FIGHT MORAL DECAY TO SAVE SA FROM HIV

This is the post for 23rd July.

People's behaviour doesn't change because their 'mindsets' don't change. I guess it is the old story of 'It can't happen to me!' and believe me it will.

I spoke to a recently divorced friend, in her mid 30's who was dating like there was no tomorrow, in a desperate attempt to 'find the right someone'. When I posed the question, she gave me a filthy sideways look and said - 'people my age are not at risk!' I was both stunned and shocked! Here was a well educated, well informed upper middle class individual who had access to as many statistics that there are available (her ex sister in law is a trauma nurse) and she had blinkered herself to this degree. My next question to her of course was 'so who decides exactly which age is safe' - needless to say I am still waiting for the answer from her on that one.

Perhaps it should be obilgatory for everyone to spend a day at one of the HIV AIDS facilities to see, first hand, the actual effects that HIV has, not only on the individual but on the comunity as a whole!

'Fight moral decay to save SA from HIV'
June 29 2000 at 09:07PM
By Siyabonga Mkhwanazi

There are many challenges facing society and South Africans seem afraid to deal with them, said deputy governor of the Reserve Bank Gill Marcus.Speaking at the 93rd birthday of the Guild Cottage, a treatment centre for abused children in Johannesburg, on Wednesday, Marcus said one of the main challenges is rebuilding the culture of respect. Part of the problem was that "we are a society that's been abused - and we were divided in every possible way. The only way to rebuild our society is (by) rebuilding our people". She urged South Africans to make a meaningful contribution towards rebuilding our moral fibre and fighting HIV/Aids.

Aids posed a serious threat to the country as more and more young people died of the disease."If South Africa was in a war where we would lose 20 percent of our young people, would we not do something?" Marcus asked. And she warned educational programmes on HIV/Aids were not working "because people don't alter their behaviour".