HIV/AIDS first pierced my consciousness as a bolt out of the blue. In November of 1991, Earvin “Magic” Johnson – he of the irresistible “no-look pass”, bright, infectious, and winsome smile, and a much-loved gifted NBA star, and most significantly this then-young basketball fan’s idol – went public with the announcement that he had tested positive for HIV

, the virus that causes AIDS, and would be retiring from basketball. His profession shocked the basketball community, reverberated around the country, and made headline news the world over, which bore witness to the tragic, premature end to the career of a player at his prime.

On hindsight, it must have taken an incredible amount of courage for Magic to admit – on national television, no less – to having what was then such an unknown, feared, and heavily stigmatised disease that was tantamount to a slow death sentence. Belatedly, thanks Magic for so bravely and, true to the nature of his play, unselfishly coming out to put a face, and voice, to HIV/AIDS, and demonstrating that nobody – not even the rich and famous – is immune from it.

16 years on, however, if people are now more aware of HIV/AIDS than before, the figures do not bear this out. Official statistics on HIV as recorded by the Ministry of Health in Singapore show that the number of HIV-positive cases have been increasing steadily over the years (http://www.moh.gov.sg/mohcorp/statistics.aspx?id=246#table1). What is greater cause for alarm is that it is widely perceived that the actual number of Singaporeans infected with HIV/AIDS could be up to four times higher (http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/241459/1/.html) because many people do not come forward for testing or choose to keep their disease under wraps, for fear of the stigma so infamously associated with HIV/AIDS.

At the personal level, I wish to think that I am adequately cognisant about HIV/AIDS and the basic causes, symptoms, treatments, risk factors, etc., but I could be mistaken. I volunteered for a time at the Patient Care Centre (PCC), interacting with HIV patients, helping to massage their stiff muscles, etc., but because of the time it was taking up, coupled with work and other commitments, I gradually went less frequently and then stopped going altogether. At the back of my mind, though, there was always some lingering modicum of doubt regarding the “what-ifs” of HIV/AIDS that weighed on me. For instance, casual contact with HIV/AIDS patients like handshakes are supposed to be okay, but what if both parties have minor cuts/grazes on the hands? Kissing is reportedly harmless, but what if either or both parties have mouth ulcers? The standard HIV FAQs had no answers. And I am not certain none of these uncertainties played a part in my decision to finally stop volunteering at the PCC.

It was recently reported that 1 in 350 patients in Singapore could be infected with HIV and yet is unaware of it (http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/STIStory_139948.html), which is a rather significant number. More can and needs to be done to address the ignorance, biases, and stigma linked to HIV/AIDS. There is an urgent need to encourage and promote responsible sexual behaviour and practices amongst all Singaporeans (notably, the most common mode of HIV transmission every year since records first began in 1985 has always been heterosexual intercourse), and urge sensibility and reasonableness when interacting with HIV patients. This isn’t a call to hug and kiss every HIV patient we now come across, but we would do well to not shun, discriminate against, unfairly stigmatize, or otherwise treat them with uninformed fearfulness or irrational paranoia, which many of us have perhaps been guilty of in the past. The very least we could do is to treat them, and by extension ourselves, with basic respect as fellow human beings.

I will search harder for answers to my nagging doubts, and maybe one day start volunteering at PCC again.

Shaun

Student, 24

They put together a blockbuster event which wowed the audience throughout. I can’t say I’m surprised though, after witnessing the impressive variety show they organised around Christmas last year. However, this time, it was a paying crowd and there was no buffet spread to help entice the GLBT community out of the woodwork.

The aborted spectacle several years ago must have served as a dry run that helped make this year’s event slick as butter. Having a different angle finally persuaded the MDA to give it the A-OK. Presumably, the reason why the censors refused to grant a permit in 2003 was because it was considered to be “promoting the homosexual lifestyle”, i.e. promiscuity, although the organisers intended, by featuring long-term couple Jason and de Marco, to foster monogamous gay relationships.

The aim of this year’s charity concert was to promote awareness of HIV amongt GLBTs in Singapore, so the authorities let it through.

