God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

12/02/2009 • 10:17 pm 1

02.12.2009 FIFA rules

What is to say in these days of the final draw for the soccer world cup 2010 in South Africa. FIFA rules and the city is a bit in chaos, specially when you use a car. So the only advice today is to stay home if you can and circle around the city as far as you can.
Today was besides office work not much to report on – luncheon with a friend of mine and as usual good talks. We both share the year-end fatigue 🙂 and with that, I will leave it for today and give in into the fatigue…  🙂 Most probably the shortest blog I ever wrote.

Filed under: Reflection, Uncategorized, ,

11/25/2009 • 11:41 pm Comments Off on 25.11.2009 on the road again…

25.11.2009 on the road again…

My job description requires in the moment a lot of travelling. Going to meetings  means passing the N1 and N2 again and again and being reminded all the time that we are close to the soccer world cup 2010. No, to be reminded there is no big advertising necessary, just experiencing the stop and go between all the road repairs and reconstructions gives you plenty of time to reflect on the coming event. We South Africans are happy about the repairs, especially not knowing whether this will happen again in the next twenty years ahead of us. So all is welcome what will make our lives easier after 2010…

Having seen the traffic tripling the last 10 years without any new lane of road has taught us that there is a limit to more cars on the same roads, going from the airport to town in the mornings have become a nightmare scenario.

It is also nice to see the squatter camps disappearing from the motorway, so that the visitors of 2010 do not see too much poverty along the way to town. Even if it is partly because of dressing up the country for the world cup, it without doubt helps people to better their living situation.

So, while driving there is much to reflect and to consider and I specially admire those cutting grass and hedges along the motorway – sometimes only protected through a lonely red flag waving person in the curve without doubt heaven must hold its hand here to protect the workers who sometimes seemingly not notice the danger they are in…

And there have been the meetings today too besides all the reflections: one to one meetings, but also a trustee meeting of IAM, an organisation looking into the ministries for GLBTI communities within the churches. Hosting good old friends this evening at home was a great chance just to catch up and to indulge in the good old times… yeah, even priests do have some… 🙂

Filed under: 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, , , , , , ,

11/12/2009 • 6:39 am Comments Off on 12.11.2009 Maybe there is hope…

12.11.2009 Maybe there is hope…

I came across this article from IOL, which seems to provide proof that we move from showering away the virus getting into serious debate on the political front:

Zuma issues HIV wake-up call

By Carien du Plessis (copyright IOL 2009)

President Jacob Zuma yesterday call for national mobilisation against HIV/ Aids, saying South Africans had to come to terms with the reality that the country was “not yet winning” the battle against the pandemic. Speaking in the National Council of Provinces, he cited “chilling statistics” of the number of South Africans dying, warning there was “a real danger” that deaths would soon overtake the number of births.  In an emphatic departure from the Aids denialism that marked the era of his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, Zuma said “extraordinary measures” were needed “if we are to stop the progress of this disease through our society”. Recent statistics from the Department of Health, Human Sciences Research Council, Medical Research Council, Statistics SA and other sources “paint a disturbing picture of the health of our nation”, Zuma said:

  • Nearly six out of 10 deaths during 2006 were of people younger than 50.

  • The number of deaths registered in 2008 jumped to 756 000, up from 573 000 the previous year, when just more than a million births were registered (1 205 111).

  • The Independent Electoral Commission had to remove 396 336 names of deceased people from the voters roll in September 2008 and August this year.

  • The average life expectancy of South African men in 2006 was 51 years, while in Senegal it was 60 and in Algeria 70.

  • Some studies suggested that more than half – 57 percent – of deaths of children under five in 2007 were due to HIV.

    “More and more people are dying young, threatening even to outnumber in proportional terms those who die in old age,” Zuma said. “At this rate, there is a real danger that the number of deaths will soon overtake the number of births.” What was “even more disturbing” was the number of young women dying “in the prime of their life, in their child-bearing years”. The situation was made worse by high levels of tuberculosis infection, with the co-infection rate between HIV and TB now “a staggering 73 percent”, with 481 584 people ill with the disease. “These are some of the chilling statistics that demonstrate the devastating impact that HIV and Aids is having on our nation,” Zuma said. He called on political leaders to lead by example and have themselves tested.

    • After this wake up call suddenly other political entities are also declaring the need of a change in politics. Where have all these intelligent people been the last years?????

    Filed under: HIV and AIDS, HIV Prevention, HIV Treatment, Networking, Politics and Society, Reflection, Society and living environment, , , ,

    11/08/2009 • 2:17 am Comments Off on 08.11.2009 Peacekeeping yes – priest no

    08.11.2009 Peacekeeping yes – priest no

    The following story triggered in me a question:

    A first for soldiers living with HIV By Latoya Newman IOL

    A KwaZulu-Natal soldier has become the first known HIV-positive soldier to be deployed externally by the SA National Defence Force.  In a statement on Tuesday, the Aids Law Project said the sergeant, from 121 SAI Battalion, based in Mtubatuba, had made history on Friday when he was deployed on a peacekeeping mission to Sudan. This follows a May 2008 judgment declaring the SANDF’s HIV-testing policies – which were used to exclude people with HIV from recruitment, promotion or foreign deployment – unconstitutional.
    The SA Security Forces Union welcomed the man’s deployment, but union president Bhekinkosi Mvovo said that the union could not celebrate until the SANDF had completely changed its policy in this regard. Mvovo said the SANDF was dragging its feet in instructing its commanders that HIV-positive soldiers could no longer be held back because of their status. Project spokesperson S’khumbuzo Maphumulo said: “The sergeant was originally excluded when his unit was scheduled for deployment to Sudan. “It was only after the project intervened that the chief of the army issued an instruction on September 28, authorising his deployment to Sudan. “The project has been informed that the sergeant departed for Sudan on Friday,” he added.

    A soldier living with HIV can go and serve as a peacekeeper
    A diplomat living with HIV can go and serve his country,
    A priest living with HIV can serve his church and the faithful,

    well only if he was lucky to be already ordained before the infection was detected. Which seminary takes a man with vocation in, when he is HIV positive in our days? Please tell me since when God has mad HIV a criteria for vocations?

    Filed under: Politics and Society, Reflection, , , , , , , ,

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