COMMENT: I have read with interest (and disgust) some of the replies to my posting about the Aids pandemic in South Africa. I see that it has deteriorated into the age old argument of whether to emigrate or not! Aids is for real. It kills people. There is no cure. It will not go away. It is as simple as that. I witnessed my brother-in-law die of the disease and I would not wish it on my worst enemy. I saw him beg for his life as the cells of his body were eaten away. And, he was a beautiful person -- not a horrible hair on his head. He was compassionate, loving and caring. But Aids took his life and we had to accept that. We can examine the causes and effects of Aids until we are blue in the face but the bottom line is so simple: practice safe sex and don't share needles. Warn the kids in SA of the dangers. Implement an aggressive campaign and don't spare any cash. Forget the R30 billion plan to modernize the post- apartheid military machine. Countries like Canada and America have found a drug cocktail that can prolong the lives of those infected by this terrible disease. It is not a solution but the least they can do is share that technology with countries like Africa and not expect to reap financial benefits. They are the people that should be targeted. People like you should be writing to the President of the USA, to all the congressmen, to the Prime Minister of Canada and Great Britain. And please, stop this silly attack on South Africans who have emigrated. They had the opportunity, the option and the money to do what they did. Why begrudge them a new start in life. I have passed the stage where I have to justify my move to Canada. It was my choice and I don't regret it for one minute. Colin Dedricks Colin, Since you are so deeply concerned about the spread of Aids on the African continent, why don't you put your money where your mouth is, sell your property in Canada, and come to live with us in South Africa? In that case you would be able to actively help those poor Aids sufferers, instead of just your empty and cheap heart breaking laments made from safety of Canada ! Go on Colin, show us that you are man of action. Nadine Venter Colin, One of the less attractive features of this site (the news website) has always been the tendency of SA based people to be very negative and derogatory about comments posted by South Africans who have chosen to emigrate. (Shades of jealousy?) This seems entirely unreasonable to me -- the sort of thinking that goes something like: "You're sitting safely in Sydney, Vancouver, London or where ever and therefore have no right to an opinion on South Africa," is quite preposterous. I have views on the destruction of the rain forest, yet I don't live in Brazil. I condemn the atrocities in Kosovo but I don't live there. I mourn the earthquake victims in Turkey but I don't live there. etc etc. In fact, it seems to me that foreign based ex South Africans are very qualified to put forward their opinions. After all, they have an intimate knowledge of, and an interest in, the country, combined with the benefit of perspective and comparison. Regards, Boston No, Boston, not even a shade of jealousy here. All I am saying is that I can't understand hypocrites who left SA because of the disaster we are facing now, created by the bloated incompetents presently ruling our country. Yet they are crying their hearts out and are deeply concerned (from the safety of Sydney or Toronto) about "unjust and immoral persecution and discrimination" of the same mob who - by their totally unacceptable behaviour and uncivilized rules they introduced - actually made these moaners to pack-up and go. Nadine Venter Dearest Colin What the f*ck are you carrying on about. Aids is the answer to over- population. If they want to make kids like rabbits and drop them like gesunky nuts on the pavements of the third world then they must be decimated. Why waste money on drugs. Let them f*ck themselves into oblivion. You go and conduct your Aids campaign somewhere else, you liberal turd! Hobbes Hobbes you foul mouth, You've got it all wrong. It's people like you who should be decimated! When are you going to realize that you are depriving some poor village of an idiot? Incidently, I'm glad that stringent immigration rules are in place to keep your type out of countries like Canada and Australia. I would hate trying to explain your breed to friends over here. ColinD Dear Colin Once you have read this, please ignore all posts claiming to be from Hobbes. I am being impersonated by an insufferable little twerp called Gatvol. I certainly do not agree with what he says, and he is baiting both of us. Do not post in response to him, and in fact, I would strongly advise you and all other right thinking people to boycott this page entirely (the news website page). This would appear to be the only solution to leaving the creep out in the cold. (Real name withheld) Colin Darling, I don't quite know where you get your stats from but you should especially bear in mind that a lot of Aids victims are rape victims. Cut the crime and you won't get the Aids. Nie so nie ou maat in Ontario? Leigh I don't know how many cases of Aids are caused by rape ... but I suspect it is not as many as you think Leigh. True rape is a serious problem but I wouldn't say it the cause of the Aids epidemic. However, I do think that you can't solve the Aids problem without solving the crime problem. Many health workers and educators don't want to go into the townships to educate people because they fear for their own lives. Some ex-collegues of mine went to a school in Soweto to talk to the kids and teachers about environmental problems (such as clean water, sanitation etc) and on the way they were hijacked. Now I know some may be thinking "what did they expect...white people going into a black township!" But, they weren't white...and they were driving an old beat-up government car. But what Andrew says further down about Aids effecting people of all races, colours, creeds etc is very true. And there are disturbingly high number of highly educated people contracting aids. The incident at the University of Durban-Westville is a good example of this. I can't remember all the details of the case but I know they got students to volunteer to undergo anonymous Aids tests and there was a shockingly high percentage of people with the disease. About what Colin said about SA having the highest number of Aids patients in the world is truly frightening, because I'm pretty sure it is actually worse in other African countries. Maybe they don't have such high numbers of patients because not many people there realize that they have Aids...at least there is some awareness in South Africa. But then again maybe our own health department needs some education -- does anyone remember the incident last year where they distributed Aids awareness