World AIDS Day

Today is the World AIDS Day. I have put the Link and Think Project logo onto my website.

This is the second time I joined the project and help to spread the information of AIDS.

1 Million AIDS-Affected People

There are already 1 Million AIDS-Affected People in China. People around me are still not well informed of the prevential measures for this disease. Many people still think if they don’t have drug and don’t have many sex partner, they will be 100% free of AIDS. It is wrong!

Discrimination!

Everytime I open the discussion forum of news.sina.com.cn, I feel sad and cold. This time is no exception.

When I clicked the discussion link related to the report of 1 Million Affected by AIDS in China, I found majority of the comments look like:

  1. Anyone affected by AIDS should be kill immediately!
  2. Kill those who affected AIDS by sex and drugs
  3. Seperate them!

It is astonishing! It is so astonish!!

I clearly see the word of “KILL THEM” in the comments repeatly on may comments. What a nation! In my definition, this is called discrimination.

If 1 out of 100 people are posting this kind of comment, it is not a big deal, is it? But what if 9 out of 10 posters are saying so? It is a big socialty problem. This is just like the thread about Japan Spy Satellites Fail to Reach Orbit – it was so-called “The Sea of Happiness”. People from all of the country posted “congratulations” posts and shared their “happiness” with each other. How naive it is.

AIDS Resources

Yahoo!

AIDS Directory

The Body

The NAMES Project

AIDS 101

United Nations AIDS Project

National AIDS Trust

Site Note

Suggested by Isaac, I have put more content into my MovableType RSS feed. The template directly comes from Ben’s article. Now you can use SharpReader to read my blog now. The RSS 1.0 source is at http://home.wangjianshuo.com/index.rdf

7 thoughts on “World AIDS Day

  1. tutu, I think I agree with all your comments before except this one. The way you think is just what I worry about. You said you “can’t be sympathetic with him, as he gives himself AIDS”.

    I don’t think there is any difference after one gets AIDS. You have read his articles and you know how hopeless and painful he is. But what if he cannot get your sympathy? What if he cannot get other’s sympathy?

    Even those who got AIDS by drugs, or unsafe sex like Li did, it is does not mean their lives are not meaningful. You cannot sentence those who steal to death. Life is life; Wrong deed is wrong deed. Don’t mix them up.

    In a society, we don’t discard/discriminate those lung cancer patients, although many of them got it from smoking. We don’t discriminate patients of any kind although most of the time, you can find reasons, typically “unhealthy” reasons, for these diseases.

    Yes. We call any action that may cause any disease “unhealthy”. Why can you accept those people but you cannot accept AIDS carriers who get affected by “unhealthy” actions? Their lives are also lives, just like our lives.

    Humanity is to care those who need help to survive, no matter what he/she did. It happens in the war field, but why not to our brothers and sisters around us?

    What I want to say is, discrimination and punish does not help the situation. Not at all. Only care, love and prevention will make the world better. What do you think?

  2. Yes. Philadelphia is a great story. Discrimination always exists and the counter-force exists too. I believe the current China needs more love. There are too many hate in people’s mind. It is very fashinate to hate AIDS people, to hate Beijing people (in times of SARS), to hate Shanghainese (as always), to hate Henan People (in Beijing)… not to mention the deep rooted hate to Japanese…

  3. It makes me sad to hear you say that there is such a deep level of hatred still in your country for so many things, but if I am honest, I have to say that the same thing is still true in many parts of my country too. I have a theory though, about how the hatred of which you speak changes gradually to understanding and acceptance as societies become closer together, and I think that it is young people like you, Jian Shuo, and some of your readers who agree with your way of thinking, who will serve to make this process happen faster. The more we travel to other countries, and meet people who look different and think differently than we do, we learn to realize that they are still people just like ourselves. We all have parents who love us, and hopes of a better life for our children. We try to make the most of the opportunities we are given. Some of us are lucky enough to have more opportunities than others in this lifetime, but still we all strive to do our best. I am proud that my son is married to a wonderful young woman who was born in a different country. But not so very long ago, American soldiers called people who look like her vile names, and could not tell whether the children who begged for handouts were enemy spies, or the people they were supposed to protect and liberate. Some of those same children became classmates of my sons, and at Stanford where I work, foreign students from China are classmates with foreign students from Japan and they do not hate each other. When AIDS strikes someone you know, (a monogamous heterosexual woman for example) whose only error was trusting someone they ought not to have trusted, one may find more compassion than when they believed it only happens to “other people” or fools. I am optimistic enough to believe that attitudes are changing for the better all over the world, but it’s a slow and difficult process. We have less racism and hatred in the US now than we did a generation ago, and I think your children, Jian Shuo, will someday be able to say the same about where they will grow up. Where I live in California, people from all over the world live happily as neighbors. That’s certainly not yet the case in all parts of the country, but gradually, very gradually, it really is getting better all over. Keep an open mind, and an optimistic attitude. Maybe someday we really *can* achieve world peace!

  4. Hi, Jianshuo, I should say I agreed with wat you said, frankly, it’s not hate. i don’t hate them, but neither do i love them. To me, they are just ordinary Adults, they should take the responsibilities for themselves. Like wat we usually said, think twice b4 you jump. There is no discrimination to AIDS people as far as i’m concerned.

    I’ve seen that movie, it’s a very touching one. I respect those homosexual people, they have the rights to choose their life, and some others like Lijiaming, they also have the rights to choose their life. But shouldn’t be more people aware that the way they choose is easy to be infected with AIDS? So be sure to think twice or more before they final their decision.

    BTW, Maybe I will see you at the dinner tonight :P. HAHA, later you can add my link loh ^^

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