s

28.11.2009 Malicious journalism and great AGM’s

Giving interviews is always tricky in our days – and when the topic is HIV and AIDS and the newspaper is a Catholic one, even more. I had in Munich a lengthy interview with the LinzerKirchenzeitung – and the interviewer really did a great job. Obviously the “condom question” was prominent – again, but I felt that I really tried to be as detailed and balanced as possible. Those who are able to read German can read the excerpt under http://www.dioezese-linz.or.at/redaktion/index.php?action_new=Lesen&Article_ID=51939

This morning I find an article about the article on “kath.net” under the headline: “Kondom Theologie in der Linzer Kirchenzeitung” (Condom theology in the Catholic newspaper of Linz – in German language). Reading this vile concoction I suddenly realise that I could have put it in the interview in any form – it would not matter at all. Here are people writing, who simply want to slate someone, in this case me. Anything goes, as long as at the end, the person concerned is put down. I feel ashamed that this is labeled “Catholic news. I would expect more from real Catholic news…  Love, respect and fairness are important virtues of Catholic journalism. This morning I find an article about the article on “kath.net” under the headline:

This afternoon then our two General Annual Meetings, first for the HOPE Cape Town Association and then for the HOPE Cape Town Trust. I must admit that afterwards I am really a happy man. Both AGM’s have been inspiring, a good motivation for the coming year. Dedicated trustees who want to get involved in the fundraising efforts and so adding to the work of HOPE Cape Town. One can sense that there is a good spirit amongst all of us and that the goodwill will go the extra mile to achieve the goals of HOPE Cape Town for the next years. It is indeed a pleasure to be part of such a project. And listening to the chairwoman’s report of the association, it amazes me anew, how diverse our work is. Running with it daily one sometimes tends to forget and miss the sheer bandwidth of our work.

I also want to use this blog to thank all of management, the employees, the trustees, the members of the advisory board, the sponsors and donors and friends of HOPE Cape Town for their dedication and for most I can say, for their friendship. My fellow management members I want to say a special thank you for the unique ways, we work together. It is not always easy with all the unique characters we have :-), but after 8 years one can sense that feel of belonging and appraisal for each other. For me, HOPE Cape Town is part of my family.

Filed under: HIV and AIDS, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Networking, Reflection, Society and living environment, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

11/24/2009 • 7:56 pm Comments Off on 24.11.2009 Nabucco…

24.11.2009 Nabucco…

I just listen to Nabucco – chorus of hebrew slaves.. and when music is indeed an indication for mood it might be the case: After being the whole day on the run coming home knowing that still one has not even touched the office work lying and waiting – one feels like one of those slaves yearning for a bit of relaxation and freedom. Meetings and a talk to our HOPE Cape Town staff was part of the days work. We published for the first time an internal employee’s handbook. After being so long in business as an NGO and having 27 employees it is time to bring together all the legal stuff and ethics for a work in this field. What are the do’s and don’ts? What means to be honest? How do I handle situation of danger? What means fraud? How do I handle donations?

There are so many challenges an NGO like HOPE Cape Town is facing up the question how we go about working place problems, what are the right channel of communications and so on and so on. HOPE Cape Town is meanwhile also a place for training. People are trained here, work for some years but then also moving on. So the “family structure” of HOPE Cape Town is also changing eventually with new people coming in. This makes it more important than ever to have a booklet to give guidance .
But todays talk was not only about the rules and regulations – we also talked about being proud to be part of such an organisation. What does it mean to identify with the organisation you are working for? How do we present ourselves to show our bond with the goals and achievements of HOPE Cape Town. Important topics and for me the possibility to touch base again with most HOPE Community Health Workers at the same time. I promised to get to all working places in the 17 township communities in the first half-year of 2010 again to visit them all in their daily environment. And I must say  I am looking forward to it. I guess, I learn a lot in doing so.

Filed under: HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Networking, Reflection, , , , ,

11/23/2009 • 10:31 pm 1

23.11.2009 Berlin calling

A group of mainly doctors from Berlin visited HOPE Cape Town today and it was very good to engage with them in a discussion about the situation here in South Africa and what it means to them in Germany. I hope once again to make it very clear that the HIV problem is not a charity matter but that it is in the interest of the people living in Europe  to avoid the building up of a resistant HIV strain here in South Africa or in East Europe.
The global village does not allow anymore for a kind of separation: with poverty it still is possible, with a virus it is getting more and more difficult and the panic with which people react to certain flu’s in the last year, be it the bird flu or now the swine flu could give an indication what would happen if a real resistant heterosexual HI virus would hit Europe and the rest of the so-called first world. Not sure about the “first” then anymore. And looking at TB with the multi- and extreme resistant TB strains, we have an idea how fast it can go in this direction.

Once again it was obvious how different the situation is in Europe and in South Africa – and as with all group talks, we learned from each other. And I am sure they go back as good ambassadors for the situation here in Southern Africa while still enjoying the beauty of this fabulous continent.

A gathering with a service at a family home ended this day which also saw a lot of preparation for tomorrow and the coming days.

Filed under: HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Networking, Society and living environment, , , , , , ,

11/23/2009 • 12:01 am Comments Off on 22.11.2009 4 weeks and already he is gone again

22.11.2009 4 weeks and already he is gone again

Exactly four weeks has my successor as the new chaplain to the German-speaking Catholic Community lived in Cape Town before leaving again. Living behind “burglar bars” was not his dream, a mugging added to the anxiety. It is a pity as once again it has been proven that the transfer of priests is not a chess game or goes according to files from the human resource department. For me it was sad to see that an obvious wrong transfer knows only losers: the person who was transferred, the community who was looking forward to have another priest and obviously also the Kath. Auslandssekretariat, which has shown that they ignored the realities of the persons and communities concerned.

I wish my successor, who is now back in Germany awaiting his new assignment, all the best. Thanks God the pastoral community council found a retired German priest who is able to supply for the rest of the year. And for me amazing to see how people now take more ownership and responsibility to maintain a certain level of service until a new chaplain will arrive somewhere next year. Nevertheless, after 12,5 years of building up a community, it is somehow frustrating to see how careless my previous headquarters puts at risk the work of many years.

As mentioned yesterday in my blog, my last “spiritual seminarian” will be ordained deacon on the 6.12. This is the first time that I will be at Nazareth House again and meet with the German-speaking Catholic Community. I have to attend this event after years of accompanying Dominik towards priesthood. His diaconate will be the first step of ordination, end of next year should then follow the ordination to the priesthood.

Finally a good start into the week also for HOPE Cape Town. We will get new offices at pharmacology in February next year. Then all senior staff will work in close proximity at the University of Stellenbosch, Tygerberg Campus and also I will occupy an office there. But we still have to search for a new team secretary for the G7 Ithemba Ward. Also for February  next year – if you know a reliable person with secretarial knowledge and a lot of human values and a peoples person – let me know.

Filed under: HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Reflection, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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