of the many things unsaid...

there are a few things in life that i do not take seriously. y'all know a few of them...and i always try to give an air of irreverence to all of the things that human beings hold sacrosanct for no apparent reason, especially when it defies modern logic and common sense. somehow though, from the first time i heard of a certain disease very many years ago, i knew that of the many things that i will take seriously in my life, AIDS and the fight against it would be one of them.

i remember the first time i ever heard of the disease was on the oprah winfrey show when they were interviewing a man who was being physically persecuted by members of his small community somewhere in america, because he was gay and had AIDS. at the time, as is still the case in many regions of black africa, the notion was that AIDS was a gay person's disease and an instant verdict from the Almighty against the atrocious acts of homosexuals. that episode of her show was one of the most passionate ever, with members of the audience insisting that he must not use the community swimming pool for fear of transmitting THAT disease to other people. At the time, it was the disease touted as God's judgment on the world and there were statistics showing that this disease would spread at such an alarming rate, that mankind would not survive the onslaught.

many years later, the human race has shown once again, that it did not come this far down the evolution chain to be wiped out by disease. we have proved again that as we lived through the Ubola virus, tuberculosis, polio and SARS, we will always be hit by new ailments of such proportions that will push the entire race to its knees, but never to the ground.

but as an african man living in africa, the battle is not being won as well as it should. all the noise about government funding for AIDS research, rural community availability of the anti-retroviral vaccine in local hospitals, and the protection of patient medical history is still valid after over 10 years of the active fight at all levels of society against this disease. for once, nigeria must be given a pass mark for not being the worst implementer of anti-AIDS policies in africa. however, the biggest enemy to far reaching progress has to be you.

yes, you reading this article.  of all the walks, publicity and calls for voluntary assistance made over and over, year after year, can you sincerely count how many you have participated in? have you ever been with a person dying from AIDS...have you ever encouraged young people looking up to you, to go and get tested? have you not sent away housemaids, and drivers and gardners who tested positive to the disease only for the "sake of the children"? have you not joined in condemning gay people to the pits of hell and carrying on with the "serves them right" attitude when they fall ill with the disease? yes, i agree that you are the biggest stumbling block to change.

please remember that as long as people stay in hiding for fear of condemnation, for whatever reason including sexual orientation and cultural stigmatisation and disrimination, they will stay in dark corners spreading it to one more person who they have sex with. you will be very surprised how many unlikely people have unprotected sex, (even that hot spirit filled choir leader probably did the nasty last night with their houseboy. that big shot pot bellied lawyer probably has constant sex with his children's nanny who turns around and sleeps with the gateman to keep him from spilling the beans to madam etc) every single darn day. so yes, i don't mind that you follow the bible injunction and condemn every morally deviant act under the sun, but save yourself and save someone close to you by encouraging open dialogue of issues that will facilitate more testing and control of this disease. thats all i'm saying.

so today, i am wearing my heart on my sleeves literally, by using the commemorative brooch, and will join all and every online activity to bring the required change to black africa. we must win this battle, and at least have one less thing to worry about.

see y'all around peeps.