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This message has been edited. Last edited by: <PGithinji>,

Maria,
The AIDS phenomenon is very, very complicated. It is not just about sex or imorrality, though it is the singlemost contributing factor. While lifestyle change would go a long way in dealing with the malady, sometimes people lack options to make those lyfestyle changes.

No I am not being pessimistic, but I do believe people can have fun responsibly. I once attended a talk where a professor claimed that AIDS is prevalent in Africa because they have multiple sex partners as opposed to the Wazungus who take one sexual partner at a time. The most recent studies have shown this not to be the case.

Why then are African so vulnerable?

Whne I think about it, I am sometimes tempted to argue like Thabo Mbeki that it all have to do with economics. It is the economicss that deny us the choices that we have. For instance, we have read about sex workers who charging more for the men who prefer not to use CD in the process risking their lives. Such a peopel are well aware of the dangers, but the economic environment has limited their choices. The AIDS tghing has to be tackled from different fronts, and the economic front must take center-stage. That is why the Wazungu's have bad sexual habits but are not as much at risk as the Black people.

And to have education, you need money right?

This is kikuyunomics

Hi people!

Sajini, welcome back brother. Long long time.. I have missed your posts and am glad to see you are finally back in full swing.

I also tend to agree with the Thabo Mbeki view on AIDS. a SIMPLE CASE IN POINT IS:
Consider the general impact you see of HIV/AIDS in the world. Most afflicted are the poor. In some countries it does not even rank amongst the top ten crisis.
The economically able people live with the Hi virus for years, yet an impoverished person will die within a short while after infection. Reason - economics - that means poor nutrition,poor living conditions, stressful livelihoods, poor medical attention, lack of knowledge and education on how to deal with it, brainwashing to an extent that they cant think for themselves and accept the fear-filled-AIDS-Marketing-messages as gospel truth hence losing hope in life and accepting death...and as we know....what the subconcious mind accepts, will take effect sooner or later. So most then begin getting sick and die.

As Sajini has said, this is a very complicated issue which when broken down can be treated in simple manner.
I always recommend further reading and research on HIV/AIDS to hear other views. There's a lot about the matter that mainstream communication channels do not reveal ...for the so many reasons that I will not go into here.

Ngîma

Ngima,
You expounded on what I really meant, receive all the credit

And to add on to this, I support the idea of education on the basis of stigmatisation. I travel to the village and my heart breaks at the sight of the level of stigmatisation that these village folks will bestow whoever is unfortunate to have HIV. This needs to be eradicated first before we can make any positive move.

Ngunjiri I agree 100%.
That's why people should not be pushed to COME OUT...cause they go throgh hell.
So many of us are guilty of stigmatising one way or another.

I remember that some time back, in Kenya one could not get a job if one failed the medical exam.It was immediately concluded that one had the HIvirus and no company would employ you. Has the situation changed?

In South Africa,and some other countries too, the law does not allow this.

A very touchy topic though.

Ngima,
Yes, the labour law has been amended here in Kenya, a positive move towards the fight against the scourge. No employer is supposed to deny a potential or an existing employee a chance for his/her HIV status. We had a case some time back where an employee at Mbagathi Hospital had been interdicted for "taking too much time off on sick leave" as her employer put it but she had to be reinstated immediately.

Ngunjiri,
Still this case from Today's daily Nation is really depressing.

It's blatant prejudice


Publication Date: 1/16/2007
A small story tucked in a corner of a Nation news-page yesterday may have been overlooked by most readers, but its significance could not have been lost on those Kenyans who have been waging a spirited war against stigma associated with HIV/Aids.

The report involved a five-year-old girl who was being denied a place in a Nyeri nursery school, ostensibly because she is an Aids orphan.

The specific details may be scanty. It is not clear whether the girl herself is living with Aids or not, but this open prejudice against a child who should be in school anyway is deeply troubling.

This is mainly because it is just a small example of what goes on all over the country: Open discrimination against people living with Aids –– as though the condition is infectious, and those afflicted with it ought to be quarantined.

Beyond displaying their shameful and cruel ignorance, it is obvious that the proprietors and managers of the nursery school may not have been aware that they were breaking the law.

It is thus to the credit of the education official in Nyeri who ordered the girl’s reinstatement in class. He should have gone further and hauled to court the school head and committee members who threatened to close the school should the girl be admitted. There should be a law that penalises blatant forms of discrimination due to one’s health status.

There certainly is a law, under the Children’s Act, that forbids anyone denying a child an opportunity to get an education.

Quite beyond that, it is a shame that in this day and age, stigma against people living with HIV/Aids still persists, especially among people who are relatively well-educated. Who in this country can claim that he or she is neither afflicted nor affected by HIV/Aids?

Kudos Sajini! Well said.

Papa Daad,

I agree totally.
Moral issues as well as some cultural and social settings have had a great bearing on the advancement of the condition of HIV/AIDS.

Actually if you consider countries that score high on social morality and discipline like the Arab world and the Asian ones like Japan,you can immediately see the difference.

woi, reke njurie kiuria? are you guys sayi g that if we did not have money we will die of the epidemic? i beg to differ with this. how about you and me and our friends talking to our families and friends and asking them to expand the campaign by talking to their families and friends and asking them to do the same? its about life and death, does anybody play about life and death, for us to think that we cannot handle this epidemic if we did not have money?

anyway, maria its not a "kikuyu with money" issue, i am sure my broiters and sisters are looking at the broader side of logistics and administrartion services needed to set up campaigns.... but lets try to take a case of nark coming to power... did they give us money? they just went on preaching to us their manifesto and we thought (lets forget the outcome) that they were the mesiahs for kenya.... but i know you may argue that they also needed money to move around and (and perhaps accommodate themselves in big hotels).... but as we have seen, they all (oe some of them) had selfish interests but all our attention was removing moi from office and we took their word as the gospel truth.

pls dont switch your minds to the politics here... i think what we should be asking maria is "how did you do it in uganda?" instead of making it a financial implication that we are not ready to face.... perhaps maria would have told us how uganda did it as at the same time we also think about how we could do it as our personal responsibilities..... for exmple lets talk of charity.... how about you and me preaching this to my nieighbours in our residential places and our villages (course i believe all of us have village roots either directly or from our parents) and asking our audiences to preach to their families and aquintances the same gospel we preach to them?

you may call mine crazy thinking.... but sometimes its good to listen to somebody's nonesence and make out the little that makes sense.

many hugs to you my brothers and sisters.

Maria,
Ha ha ha! Same here! Ngima should sue Wanji for infringing on her copyright! And am available with legal services for the highest bidder.
Seriously though, we recently have been hit by the Rift Valley fever and I liked the way kenyans responded to it, shunning all meat products from sources that look suspicious. Somebody remarked that s/he wished they would respond the same to HIV/AIDS. I couldn't agree more!

whatever!!