World AIDS Day 2010: Universal Access & Human Rights...

Each year on 1 December the world comes together to focus on HIV / AIDS and finding ways to speed up the process of finding a vaccination and a cure for the scourge of our times. It is also a day to reflect on what we have achieved in the fight against discrimination towards those that are HIV+ and identify as being so. It is also a day where we can recommit to ensuring that those already infected are given every possible opportunity to lead full and productive lives where they contribute to the development of their respective communities.

This year the theme is "Universal Access and Human Rights" and it is all about working towards improving understanding and defeating prejudice. In this sense it is not only about others, rather it is about us as individuals and how we act in conjunction with awareness about the steps that we take as individuals to get educated on HIV / AIDS and the awareness of how to protect ourselves from infection that contributes to overall awareness of HIV / AIDS.

The reality is that HIV / AIDS is not the hot topic that it once was in terms of it being on the front page of every newspaper. This has in turn led to an ever-increasing amount of complacency creeping into how we behave with respect to sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV / AIDS.



Ultimately, this year is about ensuring that all people who are HIV+ have access to all that they need and to ensure that HIV+ people are treated with the dignity and respect that all humans have a basic and universal right to.

Maybe today is a day that we can commit to universal HIV / AIDS education in all schools as a means of ensuring that our children are given the best possible knowledge to make informed and sensible decisions for themselves. 

Just a thought! 

Virginity: A Minority of Indonesian Youths...

A recent survey by the National Population and Family Planning Board (Badan Kependudukan dan Keluarga Berencana Nasional / BKKBN) of Indonesia has turned up some interesting results about the number of Indonesian youths engaging in pre-marital sex. The survey was conducted in 2010 and the results are the best indication yet of the state of play for Indonesian teenagers.

The survey results show that 51% of those teenagers surveyed in the greater Jakarta area of Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi (Jabodetabek) admit to having engaged in pre-marital sexual relations. This is important data to consider, especially with World AIDS Day about to take place tomorrow, 1 December 2010. The data is also important as a tool for legislators and teachers. There is an explicit and urgent need for personal development and personal health education, sex education if you will, to be incorporated into school curriculum throughout Indonesia.

The fact that there are some who would argue that sex education will only encourage children to be sexually active are really burying their collective heads in the sand. The data shows that without sex education our children are engaging in sexual activity in ever-increasing numbers. Therefore, it makes sense to ensure that our children have access to, and learn about, the most up-to-date information on sex. It is time that some people began to realise that sex education is more than getting out the old cucumber and rolling on a condom, and then saying "OK children, that is how it is done! Alrighty, back to maths!"

Outside of the Jabodetabek Surabaya is leading the way at 54%, Medan is at 52%, and Bandung is at just 47%. The survey results also indicate that more than a third of sexually active females are experiencing a pregnancy before marriage. Abortion is illegal in Indonesia except where there is a legitimate medical reason for a doctor to perform an abortion. Therefore, with such a large rate of pre-marital pregnancy prevalent in the community the risk of these youths go to backyard abortion hacks is real.

The data suggests that of the 2.4 million abortions performed in Indonesia annually, some 800,000 of these are performed on teenagers with an unwanted pregnancy. Therefore, there are good reasons for the government to consider the results of these surveys from not only an educational perspective but a public health one too.

Unfortunately, any suggestion that the government get involved is likely to be interpreted as a need to legislate morality. The chance therefore is that the government will try to criminalise pre-marital sex in more ways than one cares to poke a stick at while simultaneously committing greater resources to enforcement of draconian legal measures to stop teenagers from having sex. This sort of response only takes us back to the dark ages of times past. Yet, this is what happens when you ask crotchety old men who have not had sex in decades will do when given the opportunity.

The reason that education in this case needs to be personal development and personal health as opposed to just plain and simple sex education is that the data notes that of the 3.2 million people suffering from drug addiction in Indonesia, some 78% of them are teenagers. The data further suggests there are some links between increasing intravenous drug use and increasing numbers of young people becoming HIV positive.

In light of this (rant and rail to follow) it is imperative that the government and educators get their collective heads together and come up with a personal development and personal health curriculum that can be implemented across the board in Indonesian schools. It is critical that we educate our children so that they are forewarned and therefore forearmed. We have a responsibility, not only to our children but, to ourselves to ensure that our children have at their disposal the necessary information to make informed decisions to save themselves from harm. The reality is that we cannot, nor do we want to, live in the pockets of our children 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the rest of their lives. Nevertheless, we can still give them what they need to understand the dangers and make decisions they feel are best for them.

Thus endeth the sermon!

Kim Kardashian is Dead!

It would seem that Kim Kardashian is dead.

Well, it is not nearly as tragic as it sounds. Kim Kardashian is dead in the social networking sense until she raises USD 1 million for the "Keep A Child Alive" foundation. The campaign is part of the much larger World AIDS Day campaign that happens on 1 December 2010.

So, all you KK fans out there in cyber space, open your wallets and donate if you want to see Kim rise from the dead and start wearing skimpy bikinis again!

AIDS and Shariah -- Hizbut Tahrir Style...

Today is World AIDS Day. Today, at least for me, is a day to remember dear friends and to continue to agitate for a brighter future; one that is free of this scourge. It is time that there was not only a vaccine, but a cure, for this virus. It is important to remember that as a community that great strides have been made, but it is more important to remember that the fight is not over. There are still those who advocate ignorance and take the bury your head in the sand approach.

This is why I find news like Hizbut Tahrir in Indonesia advocating the development of an Islamic Caliphate and the immediate implementation of Shariah Law as their main weapon in the fight against HIV / AIDS both amusing and and frighteningly dangerous at the same time. The naivety of an approach that says Shariah law will solve all ills beggars belief, particularly when the insinuation is that HIV / AIDS is a disease of prostitutes, drug users, and homosexuals. Not only is this naive, it is stupid as well. To all intents and purposes, prostitution, illicit drug use, and homosexuality are already illegal in Indonesia. So, the imposition of Shariah law is not going to change the legal framework all that much with respect to these issues. Unless, there is a belief that the punishment would be a sufficient deterrent to all of these situations.

Part of the Hizbut Tahrir push is to close down brothels and ban the use of condoms. Now, if I am not mistaken brothels are generally illegal. And, the authorities tend to periodically close them down. However, the banning of condoms as a means of preventing casual sex is silly at best and negligent at worst.

The Islamic hardliners are also advocating the cancellation of all condom and sex education programs on the belief that if people have no knowledge of sex, and safe sex in particular, then they are less likely to indulge in sex as a past time. Finally, it appears that the protesters believe that Indonesians are rather large consumers of pornography and that this is a trigger for the huge increase in casual sex. The answer, according to Hizbit Tahrir and others is to ban pornography and shut down the porn industry. Ah, if I am not mistaken pornography is already illegal in Indonesia.

Ideas such as this highlight a real lack of understanding of the human condition and the nature of the world that we live in. The reality is that sex and drugs preceded Islam and they will more than likely survive it as well.

Nevertheless, it is a daunting task facing those seeking to educate Indonesians about HIV / AIDS, particularly when a component of the community would have you believe that HIV / AIDS is nothing more than a disease that afflicts those in the sex industry or homosexuals. Indonesia is on the cusp of a pandemic where large-scale transmission from high risk communities begins to pervade the general community.

UNAIDS estimates that there are some 270,000 Indonesians infected with HIV, and that this is the tip of the iceberg in the sense that there is also a belief that there is significant under-reporting of infections. Under-reporting generally stems from the stigma attached to being HIV+ and the idea of singling HIV+ people out is abhorrent.

There is a real danger that HIV / AIDS could become a really big problem for Indonesia. However, the reality is not one that allows us to stick out collective heads in the sand and pretend that there is not really a problem. It requires vision from Indonesia's leaders to face this dilemma head on and make the hard decisions. One of those decisions is that education saves lives.

Perhaps now is a good time to take the excellent work being done by civil society and NGOs in Indonesia, such as Spiritia Foundation and others, mainstream in confronting this scourge. The fight is all about Respect and Protect. Respecting and protecting ourselves and others.

(Photo from here)

World AIDS Day

How much longer must the wait be to find a cure?

The Campaign Posters -- Offensive?

Saddam Hussein

Joseph Stalin

Adolf Hitler

These are the campaign posters (to-date) for the AIDS Is A Mass Murderer campaign being run in Germany. However, thanks to the Internet this campaign is probably going to take on a life of its own. Hopefully, bloggers and others can contribute to this campaign going a little bit viral (pun intended) to ensure that it reaches the maximum number of people.

The controversy aside, as to whether it increases the stigma on those living with HIV / AIDS, the fact that the campaign holds the potential to get people talking about the virus and our increasing complacency with respect to risk-taking behaviours, then the campaign is in my mind worthwhile.

I also remain to be convinced that the advertisements are suggesting that those people living with HIV / AIDS are mass murderers. To the contrary, I think the advertisements are saying that this killer lives among us, and 'this killer' is the virus.

That is just me though.

But on a slightly different note. Is there anything to be read into why Hitler and Hussein get brunettes and Stalin gets a blonde?

AIDS Is A Mass Murderer -- The Hitler Video...

This is one of those moments when you think to yourself, "why hasn't someone thought of this before?" The use of an Adolf Hitler lookalike having sex as a means of promoting the idea that AIDS is a mass murderer. Perhaps now a whole raft of regional based ads could be made, such as a Russian AIDS ad with a Stalin lookalike doing the deed (which has been done) or a Pol Pot lookalike in Cambodia, the possibilities are numerous.

AIDS, despite what some might have you believe, is an indiscriminate killer in the end; it does not matter whether you are male or female, gay or straight, young or old. The reality, and it is a sad reality, is that we have become much more complacent on the AIDS front. AIDS has morphed from being a much more immediate killer to a chronic illness that can be managed with the right medications. This has made us complacent and this is dangerous. Therefore, a truly confronting ad campaign might just be the way to go to reinvigorate the drive to create a viable vaccine and to find a cure.

The ad was produced by the German Das Comitee advertising agency. The primary focus according to the creative director, Dirk Silz, was to be confronting, to shake people up and get them thinking about reversing the trend in the increasing numbers of people engaging in unprotected sex. You can find the ad here at www.aids-is-a-mass-murderer.com.

AIDS has already caused the death of some 30 million people to date, and a further 6000 are dying everyday. The simple reality is that if we do not address the issue of HIV/AIDS then it will one day be the biggest killer of humans in all of our history. It will have killed more people than all of the wars we have endured as a race combined. This is a truly scary thought.

Maybe, just maybe, an ad like this one is just what the doctor ordered.

However, it is worth noting that not everyone is happy with the ad campaign. There are some who are arguing that the campaign will have the opposite effect and will actually serve to further stigmatize those with HIV / AIDS. The argument is it seems that the ad suggests that people with HIV / AIDS are mass murderers. To be honest I do not see the ad this way. In my mind the ad is indeed confronting, but it is saying the virus is a mass killer that lives among us and that we must be vigilant to ensure that we do not fall victim to it.

In any event, an ad such as this one is likely to generate strongly held opinions on both sides of the equation, yet in some way I believe if it generates debate and gets people talking about the pros and cons, not only of the ad but of the virus, then it has achieved the greater part of its objective.

Don't forget World AIDS Day on 1 December.

You can check it out here or just watch it below.