World AIDS Day 2006

Great pic coverage on the KICC event!
Sen. Obama was in California on World AIDS Day and was one of the speakers at the second annual Global Summit on AIDS in Lake Forest. He took another public HIV test at the conference. I respect him for taking those tests. The disease is really ravaging Africa and testing is heavily stigmatized. If only our politicians can take a cue from
Zimbabwe’s MPs actions in 2004

Nice post dude.

Re:1
You are right in that politicians are not actively involved in this fight as they should be. Its not just about tlking about it (hence the pissedness at ‘what solutions to give’…pole, the devil made me do it, LOL). Its not enough to talk and make technical apearances once in a year or once in an event….celebrities, politicians and all of us indeed, need to get in there, do time, walk the talk and that is very very important in how people perceive this disaster. It is our fight, we should all be in there.

Re: 2

I know what you mean. Yeah, imagine never being accorded the opportunity to be a child because you have to be a parent.
That alone is painful. I saw a child of 12 years come into a workshop for ARV treatment for herself and 2 of her younger sisters. That is one of the saddest things I have witnessed. They have no parents, thgey live alone, they go to school and that girl had to make sure that her sisters were well fed, that they were all following their ARV treatments, the timings (the guys at the w/shop gave her watch to keep time…)
You see that stuff and wonder seriously, is there any justice in the world?

anyway, to stop posting, I can see….pictures. *smh* ude, kwani you…thaz it, I’m getting you a khaki photographer jacket with maaaaany pockets and strings and a stand in Uhuru park. That oughta do it!
Keeping well?

Yup, great pictures & interesting thoughts about WAD. Obama was the only one? Hmm. Well at least he’s a Kenyan h.c., so it counts.

I wonder how much medicine could have been bought with the money spent on t-shirts, caps and other goodies. When I arrived at Maji Hse last week, I was given two caps. What for?

I have a rubbish connection so i could only see a few pictures but they are really good. I feel as if i was there.

ditto aegeus. Very nice coverage of the event!

You make a good point there. Some of these polititians have cult followings of people who would gladly die for them. I’m sure they would follow suit if their heroes led the way and took the test. Imagine if a big group of them held a big rally, and then took the test right there? If only

Globalization and AIDS

K. Mustafa Ali
New Chuburji Park,
Lahore
Pakistan
92-42-741 44 56
KMustafa@37.com

AIDS has become one of the major health problems affecting people around the world. As of 2006, more than 39.5 million people are currently living with HIV, and By 2010 it is estimated that approximately 100 million people will have been infected and that there will be 25 million AIDS orphans worldwide. By 2006 an estimated 39.5 million (34.1- 47.1 million) people were living with HIV/AIDS. Sub-Saharan Africa has been the region hardest hit by the HIV/AIDS epidemic; more than two-thirds of all people with HIV/AIDS are in this region.

Asia is also grappling with the increasing feminization of the epidemic and its impact on children and families. The prevailing poverty among women and its further accentuation or ‘feminization of poverty’ due to adverse effects of globalization make the women in the region highly vulnerable to the epidemic. The impact of Globalization, which effect directly in some individual culture in some region, the opinion of AIDS researcher Mohammad Khairul Alam, “the mixed effect of traditional norm and globalization has brought frustration in the man. For these two things people are forgetting traditional social norms, social values and the social structure are facing a great threat following the western and others cultures. Familitical ties are breaking; family sexual behaviour is changing, attitudes of peoples towards sex is changing very fast. Besides migration for jobs, an increasing number of women taking up jobs outside the home, a decline in the traditional joint family system, and conflict to global culture were considered to have contributed to this phenomenon.” The situation is further aggravated by the presence of all forms of violence against women including those in conflict and disaster situations.

From about 20% a decade ago, the percentage of women accounting for new infections has risen to 30 per cent indicating a constantly rising vulnerability of women and girls to HIV. Severe gender inequality in political, social, educational and economic areas and absence of informed choices in the region, render women extremely vulnerable to HIV and subject them to intense stigma and discrimination. Often, women have no control over their sexual lives and have extremely limited access to prevention information and services. However, even the best knowledge on prevention does not guarantee protection for women due to the overpowering dominance of patriarchy. It is not merely coincidental that about 14 per cent and 60 per cent of the girls over the age of 15 in South East Asia and South Asia respectively are illiterate. The Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation survey focuses on the attitude, behavior and practice of commercial & non- commercial / casual sex workers (so-called sex workers), floating/ street sex workers in Dhaka city in Bangladesh, this study did point out that almost 16% of sex workers enter the profession before the age of 18 years, and 30% enter between 18 to 24 years of age. Approximately 10% of prostitutes belong to the scheduled castes minority people; about 90% floating sew workers enrolled due to poverty, and 85% are illiterate.

Meanwhile, an issue that has a far reaching socio-economic impact, but is not acknowledged and measured in economic terms, is the stigma and discrimination faced by people living with HIV. The spread of HIV/AIDS presents a challenge to all of us in the Asia region, which is threatening to offset gains in human development. It underlines the urgency of effective prevention and changes in behaviors and attitudes in order to combat HIV/AIDS and mitigate its effects.

Source:
1. WHO report, HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific Region, 2003.
2. Asia Pacific’s Opportunity: Investing to avert an HIV/AIDS Crisis, July 2004. ADB/UNAIDS study series.
3. “Oh! This one is infected!”: Women, HIV & Human Rights in the Asia Pacific Region, paper commissioned by the UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, ICW, 2004
4. “From Involvement to Empowerment”, UNDP, 2004
5. AIDS in Asia: Face the Facts. Monitoring the AIDS Panedmic (MAP) Report, 2004, HDR, 2003
6. Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation