a brief tv spot about the function:
brisant @ ARD mediathek 2009
Filed under: General, Networking, Uncategorized, dresden, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, HOPE Gala
11/02/2009 • 1:06 pm Comments Off on 02.11.2009 Your very own face looking at you…
02.11.2009 Your very own face looking at you…
It is amazing to come to town and you are greeted by your own face in town. An experience I still have to come to terms with as it is not usual for me to see myself at any other place as in the bathroom while shaving… 🙂 Well, some photo albums as well, but that is it. On the other hand people who are in the advertising industry tell me, that it is necessary to put a face to a project – and in this case it is me. Ok, I don’t mind if this helps the cause of HOPE Cape Town and brings people to learn about the project, to understand the situation in South Africa and to encourage them to help in a way they feel comfortable with.
What I don’t like if people see me as a role model or similar – I don’t think that is no good. I am just me and I don’t strive to achieve being an example – what I want to encourage people is only that they live their own lives, find their very own destiny. And as in every life there is black and white and so much grey in between. We shouldn’t strive to be saints in the common sense of the word – we should strive to be humans. And we should deal with each other as such humans – also when it comes to tolerate and forgive the darker sides of oneself and around oneself.Right?? 🙂
Filed under: General, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Networking, Reflection, Society and living environment, Uncategorized, advertising, Aids, black and white, destiny, dresden, hiv, HOPE Dresden Gala, humanity, live, meaning in life, role model
10/30/2009 • 3:27 pm Comments Off on 30.10.2009 Last dramas before a gala
30.10.2009 Last dramas before a gala
For the HOPE Dresden Gala, the organisers have donated an award, the so-called HOPE Award. The first award winner is Waris Dirie, former model and UN ambassador fighting against female circumcision. Her book and movie “Desert rose” has touched the lives of many people. She is a symbol for the beauty and the suffering of Africa in many ways reading her lifestory. XXX XXX XXX So I will do the “laudatio”.. and Waris Dirie is fine with it.Al Martino was due to sing – he died a fortnight ago – that is life pure and one cannot do anything to prevent it. But also here we are grateful that somebody else just agreed to come, no fees asked and herself being a world star. Great!!
So many big and small things are to be considered and prepared before such a big event – and I am grateful and humbled to see how people sacrifice their free time and energy to achieve a great event for the sake of their brothers and sisters in Africa. On http://www.hopegala.de, one can see the programme and also pics from the last three years. Have a look. And I salute all organisers, sponsors and the Dresdener for hosting such a great event. Viva Dresden!!
Filed under: General, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Networking, Reflection, Uncategorized, dresden, HOPC Gala, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Waris Dirie
10/27/2009 • 10:30 am Comments Off on 27.10.2009 The state of the health care system in SA
27.10.2009 The state of the health care system in SA
An insight into the health system of South Africa is given by the following article published by IOL and spread throughout the country – this article speaks for itself:
South Africa’s public hospitals are in a bleak state with failing equipment, a lack of basic consumables and dwindling numbers of doctors, Parliament heard on Wednesday. Professor Bongani Mayozi, the head of internal medicine at the University of Cape Town, told the portfolio committee on health it was taking up to three days for patients to get a bed in a public hospital. “It takes about 24 hours a day for us to put 50 percent of people into a bed,” he said. “These people are sitting on a chair or lying on a trolley. They are very sick. They need to be admitted. Some people wait up to three days to get into a bed. “We regard this situation as completely unacceptable. Something that you would not wish on your mother or father.” Mayozi said surgical lists in many centres had been cut, equipment had not been renewed and there had been an overall decrease in tertiary level beds. The capacity to train new doctors had also been severely diminished. “When you go to war you need troops. You can’t fight a war without soldiers.”
South Africa is producing 0.58 doctors per 1 000 people, he said. Brazil and Mexico, with a similar gross domestic product per capita, are producing nearly two doctors per 1 000.
“As a result of this South Africa’s infant mortality rate is a lot higher than it should be and more people are dying from infectious diseases,” he said. Mayozi said the situation had arisen due to an “increasing demand” with “diminishing resources”. “When one looks at the reasons for the lack of progress, they are not difficult to find. They are related to under-investment to our public health sector over the past 15 years.” Andries Stulting, the acting head of the school of medicine at the University of the Free State, said the province’s health care situation is in a dire position. “There is a collapse of systems in the Free State. TB, HIV, primary health care, hospital services, training platforms, research, you name it, we are declining. “We can’t do elective surgery anymore. Patients with hernias and cataracts. They don’t seem to be emergencies, so we cannot operate. People go blind and people can’t do their work. “We don’t have basic things like eye pads, eye shields, medications… or should we keep quiet because we can be reprimanded?
“I hope I can give you some good news, but at the moment there is none.” –
Filed under: HIV Treatment, Medical and Research, Politics and Society, Reflection, Society and living environment, Uncategorized, health care, hospital, south africa
10/26/2009 • 7:13 pm Comments Off on 26.10.2009 Travel slivers of a Monday…
26.10.2009 Travel slivers of a Monday…
Early up – Germany decided to change the clock and the body reacts with confusion. Early breakfast before heading to the airport. Why does the blackberry not function along the way – especially when you need to send some messages?
At the airport: check in is on one end, the waiting area on the others.. miles to run because for security reasons one should directly enter the holding area for passengers..
Frankfurt in fog – that is the first explanation for the delay – after boarding another announcement: There is another 20 minutes to wait until the plane is allowed to move… some chocolate is used to calm down nervous passengers, fearing about their connection flights…
Final we fly – quite delayed and while descending to Frankfurt the stewardess announces all connections flights, which have been already gone.. Please contact our ground staff for further information…
Another delay at Frankfurt airport, we have to wait another 10 minutes until we are allowed to cross a runway.. did I mention that behind me the kid is crying since “hours” and it seems that except the parents all other passengers care…
Arriving to late to my meeting, but thanks God they all have time to sit and work through our topics – all only here for this one meeting. 2nd Ecumenical Church Day in Munich and the Vienna World Aids Conference are topics amongst others. A good meeting and with that, the better part of the day starts:
My rented car has the number plate BIT – which stands for Bitburg, my hometown – a lucky one – and tomorrow I will go to Bitburg to give some talks.
The hotel, I check in, is quite booked and with an apology, that my booked room is not available they upgrade me.. I hope that my luck continues throughout the evening. I deserve it… do I?? 🙂 Well, we all deserve it sometimes…. 🙂
Filed under: Reflection, Uncategorized, berlin, Bitburg, munich, vienna
God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE 