God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

11/30/2012 • 7:01 pm 1

 

This official words I found on another blog – noble words of an US American president.. let’s see the action to follow

 

D Gregory Smith's avatarFrom Eternity To Here

WORLD AIDS DAY, 2012

– – – – – – –

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

On World AIDS Day, more than 30 years after the first cases of this tragic illness were reported, we join the global community once more in standing with the millions of people who live with HIV/AIDS worldwide. We also recommit to preventing the spread of this disease, fighting the stigma associated with infection, and ending this pandemic once and for all.

In 2010, my Administration released the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, our Nation’s first comprehensive plan to fight the domestic epidemic. The Strategy aims to reduce new infections, increase access to care, reduce health disparities, and achieve a more coordinated national response to HIV/AIDS here in the United States. To meet these goals, we are advancing HIV/AIDS education; connecting stakeholders throughout the public, private, and non-profit sectors; and investing…

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Filed under: HIV and AIDS, HIV Prevention, Medical and Research, Networking, Politics and Society, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , ,

11/27/2012 • 8:29 pm 5

World AIDS Day around the corner

Once again it is short before World AIDS Day and as usual on such a day and before, the media and the politicians have their say about success and failures of HIV and AIDS treatment, prevention work, vaccine studies and all the rest. Once a year the world is made aware of the syndrome killing still scores of people and triggering despair, tears, hopelessness, desperation but also a willingness to fight and not to give up. Have we done enough in the time since the last World AIDS Day? Has research been successful in coming closer to a vaccine? Have fewer people been exposed to the virus? Is there more prevention willingness and treatment options in the global village? Well, according to UNAIDS yes, we have done major steps in the right direction, but we also know how close we are to fail millions of people because of lack of funding. The economic meltdown, the financial crisis, the Euro battle captures our minds and hearts and I wish one would worry as much about those suffering from HIV or TB or Malaria or any other of theses for poor people mostly life threatening diseases. While the USA and other Countries spend millions and millions a day for the war in Afghanistan or undercover in Syria or elsewhere research and the good thing s for live have still to struggle for funding. The world has indeed not learned the lesson of holding up the dignity of people, instead it pays for the destruction of land, people and material goods.

While I appreciate the progress and worry about the still high numbers of non-treated people and new infections, I cannot be silent about the injustice which is reflected in the battle against HIV and AIDS. And this pandemic is only an example that we are as human mankind still far away from getting the values right we proudly proclaim in our national constitutions: that life and dignity is to be protected at all times and all costs as it is the highest value we have.

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Filed under: General, HIV and AIDS, HIV Prevention, HIV Treatment, Medical and Research, Networking, Politics and Society, Reflection, Religion and Ethics, Society and living environment, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

06/01/2011 • 12:38 am Comments Off on So much to do and so little time…

So much to do and so little time…

Sitting on my working desk and  trying to plan the next months I receive the news that my uncle in Germany died. Well, he was old, but it still triggered besides all the normal reflection one has once again the acknowledgement that life has an end and that one has to use it wisely. I don’t think that it is important how much one has done, the much more important question is whether one has lived intensively whatever one has done in life and if one has been the person meant to be. So for me it is also not a question of age.. one can become 100 and waste most of his or her time. I have seen people having achieved with 40 more than others with 80.
I think such a reflection is also meaningful when one deals with HIV and AIDS. Right, in many countries they are talking about a chronic disease and also we starting in South Africa to do so. Nevertheless every day are dying hundreds of people, mostly young people still as a consequence of HIV and AIDS. And looking to Africa, there are more reasons for dying young on this continent. So, once again: every second of life is counting, nobody knows whether he or she will wake up tomorrow morning, whether he or she will see the end of this day. The past is gone for good, the future is not known, the only time we can live and determine is the second of the moment. I know, a well-known fact. But we need to be reminded again and again, because it is so easy to forget in all the hectic of life. And even if there is so much to do and so little time..let’s not worry, we can only do what can fit in that very precious moment we just living now…

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

03/09/2011 • 1:53 pm 2

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday, in the Christian churches a day of reflection and fasting – begin of lent, the time in preparation of the highest feast of Christianity, the resurrection of Christ.  Being on travel I also reflect on my life. And my first question would be: which life? The life as it isfeatured in the public domain with all the articles in newspapers and magazines and other media? The life of  a public person – the “founder” of HOPE Cape Town? or is it the life of the priest, called to holiness on a daily base and representing a church which is battling with all the shortcomings in the moment on a daily base? Or is it the life of Stefan, the friend, the family member, the acquaintance? Or is it the conclusion of all three facets of different lives? Or is it the real me – the person, I only know best and still remains a mystery for myself at the same time – the person who would never fit in all the roles given to me or expectations raised towards me in daily life.