Unbelievable mindset. The performances would probably have been the same whatever the spin.

The venue was the Kreta Ayer People’s Theatre, smack in the middle of Chinatown – not easy to find if you’ve never been there before. It has thankfully been renovated. One of my Oogachaga mates said that he had attended charity performances there many years ago and at that time, it was rather run down and the seats made you itch. This time, it seemed almost spanking new.

FCC volunteers were everywhere, manning their respective posts like a well oiled machine. The logistics of running such a show boggle the mind. These people can really take stress!

It was lovely to have socialite Miak and cutie Kok Wei handing out the free-seating tickets in exchange for our Paypal computer printouts.

I was worried that I would not have a good view of the stage as the first 15 rows or so were not inclined. But my fears were put to rest as the performance began on the elevated stage which everyone could catch sight of between the heads of the people in front of you due to the staggered arrangement of the seats.

FCC vice-chairperson Peter Goh made the introductory comments to a packed audience which were probably largely his flock. Of course, non-Christian GLBTs there were aplenty in the crowd, including myself.

The guest-of-honour was none other than former Minister of Health, Dr. Balaji Sadasivan of “Nation parties spread AIDS” and “one-fifth of you are probably going to die of AIDS” fame, uttered at the Life! Theatre Awards many years ago. Actually, I was very grateful that he deigned to show up with his wife. Interacting with AIDS and gay activists can only foster understanding between our community and mainstream society.

And it shows. Dr. Balaji commended the organisers for holding the event and stressed the importance of the Health Ministry working hand-in-hand with the MSM community, citing the case of Sydney, Australia which successfully reigned in the spread of the HIV epidemic using such an approach. The words “MSM” and “homosexual” rolled so matter-of-factly off his tongue that one would be inclined to conclude that the Government already regards us as mainstream. Now that’s what I call education! In fact, the uninitiated could be forgiven for thinking that Dr. Balaji was one of us.

AfA president, the evergreen Prof. Roy Chan was also spotted in the VIP front row.

The hosts for the evening were odd couple, the mischievious, devious Miss Stevious and well known theatre personality Chua En-lai. Miss Stevious was her usual over-the-top self, spewing her trademark battery of raunchily delicious innuendos, while En-lai seemed like he was having an internal struggle about how much of the woman in him he was going to let out. They both did a great job though, being quick-thinking and witty in what was mainly impromptu banter. I’m glad Miss Stevious flirted at the boundaries of acceptable public ribaldry in front of a PAP Minister as that helps no end in loosening up official anal constriction.

The performance ball was rolled off by John Lee from Singaporean acapella group Vocaluptuous who sang his contemporary, Anglicised update of the Malay classic “Geylang, si-paku Geylang” (I think), making it cool and poignant at the same time. He may intend to release this as a single, following the footsteps of Dick Lee’s “Rasa Sayang”. Is he related to Dick? Anyway, he impressed with his piano playing, emotive singing and vocal range.

The performances were interspersed with video interviews of personalities from Safehaven – Chee Meng, Miak, Shawn and Rev. Yap, projected on a large screen at the rear of the stage. I thought it was a creative touch that made the HIV message of acceptance, compassion and safe-sex all the more personal and Singaporean. However, the audience was fed a healthy(?) dose of Christian paradigms.

Next up were the stars of the show, imported all the way from the City of the Angels, Jason and de Marco. Bleach-blond Jason blew me away with his voice. It really had that superstar quality, and I’m not exaggerating – high on treble without any tweaking from the mixer, ranging from tenor to alto, and running the expressive gamut from plaintive to soulful to funky as the phrasing required.

His spouse of over six years, curly brunette de Marco was no slouch either, but he was overshadowed by Jason’s brilliance, which he gladly acceded to.

They performed a series of orginal compositions and covers, both fast and slow to showcase their versatility. At times I hoped that they would hold hands or even kiss on stage, but they were rather restrained in their PDAs. An MDA precondition, perhaps?

