First AIDS

While I was in Hong Kong last year, I came across this the article about an odd job labourer of sixty-five who had been ostracized by his children and his wife because he has Aids.

He had unprotected sex with prostitutes from mainland China even though he knew full well the danger of contracting Aids. He said that he preferred having sex with mainland Chinese as they do not demand that he used condoms. When asked if he was aware of the danger of contracting Aids, his retort was that he was already so old and about to die so he does not mind taking the risk.

It is very easy for those of us who live by a particular set of moral values and ethical standard to sit on our high chair and judge those who have contracted Aids.

My first reaction when I read the article was not sympathy for him but moral indignation. There were several questions that came to my mind.

Why did he not learn to exercise self-control? How can he expect his wife and children to look after him when he chose to expose himself to such risks? Why should he expect society and his family to have pity on him?

Later, I watched a documentary on Freddie Mercury, about how he lived life to the fullest and how he tragically died of Aids on 24th November 1991.

Freddie fit the stereotype that most of us main stream heterosexual, family-orientated, faithful to a single partner adults have of people who have Aids. He was a homosexual; he had wild parties organized for his friends where sex, drugs and drinks were freely available.

Yet, before we continue to condemn people who suffer from Aids, we should pause and reflect if we too have made similar transgression.

For example, we have been advised many times through public campaign, television programme and other mass media that we should cut back on our salt intake, reduce our consumption of meat and fats or else we might have a heart attack or a stroke.

Yet, when we do not change our life style choice and have a heart attack, our family and our friends more often then not offer their care and concern for us and do not treat us like condemned criminal.

How often have we cheated life when we continue to smoke another pack of cigarettes thinking that we will not harm our body?

What about breaking the speed limit driving home with alcohol above the legal acceptable limit?

All of us have one time or another diced with life and death. We have taken chances or calculated risks. Some Aids patients, like the rest of us, have made life style choices that resulted in them contracting Aids. Like all of us, they will have to live with the consequences and responsibility of their choice.

What they do not need is our righteous, virtuous attitude, with us ever ready to cast the first stone.

Yes, some of us may not agree with the Aids patient’s lifestyle choices due to our religious belief or moral and ethical values. And often we are tempted to argue that because they do not ascribe to our particular framework of understanding, they are being punished.

Yet, if we calm down and think clearly, Aids patients deserved our care and concern as much as other patients who have contract other life-style disease like diabetes, stroke or sexual transmitted disease.

What they need right now is our acceptance, our assurance that they are still human and that we as follow human being, can see beyond their actions and transgression.

We can begin by being more sensitive when we discuss about Aids issues with our friends and family. Through our conversations, we can promote the attitude that we are ready to accept Aids as a disease and not a death sentence. Only when enough of use openly proclaimed that Aids suffers are part of our society can we claimed that ours is an inclusive society.

Even a convicted murderer is treated with dignity and respect before he is executed.

This article was not published in TODAY.