God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

11/21/2012 • 8:43 pm Comments Off on A melody my heart cannot resist..

A melody my heart cannot resist..

It was after a four-week trip to Europe: I was sitting and eating my decent dinner at a restaurant. Next to it a construction side where on that Saturday afternoon work was in full progress and it was loud and noisy. And suddenly it happened:

English: Coat of Arms of South Africa Deutsch:...

the realization that I was indeed back at the right place: Cape Town and South Africa. It seems that this moment condensed somehow all my feelings for this country. While others check their passports and planing for their kids a career outside South Africa, while crime and madness are running high before the big ANC conference, while strikes turning more and more violent – even while I consider the glass only half full in the moment for South Africa myself I knew it deep in my heart: Here is my place to be for the rest of my life. Amazing the certainty of feeling – the feeling of belonging – the sensation that I have found my destiny.

Maybe I knew it all along after almost 16 years, but now I can point a finger to a moment in time where it became an almost emotional certainty.
I am aware I will almost speak, write and think with an accent in my English and I will always stand there being astonished about the turns of life as it only can happen in Africa. I am aware I can never catch up with the enthusiasm of cricket, rugby and all the sports, I can never be a real  South African – but in my heart, South Africa has formed a melody I cannot resist.

I have always felt that my life has a meaning and I am sure that this cornerstone of realization also means something in my life and will transform my life further. Whatever happens, I will always be grateful for this moment in time..

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Filed under: General, Reflection, Society and living environment, Uncategorized, , , , , , , ,

11/12/2012 • 5:01 pm Comments Off on Culture and language

Culture and language

Township Blue

Township Blue (Photo credit: Joseph A Ferris III)

Traveling through some European countries again I sometimes reflect on the distances between people’s understanding and imagination. Townships and life conditions of most South Africans are known to many in Germany only via TV, a view protected by glass and the possibility to switch it off when it comes to close. How does one bring the real colors, the smell, the atmosphere from one continent to the other?

Also the question of realities and how I name them is different and having the same vocabulary does not mean to understand each other. This is true when talking about people from different life environments, but even within my own circles I often experience that words can have so many different meanings and create so many different associations. What very often irritates me is that words are connected with judgement, with “good or bad” feelings, with “white or black” . The older I get the more I get irritated when descriptions are perceived as judgements and how often people take things much more personal than they are meant to be.

I guess, this all is important to reflect when traveling the world to bring people together and let them join hands, who are far away and maybe even never meet, but hear about each other. But this also important to reflect when working in international teams where people from different cultures and languages are working together. Also HOPE Cape Town has this kind of challenges, bringing together different South African cultures and adding the European spice. Quite a mixture, but I believe in diversity and I am sure that this challenge is also an asset because it forces us again and again to listen to each other and to learn from each other. A lifelong and never-ending learning curve – and at the same time a motor for development into the future.

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

11/02/2012 • 7:13 am Comments Off on Potential Vaccine Breakthrough for HIV

Potential Vaccine Breakthrough for HIV

HIV Particle

HIV Particle (Photo credit: AJC1)

A new discovery related to South Africa could prove a major stepping-stone toward developing an effective HIV vaccine. In this country, two women’s immune systems reacted to changes in  HIV cells by producing potent “broadly neutralizing antibodies” that could kill 88 percent of HIV found throughout the world. To read more about this very interesting news click here.

To read the University of the Witwatersrand news announcement click here.

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Filed under: HIV and AIDS, HIV Prevention, HIV Treatment, Medical and Research, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

10/27/2012 • 8:11 am Comments Off on Uganda failings..

Uganda failings..

Topographic map of Uganda. Created with GMT fr...

Topographic map of Uganda. Created with GMT from SRTM data. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Uganda was once the example for successful combating HIV. The first knock in the statistics came when the PEPFAR fund did not allow for condom distribution and working with prostitution. But even since the US donation money has changed it’s framework of reference there are alarming numbers of new infections. 20.000 babies are born HIV positive in the country every year. Why this is the case, Andrew Green reflects in a comment to be read here.

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09/30/2012 • 12:08 pm Comments Off on Change of blog title

Change of blog title

The reader will note that I have changed the blog title slightly. Naturally one has some thoughts about it, but I feel that all the words, this blog title includes make out big parts of my life.

GOD – having chosen the priesthood I guess everybody can assume that there is a connection and that I indeed believe that there is more to this world than we can see or hear or feel. Whether we get it always right in the church how we see, proclaim this last point of reference of our whole universe is another question. I am sure we can do much better and I am willing to try very hard to contribute to this.

AIDS – well, out of the blue this pandemic jumped into my life while visiting Tygerberg Children’s Hospital in 1998 and since then my name is associated with Aids activism here in Cape Town, but also within parts of the church.

AFRICA – a continent I heard about conscientiously when we were told not to buy goods from South Africa. “Don’t buy fruits from South Africa” was the slogan I also chanted as a youngster. Apartheid was a funny concept to me; growing up in a town where black people where rich people. Why? Because I lived close to one of the biggest US American Airbases in Germany and the “dollar” was still worth its money. During school and study I never could have imagined to live on this continent, let alone at the very bottom far away from home. Times have changed and Africa is in my heart and in my blood.

HOPE – well, not only HOPE Cape Town is part of my fabric of life, the meaning of the word was always important for me. I could not live without this feeling and longing for the better. I refuse to give up hope – and for me it is more than a feeling. I know that you have to reach out to the stars to get the utmost out of your life. Hope means always thinking outside the box with the certainty that there is always that “little more” to achieve and to get done.

Our lives have become so divers and blogging is a way of communicating this diversity and to connect and reach out without the limitation of national borders. Social media are indeed a force to recon with, but I am aware that we have still to learn as people how to make the best use of it. It’s like with all new inventions and developments; one has to learn to master them in a way beneficial to all.

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Filed under: General, Networking, Politics and Society, Reflection, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , ,

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