Their band was made up entirely of Singaporeans, five of them to be exact. It must have been no mean feat to rehearse with complete strangers before a major performance. I don’t know how many rehearsals it took to get everything to gel.

Our very own Hossan Leong followed their act with a Singaporeanised rendition of Barry Manilow’s songs, “Copacabana” with humorous Singlish interjections, and “Mandy”, which he devilishly mangled to “Andy”, “Randy” and “Candy”.

Hossan is truly a talented performer, being able to sing, dance, do stand-up comedy and play the piano with panache. And people tell me he’s straight? Come on, I wasn’t born yesterday.

Selena Tan seemed to be the only other straight performer there that night. Need I say more?

The HOPE dancers were a group of 5 guys, put together just for the event. They were pretty energetic and put up a spirited performance but there was no breakdancing nor gymnastics.

I was really surprised when nominated MP and former Miss Singapore-Universe Eunice Olsen took to the stage with an operatic-sounding solo male singer whose name I can’t recall to play beautiful and technically adept accompaniment on the piano. Not only is she good-looking, she is also immensely talented. And she’s straight! Wonder of wonders.

It was refreshing entertainment and also good psychology to have the hosts interview Jason and de Marco on a plush red couch about their relationship. From what the pair described, the straight members of the audience could not but learn that our relationships face mostly the same problems as theirs. In the process, we become a rung more mainstream and less deviant in their eyes.

Another surprising revelation was that the duo’s MTV video was voted number one, beating the competition from Christina Aguilera, Justin Timeberlake and other pop icons.

SiGNeL list owner and Singapore’s best known gay activist Alex Au was invited onstage to give a speech. I thought it was very uncharacteristic of Alex to read from a prepared script as he always presents his material off-the-cuff with flair, but as he later told me, it was written by someone else. This was also the first time I’ve seen Alex in a suit. Well, this completes the cycle then because I think I’m one of the few people who’ve seen ALL of Alex, during his Rairua days.

Alex, already a Utopia award-winner himself, in turn presented PLU’s award to Rev. Yap Kim Hao of FCC for his immeasurable contributions to the GLBT community, achievements made all the more astounding in view of the fact that Rev. Yap is a straight family man of the cloth and the immense opposition he faces from other leaders of the clergy. Alfonsus, head organiser of the event, hugged Rev. Yap as he rose from his seat and led him onstage where he made a short speech to a standing ovation from many members of the audience.

The evening ended with a rousing finale of “We are family”, the Sister Sledge classic, sung mainly by Jason, guided by lyrics projected onto the screen, but also the rest of the line-up of performers.

The star duo waited outside as the audience filed out, ready to chat with them and sign copies of their CDs which were on sale.

I saw and said “Hi” to many stalwarts of the gay community there before proceeding home, satisfied with a most enjoyable night out.

- Roy Tan

Last year August, my eldest brother messaged me that my 2nd elder brother (29 years old) was tested with positive HIV in a blood donation test.

The first thing that I felt was: “It must be something wrong with the hospital / test report. It can’t be. My brother will not be infected by HIV. He is a very nice guy. He never visit to any brothel nor pub / disco. He never has multiple sex partner. He never …etc”

After the second test, doctor confirmed that my brother was infected by HIV. At that time, my mum cried and we still tried to persuade ourselves that it is impossible, but slowly, we have accepted the fact and start to think what is the possible cause that makes my brother infected by HIV. We start to accuse my brother’s ex-girl friend who is believed a HIV carrier (we do not have any evidence, but at that time, we just blame whoever we can blamed to) as she is from Thailand. My mum felt so guilty of not stopping my brother from dating with the Thai girl.

We know that most of the HIV patients have life span of 8 – 12 years. Every time I celebrate any birthday, the thing that came to my mind was my brother has getting older 1 year. When government announced any mega project to be done in TV / radio news channel, I always hope that my brother still can see it in the future. Chinese New Year, Tang Yuan (Rice Ball) Festival and National Day are the holiday that I do not wish to celebrate. What I hope is time can be idle now and every one of us stop growing.

