Dear Ed Young
Monday, November 06, 2006
I'm not really sure why you are making the failure or lack of response to the VRT project ArtHeat's problem. ArtHeat is blog and a gossip column, our readers are, with exceptions, stupid and our intention is to remain a gossip column. I'm not sure what you were expecting by getting your letters published on the site. I, however, think it has been interesting and if you feel that you do wish to explore this project further using ArtHeat as a space, then apply for the ArtHeat ProjectSpace residency, which is a space designed to be used for projects. Updates at the residency will be explored by posts on ArtHeat.
If you still feel negative about our readership then I suggest you turn to Artthrob. Kim Gurney, the Cape Town editor, will surely be willing to expose your project to their more highbrow readers. You can find her email address on Artthrob by the "contact us" page.
Sincerely
R. Sloon
ps. Dear Readership
An open invite is extended to celebrate ArtHeat's 200th post. Please feel free to join us for a drink tomorrow at Jo'burg bar from 6pm. Castle draught is cheap there before 7.
If you still feel negative about our readership then I suggest you turn to Artthrob. Kim Gurney, the Cape Town editor, will surely be willing to expose your project to their more highbrow readers. You can find her email address on Artthrob by the "contact us" page.
Sincerely
R. Sloon
ps. Dear Readership
An open invite is extended to celebrate ArtHeat's 200th post. Please feel free to join us for a drink tomorrow at Jo'burg bar from 6pm. Castle draught is cheap there before 7.
posted by Robert Sloon at 4:41 PM
22 Comments:
with ed out of town, the blog is quiet: what would his esteemed auditor stateside make of the bush thing? would ed even be allowed on the plane?
what is an 'esteemed auditor stateside', or is it a purposely meaning pointless piece of garbage?
come on, someone please start a fight, you fucking lazy worthless asshole student wankers
1. deserving respect or admiration
2. a hearer or listener, for example, a member of an audience or somebody listening to somebody who is talking (formal)
3. in or toward the continental United States
Can Africa follow in the footsteps of the countries of the North in addressing
the challenge of HIV and AIDS in the region? What lessons can be learnt? The
challenge of HIV and AIDS in Europe and North America has been portrayed as a
problem facing marginalised communities - Africans in diaspora, immigrants, men
who have sex with men, injecting drug users and so on. Very few cases of HIV
infection are attributed to heterosexual relationships.
These countries have many more resources to support their social security system
and their populations have access to much more complex health systems. With the
advent of antiretroviral drugs, many of the people living with HIV and AIDS in
these countries were put on antiretroviral treatment.
However, UNAIDS, the joint United Nations programme on HIV and AIDS, has
reported that new cases of HIV infection and other sexually transmitted
infections are increasing in these countries. UNAIDS says, the rate of new cases
of HIV infection in Canada, which hosted the recent International AIDS
Conference, has increased by 20% over the past five years.
In an article entitled "The real story of HIV rates in UK", published in July
2004, this is how BBC News reported on HIV infection in Britain:
"The number of people living in Britain with HIV is increasing every year
because more people are joining this group than are leaving it. People join the
group in two ways: people with HIV migrate to Britain from abroad (imported
infections); and people living in Britain pick up HIV (domestic infections).
"Because HIV is still incurable, people only leave the group by moving away from
Britain or by dying. The two communities that are bearing the brunt of HIV in
Britain are the gay community and the African community."
Despite the difficulties in reducing infection rate, it is necessary to discuss
whether South Africa and Africa in general would have been able to follow the
path of the North in responding to HIV and AIDS. Is it feasible for Africa to
meet expectations that are based on a model from the North?
In sub-Saharan Africa, HIV and AIDS is a generalised challenge not limited to a
specific and small section of the population. Most of the cases are attributed
to heterosexual relationships.
Our understanding of the difference in the manifestation of this challenge in
Africa as opposed to the North is that Africa has high levels of poverty and
underdevelopment affecting the vast majority of its population. There are
serious health system challenges in our continent, including shortage of human
resources and inadequate infrastructure. Access to affordable and quality
medicines and limited social security support for the poor, who constitute the
majority of our populations, remains a challenge.
With all these challenges, and the fact that we have significantly higher
numbers of people estimated to be living with HIV and AIDS than Europe, adopting
a model which focuses exclusively on antiretroviral (ARV) therapy would not
solve our problem.
As we developed the most appropriate response to the epidemic on the continent,
we had to acknowledge that the high prices of antiretroviral drugs as they
entered the market meant that we would have had to divert resources from other
social needs - education, water, housing and so on - to provide ARVs. Even if we
had done so, the probability of these drugs reaching the patients and patients
taking them at a required frequency was very low.
