Wednesday 26 November 2008

South Africa's HIV/AIDS Legacy


The legacy of our previous president, Mr. Thabo Mbeki, will not only include his premature (forced) resignation, but also his stance on HIV/AIDS. Recently the New York Times wrote a candid article, focusing on conclusions provided by Havard researchers, on the whole debacle.

The article quotes the UN, which estimates that 900 people die per day in South Africa from HIV/AIDS related causes and almost one in every five people in South Africa are infected.

One has to wonder why Mr Mbeki, a very intelligent man, took the stance he did? He basically said that HIV is not the only cause of AIDS. Can there be a little truth to this? Maybe one of the reasons why drug addicts and poverty stricken people are more prone to AIDS is because their immune systems are already broken down by their lifestyle.

Photo by Joao Silva, for The New York Times.

2 comments:

Lindi said...

legacy, is a very nice word mostly abused by polititians.

Well its interesting to look at the South African history from all the revolutions through Information revolution(current) whereby everyone is "shouting".

All of them(revolutions) have left an impact(better word than legacy) be it positive or negative

I storngly feel its time now to whisper and be like Jesus if I may say. HE became waydown low and whispered in our ears, don't walk that way, but walk this way, it will lead you to success. - then what we can do is to try and bring change for better.

Skryfblok said...

Hi Lindi,

Welcome to my blog.