Toronto, Canada last week hosted a conference on HIV/AIDS that attracted close to 30,000 people - medical professionals, social workers, the infected, the dying, donors, politicians, homosexuals, heterosexuals, etc, etc.....ofcourse every hotel room was booked solid for the week and pubs and restaurants stayed open late and made extra $$$.
We had a Double-Bill header - Bill Clinton with his charisma and his B'Care org and Bill Gates with his fat wallet. Donated tons of money to the cause - and its mostly going to Africa. Ofcourse the media - tv, newsprint, radio, had the event well covered that it turned out to be a water-cooler topic of conversation too for many. HIV/AIDS awareness is fairly big in Toronto, with posters adorning high- schools, public buses, bus stops, etc, etc. Looking at : http://www.avert.org/indiaaids.htm , the stats are a out of date - 567 AIDS cases in Goa ?? Within the context of World AIDS Day 2005, a series of documents were put together on Goanet: http://www.goanet.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=257 Any updated info and references would help in raising the awareness for Goans. Some responses: On Mon Aug 21 07:59:27 PDT 2006, Mario Goveia wrote: > Based on the rumor that you are an animal doctor, RESPONSE: Mario, Kevin Saldanha is veterinarian. > could you please explain to the rest of us dummies on Goanet RESPONSE: Don't be hard on yourself or fellow Goanetters. There are no dummies here. > why abstinence and fidelity to a safe partner does NOT work for anyone > who actually tries it? RESPONSE: Because this is 2006 and the realities of this world don't conform to abstinence and to a lesser degree, fidelity. > One reason naive people are discouraged from this common sense > approach is the siren song by extreme left wingers, and their > drumbeat of insidious and deadly messages that there is something > called "safe sex" outside the boundaries of common sense. RESPONSE: Is this the best you can do? Are you now going to classify medical and allied professionals that work everyday with people infected with HIV/AIDS into left-wing / right-wing. > The fact is that countries like Uganda that emphasize abstinence and > monogamous relationships are having far greater success in the war against > HIV/AIDS RESPONSE: I can see why you raised the issue of Uganda - the usual spin. Because of criticism of US policy. "Some have said the US is largely to blame for the shortages. According to Stephen Lewis, the UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, "there is no question that the condom crisis in Uganda is being driven and exacerbated by PEPFAR and by the extreme policies that the administration in the United States is now pursuing". "A spokeswoman said Uganda had previously used five million condoms per month, and this number would be doubled to 120 million per year." http://www.avert.org/aidsuganda.htm > The fact is that the only truly safe sex is through abstinence and/or a > monogamous relationship with a safe partner. RESPONSE: I think Jose Colaco has provided a good example where the above is null and void. > What these people's motives are in misguiding millions of people is > beyond the realm of logic. RESPONSE: Gratuituous comments that don't deserve a response. - Bosco T-dot! _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