What did South Africa do under these circumstances? We said that since there is
still no cure or effective vaccine for HIV and AIDS, let us focus on prevention
as the first element of our response. Simply put, our first challenge was to
make sure the problem did not get any worse than it was.
Secondly, we encouraged our people to find out their HIV status, and made
voluntary counselling and testing services available in more than 80% of our
facilities.
We then had to look at how to respond to the needs of those already infected. We
asked ourselves: what can we do to prolong the period between HIV infection and
development of an AIDS defining condition? What can we do to maintain optimal
health for people living with HIV and AIDS?
We introduced the Healthy Lifestyle campaign that promotes regular physical
activity and encourages people to avoid health risks like smoking, alcohol and
substance abuse, as well as unprotected sex to deal with the challenge of both
re-infection and new infections.
To deal with the broader problem of the poor nutritional status of our
population, we introduced interventions that encourage intake of necessary
micronutrients, like providing appropriate vitamin supplementation to pregnant
women and children. Vitamins and minerals are now added to staple foods like
maize meal and wheat flour and communities are encouraged to produce and eat
fruits and vegetables.
These interventions are aimed at strengthening the body's ability to fight
infections and maintain good health for a longer period. When infections occur,
we provide appropriate treatment as most of the opportunistic infections can be
treated even in the presence of HIV.
There is also another element that is peculiar to Africa and that is African
traditional medicines. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 80% of
our people use traditional medicine for various conditions including HIV and
AIDS. So we decided to encourage research and development of these medicines and
create an appropriate regulatory environment for them.
Over the past few years, we made progress in reducing the price of medicines,
increasing social expenditure and, to a certain extent, improving our health
system. Progress in these three areas created a possibility, by the end of 2003,
of introducing antiretroviral therapy. Based on WHO recommendations, we made
antiretroviral therapy an option for HIV positive people whose CD4 count had
dropped to 200 and less.
We evaluated facilities that could provide this treatment with a target of
having at least one service point in every district by the end of the first year
of implementation and we achieved that. We took this approach because we wanted
to ensure that people in both rural and urban areas have access to more or less
the same level of care. We now have 231 health facilities providing ARVs free of
charge and they are spread across 72% of local municipalities.
Our targets are set in terms of establishing infrastructure and making services
available to our people. While we make all the efforts to market these services,
we avoided setting targets based on the number of people using the services
because there are a number of factors influencing uptake and some of these
factors are outside the control of the state.
The WHO, for instance, launched an initiative to put three million people on
antiretroviral therapy by 2005 popularly known as the '3by5' initiative. At the
AIDS conference in Toronto, it was reported that about 1,6 million people were
on ARVs almost 8 months after the '3by5' target was missed.
In South Africa, the experience in the mining industry has been similar. Only a
quarter of the HIV-positive workers at AngloGold Ashanti who need AIDS drugs had
taken up the company's offer of free treatment, a local newspaper, Business Day,
reported on 22 April 2005. About 2,700 were estimated to be requiring treatment
but just 730 workers were taking antiretroviral medicines after one and half
years of providing free drugs. This represents 27% of people initially targeted
by AngloGold.
Experts can discuss the AngloGold's experience in detail. But it highlights the
complexities involved in implementing a programme of this nature.
We should not mislead the public and claim that there can be easy victories in
our efforts to curb the spread of HIV infection and reduce the impact of AIDS.
Our collective duty is to emphasise prevention and ensure understanding of all
the interventions that government is making available at different stages of the
progression of this condition.
penis penis penis
I have a small penis
Ed has a book about George Bush, and he has read and understood most of it. He is well qualified to discuss the subject at length.
Dear R. Sloon
Re your invitation to join the artheat staffers and interns at Jo'burg bar tomorrow. Jo'burg is somewhat decrepid, and frankly, a bit of a hole.
Should you not consider shifting the engagement to a much more upscale venue? Bob's Bar or the Crowbar come to mind- vastly more luxurious and with far better bar staff. And drinks that don't force you sell a bodypart.
Thank you for the invitation. Unfortunately I will not be able to attend.
Sincerely
Richard (Dick)
an auditor is not someone who listens, it's an accountant who checks the financial statements of companies.
Robert Sloon is king!
Yeah, he works in the auditorium
Is that the side of the glass where the fish swim, or where the people are allowed to watch them from?
Ed has small boobies.
they look smaller in the auditorium
Ed Young: He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot, but don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot (apologies to Groucho Marx)
he can't be such a fool if he gets everyone on this blog to talk about nothing else but him
check this:
www.edyoung.com
brilliant coincidence: two ed youngs out for the same cause... prozletising for something that makes no sense whatsoever!
The work of art is no longer necessary, neither is the artist, so then why not shut the fuck up, eh? Why not just get all funding cut for art schools. The government would be delighted.
I love you copycat. This is the best post yet. I wish I'd written it.
copy it
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