Thursday, July 05, 2007

HIV AIDS

My first confrontation with the problem of HIV aids was back in India when I worked with my fellow rotractors to increase awareness in truck drivers regd HIV aids . Till then I was pretty much like many other Indians trying to tell ourselves that the problem is not there . It is kinda justified in the situtation that we are in too , ppl in india have so many other things on their mind that they do not have time to bother about HIV till actually harms someone . It was then that I realized at what rate HIV was taking over us . What was most shocking was that the main cause of HIV was not unhealthy use of syringes , that is the main reason of HIV the world over , it was unhealthy sexual practices that were leading to AIDS in India .
I had almost forgotten about HIV till I met this wonderful lady from Tanzania , Susan . Susan is a student in sociology and her thesis is about how gender relationships in Africa are being affected due to the widespread of HIV AIDS . Gender relationships in Africa are almost similar to those in India . A woman is not considered feminine enough if her husband cooks etc . What is more important is feminity means not having you sexual preferences and subjecting to your husband or sexual partners will .
Susan is trying to study if AIDS epidemic in Africa has finally instilled a voice in African woman wherein they can go and tell there partner to go use a condom or some from of protection . It is amazing how a epidemic had the capability of changing gender balance in a entire civilization .
I plan to follow Susan's dissertation at close quarters bcoz this is the first time I am seeing epidemics from a sociological point of view . I feel we sometimes fail to see history when it is being built by our side . I am sure to follow this one bcoz no matter good or bad , HIV sure is going to bring changes to our society .

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