pamphlets with condoms stapled to them? Perhaps a good idea, except they put the staples through the condoms! Lins So now rape is the scapegoat. How convenient. There are fewer reported cases of rape in SA in a year than there are new infections of HIV in a month. Not every rape victim contracts HIV, so one can deduce that the majority of HIV infections are as a result of lifestyle. Your naivety with regard to HIV / rape suggests that you may also believe that most HIV infections from consensual sexual activities are homosexually based. Just in case you believe that, I can assure you that the vast majority of HIV infections globally are from heterosexual acts. To write off HIV / Aids as a crime-derived disease is indicative of the lack of education about the disease: it is exactly that sort of mindset that assists in the propagation of dis-information and the disease itself. As soon as the world acknowledges the following facts, and educates the illiterate masses progress can be made. Remember:: 1) Aids is mostly spread by unprotected sex (note that hetero- or homosexual is not specified, neither is the word consensual), 2) Aids is not a disease confined to black people, 3) Aids is not confined to white/yellow/pink/brown/purple people, 4) Aids can not be cured, 5) Aids is relatively weeny outside the human body, but very hardy indeed inside it, 6) Aids is everybody's problem. Canada is fortunate in that the majority of folk are literate and / or intelligent enough to realize the threat that Aids poses, and to take precautions accordingly. However in sub-Saharan Africa it is different. And it is no good for us to say: "I am in a monogamous relationship with my wife, and Aids doesn't affect me." The time will come when the Aids sufferers and orphans are going to be knocking on our doors, looking for jobs and cash to live out their days. If I were a business owner I would be most fearful: train workers, and they drop off; requiring new workers to be re-trained, at a huge cost. The new legislation makes it impossible to discriminate on the basis of HIV status, so starting a new business will be hazardous in that you could be hiring a whole whack of HIV+ infected workers and be left to provide medical cover and retraining for replacement workers when they drop off from FB Aids. To end my tirade, I urge the likes of Leigh in Canada to end the finger pointing: the pandemic will not be stopped by bleating about crime / rape / lifestyle / socio-economic factors / education or the lack of it. Progress will only be made when fierce action (a la Uganda) is taken. Andrew It is very difficult for any South African living in South Africa not to be skeptical of advice from ex-South Africans now living in the privileged "first world" countries because these expats will never have to live with the consequences of us following that advice. It's much the same with the World Bank/IMF who hurry around Africa advising everyone on how to run their governments (i.e. "cut spending on Health and Education in order to bring down budget deficits") without ever having to experience the consequences of these policies. This doesn't mean that ex-South Africans (and even the IMF) don't have good advice to give, but it will always be undermined to a certain extent by the perception that it's advice dispensed from an ivory tower. Unfortunately, I believe, this is an unavoidable consequence of choosing to give up one's nationality. As far as someone immigrating being regarded as the brave thing to do…. I'm very skeptical of this statement. It is hard to leave friends and family behind, but it is certainly not hard to live in the "first world". For the last few months (after back packing round Africa for 18 months) I've been working in London. No-one here can claim that life is tough. There are jobs for everyone - "help wanted" is advertised everywhere. Even if you earn minimum wage (R40 an hour) you can still afford to take a three week holiday in a European resort every year. And the only people earning minimum wage are school drop outs… receptionists earn around R100/hour and computer programmers can charge R400/hour quite easily! And I understand that Canada is even wealthier than London (according to the UN)… There's no place like home - my flight lands in JHB on the 16th of December Jamjamdave P.S. Who will you Canadians support if SA plays Canada in the Rugby World Cup? We should not overlook the thousands of South Africans who emigrated between 1948 and 1994 because their pigmentation/ethnicity/ancestry/ whatever, caused them to be subject to unjust and immoral persecution and discrimination. There are generations of expats who left for good reason. They were exercising the fundamental human right of freedom of movement, something which many expats were not able to enjoy in the land of their birth. Hell, what can I say? You were way out of order, Nadine. Ignorantia haud excusat Aussie Ostrich How lovely - two meddling souls, one in Canada and one in Australia sounding off in harmony! Mr. Ostrich, in case you didn't notice, I never questioned anyone's indisputable right to "freedom of movement" My own dear friends emigrated to Australia already way back in mid seventies, because they were able to foresee the present disaster of black government rule, in time when no-one really believed that would ever happen. In the recent years - hundreds of thousands highly educated and qualified people left the country, and reason for that was - well, you could say "pigmentation / ethnicity" problems. I criticized those pious individuals who from safety of Canada or Australia moaning and groaning about destiny of people who were previously "subject to unjust and immoral persecution and discrimination." Goodness me - if they feel like this, why did they leave the country in the first place, and now just paying a lip service to the problem? When "unjust and immoral persecution and discrimination" laws were scrapped and a new "democracy" was installed in SA, these deeply concerned moaners would be able to enjoy that bright new dawn of SA prosperity with us ! I wonder what are they still doing in Australia or Canada ? Nadine Venter Ever read Brian Bunting's "The Rise of the South African Reich"? It was banned in SA. A friend from Kloof, in Natal, gave me a copy in London in 1971. That gave me all the reasons I needed to apply for a job in Australia. I'll meet you halfway, Nadine. Can we agree that SA has not enjoyed "good" government since 1948? If you were a member of one of the disadvantaged groups, which I presume you are not, you would probably say the problems started in 1910 when the franchise was restricted. Colin provides valuable publicity for SA in Canada and on the WWW. He is not an idle critic, taking potshots. Visit his website and you will see what I mean. No offense intended, and no offense taken. Aussie Ostrich |