World AIDS day
Posted in Old blogger by Twenty Major on December 1st, 2004
Today is World AIDS Day. I remember when we first learned about the disease and were subjected to all kinds of horrific adverts on the telly. Wasn’t there one with a coffin and a condom? Anyway, years on and we still have no cure, more people are infected than ever before and I’d say awareness amongst young people is much less than it was when I was a teenager (all those years ago).
Of course back then it was easy to avoid AIDS, you just didn’t have to anal sex with a man because AIDS was a gayer’s disease. It was also easy to blame sailors for spreading it because they went to Africa and had anal sex with men who caught the disease by having sex with monkeys. Another thing you had to make sure was not to share a cup with someone or sit on the same toilet seat as someone with AIDS because it would sit and wait on the toilet seat and go up your arse when you were having a poo. I was never a big fan of Princess Diana, the doe eyed slapper, but the pictures of her hugging people quite literally eaten up with the disease did a lot to blow away the misconceptions about the illness.
“Oh, look. Rock Hudson. Freddie Mercury. Liberace. All masters of the art of cheeky bum sex. So it’s ok for me to do what I like.”
Nice try, dimwit, but it doesn’t work like that. See that gorgeous girl over there with the great body who’s been casting you amorous glances all night? She could have it. Is she wearing a YMCA outfit with a big moustache and listening to Barbara Streisand on her iPod? Get real.
Now we’re in an era of promiscuity and casual sex. Pregnant 14 year olds, binge drinking and indiscriminate trouser and knicker dropping every weekend and if you’re so drunk you can hardly remember your name, where you live or what the girl whose tits you’re playing with looks like how likely is it that you’re going to remember to use a condom? Kids these days need to be scared about it because I don’t think it’s even something that crosses their minds before they go to bed/up an alley with someone.
Of course drugs these days can keep the disease is check with much greater effect than even a few years ago, but that’s not really the point. We have a whole continent of people dying from AIDS every day and ignorant, obstinate governments refusing to help their people, drug companies who could manufacture generic drugs at a tiny percentage of their branded products refusing to sell, and all the while the epidemic spreads and the statistics become scarier and scarier.
Sorry to be all serious today, but once a year is all right. Isn’t it?
greengirl says:
Fantastic post…..my own peers are definetly less aware of the danger of aids than young people were forced to be back i the 80’s. There is a serious misconception that the only things you can pick up in Ireland from sleeping around are crabs and chlamydia, I think they need to broaden the campaign on the dangers of unprotected sex to include serious diseases such as aids as well as the no. 1 fear, pregnancy. After all, I know which one I’d rather avoid!
December 1st, 2004 at 11:33 am
Mosher says:
A good and timely post, Major me old mucker. I’d agree on all the points.
One thing that did surprise me recently was how useless condoms are for protecting against many STDs, even when used properly. A lot of things (don’t ask me to name them - this was on the radio while I was driving) can be passed by skin to skin contact as well as actual penetrative sex. Crabs were amongst them, as were genital warts I believe.
AIDS is a very important thing to try and educate people about, but sadly it’s only one part of a much bigger picture. Promiscuity is a huge “problem” these days, but what’s worse is unsafe promiscuity. I know quite a few younger people including one 16 year old who’s passed 50 sexual partners already.
By all means play. But play SAFE.
December 1st, 2004 at 1:15 pm
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Scaryduck says:
Mosh: As any fool knows, crabs can jump six feet and can only be cured by the liberal application of Blue Unction (ie raw meths).
My old dad Professor Scary is a top virologist and tells me the only cure for The Bad AIDS is Domestos. We’re fucked, basically.
December 1st, 2004 at 1:37 pm
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Twenty Major says:
We’re fucked, basically.That’s what got us into this mess in the first place. Stupid plague monkeys.
December 1st, 2004 at 1:56 pm
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Scaryduck says:
Twenty: I saw this and thought of you:
http://www.bci.ie/adverts.html
Watch TV and earn money!
December 1st, 2004 at 2:13 pm
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Twenty Major says:
Thanks Scary, but they’d have to pay me a lot more than that to watch 13 hours of Irish television.
December 1st, 2004 at 5:35 pm
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Wood says:
Nice Post man, thanks.
I’m 32 years old and I lost my Dad to AIDS in 1991 when I was 18. It devastated me. He simply didn’t protect himself. He was a PHD psychiatrist with his own practice, 2 books and such great success with so much more ahead of him.
But he didn’t protect himself.
He died at the age of 49, way too soon and although I miss him every day, it’s days like World AIDS Day that make it a little rough.
It’s almost ignored these days. Heterosexuals are the most at risk now and people think they are immune.
PROTECT YOURSELVES PEOPLE. No one is immune. AIDS does not discriminate.
December 3rd, 2004 at 2:16 am
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