I sometimes wonder how people perceive me and how I perceive me being perceived in public. I see what kind of difference exists in people how they believe they are and how they come across for others; it makes me think twice about my own perceptions.

I guess what counts at the end is how much we live who we are, how much, as we Christians phrase it, we are able to be what we are called for. And how much we are honest with ourselves and strive to bring our being and our doing together. We have to write each of us our own little story with God, our own little bible added to the official one – and as important to God as the latter.

For me the last 10 years have been also years of HOPE in the true sense of the word. This organisation has become a part of my life and I have served HOPE Cape Town in different capacities, as chairperson of the HOPE Cape Town Association, as management member and these days as board member and as chairperson of the HOPE Cape Town Trust as well as management member of the HOPE Kapstadt Stiftung. In all these capacities I was blessed with wonderful moments, with truly interesting and humble visitors who all added to a colourful life.
In the last 25 years I also had the luck to serve as a priest, the longest time as the chaplain to the German-speaking Catholic Communities in Cape Town and in Durban. What a diversity added to my life – what for blessings and possibilities to grow – even in the hardest hours of being nicely disposed as the chaplain in a way which some described as “between diplomacy and dishonesty” – the usual way of getting rid of perceived problems in our days. The toughest hours shape the most and I see them as a challenge to grow.

Lent is the time to reflect – to count the blessings and to see what is still needed on our way through life and what habits have become a burden and could be discharged or left behind. This is a time to allow ourselves a clear and honest picture of ourselves and to experience the unconditional love of God towards us anew. A love which allows us to grow, to change, to resist pressure of fellow man to adjust only to mainstream or to be scared to speak our minds if need be. A love which enables us to love and to cherish our neighbour, our fellow men and women next to us.

I wish all readers a blessed time of lent and at the end not only the celebration of Easter but a celebration of the resurrection of each and everybody of us as a grown human being – able to live life to the fullest and being more identical and reconciled with “myself” .

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

10/26/2010 • 1:28 pm Comments Off on 26.10.2010 Motorway A48 or who am I?

26.10.2010 Motorway A48 or who am I?

Tuesday morning on the A 48 – it is foggy in the Rhine valley and driving along the A 48 direction Trier it is a ride which reminds me on the life journey: Valleys full of mist and no view alternate with higher points of blue sky and sun – crispy looking colourful  leaves on the trees signaling the change of seasons. It reminds me our journey of life, where dark, misty valleys take turns with sunny chapters full of laughter and joy; coming and going with sometimes a surprising speed and completely unexpected after the next bend.

And while contemplating this change of views I ask myself: With all the turns in life, who am I? Always when I travel, I have to fill so many different roles: Whenever I am coming  home, I am automatically “child” again, son of my parents, brother to my sister. Meeting people while giving talks or workshops, I am an aids activist, or a priest on the left side of church spectrum, a fighter in the fields of HIV and AIDS for some, a fallen priest later rotting in hell for the right wing spectrum of Catholicism. I am a typical German for many South Africans – and a much too adopted South African for many Germans.
Who am I? What role of all these mentioned is the real Stefan? Or am I the person I see in my realities, the person, I see when I see myself in the mirror? Would those who praise or condemn me would do so, when they could bring all the pieces together, which makes me the person I experience day for day and week for week? Where do I put all the things happening in my deepest inner, all my dreams, desires, weaknesses, hopes and sorrows?
Sometimes I am not sure; but what I am sure about is that all who judge a person are terribly wrong because they only judge parts of someone and mix this up thinking it is the whole person. I know from myself that it is a life long journey to discover one self  – so those who think they know it all about somebody else judge only themselves..

Amazing, how thoughts are floating to my mind while driving down the A 48 from Koblenz to Trier – more than enough food for thoughts to contemplate life and the person living it….

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