My mind gets confused when the feeling of sorrow cross-linked with the feeling of worried and horror. I started to worry whether I am infected with HIV as well. I took Biology in my A-Level of study, I knew that HIV only can be spreaded through blood or sex, but I started to get crazy and could not stop question my friends (who are studying medicine course) to confirm that I am not affected with HIV too. I could not control myself at that moment and kept on asking my friends stupid questions: “I share the same utensils with him, will I get infected? I slept on his bed before, how? I use the same soap with him during bath… I think I might have used his towel before (I used his towel to wipe my wound? My genital part? My eye? My eye contains body fluids, is this a channel to transmit HIV?) I suffered from insomia for 1 month.

I believed that my family members suffer the most as they stay together with him (I come from Penang, I do not stay with my family as I study in NUS). 3 months ago, brother was infected by messles. I can feel the worry that my family members have experienced during that time. They must have thought that that is the symptom of AIDS. They must have too worried about him, and I also can imagine that my mum must have called to doctor for so many times to ask for my brother condition. My dad must have asked the monk / “god” in the temple and prayed for him during that time.

Currently, my family members and I have already used to it. What I can do now is to find more information about how to cure HIV. I have bought e-EXCEL product (a MLM product which has high reputation on strengthen body immune system, about $S300-400) and asked my mum to let my brother to take it daily. I dare not to tell my brother directly that I purposely buy this only for him and he will die very soon if he never consume the suppliment. The only way I can do is to ask my whole family to consume it together with my brother, assuming that I bought the suppliment for my mum and dad but not purposely for him only.

- Khoo Boo Hung

When a person is infected with HIV, the virus enters the body and lives and multiplies primarily in the white blood cells. These are the immune cells that normally protect us from disease. The hallmark of HIV infection is the progressive loss of a specific type of immune cell called T-helper or CD4 cells.

As the virus grows, it damages or kills these and other cells, weakening the immune system and leaving the individual vulnerable to various opportunistic infections and other illnesses, ranging from pneumonia to cancer.

HIV is not an easy virus to pass from one person to another. It is not transmitted through food or air (for instance, by coughing or sneezing). There has never been a case where a person was infected by a household member, relative, co-worker, or friend through casual or everyday contact such as sharing eating utensils and bathroom facilities or hugging and kissing. (Most scientists agree that while HIV transmission through deep or prolonged “French” kissing may be possible, it would be extremely unlikely.)

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UN AIDS) estimates that there are now over 34 million people living with HIV or AIDS worldwide with young people occupying more than half of that figure. Most of them do not know they carry HIV and may be spreading the virus to others. Here in the Africa,

Sub Sahara is the highest hit with nearly 22.5 million people have HIV infection or AIDS .Millions of youths are dying from AIDS . Average life expectancy in Sub-Saharan Africa is now 47 years, when it could have been 62 without AIDS.

Here is how the percentage stands regionally in Africa, Both HIV prevalence rates and the numbers of people dying from AIDS vary greatly between African countries. In Somalia and Senegal the HIV prevalence is under 1% of the adult population, whereas in

Southafrica and Zambia around 15-20% of adults are infected with HIV.In four southern African countries, the national adult HIV prevalence rate has risen higher than was thought possible and now exceeds 20%. These countries are

Botswana (24.1%), Lesotho (23.2%), Swaziland (33.4%) and Zimbabwe (20.1%).West Africa has been less affected by AIDS, but the HIV prevalence rates in some countries are creeping up. HIV prevalence is estimated to exceed 5% in Cameroon (5.4%), Côte d’Ivoire (7.1%) and Gabon (7.9%).

Until recently the national HIV prevalence rate has remained relatively low in Nigeria, the most populous country in sub-Saharan Africa. The rate has grown slowly from below 2% in 1993 to 3.9% in 2005. But some states in

Nigeria are already experiencing HIV infection rates as high as those now found in Cameroon. Already around 2.9 million Nigerians are estimated to be living with HIV.Adult HIV prevalence in East Africa exceeds 6% in Uganda Kenya and Tanzania and it is estimated that more than half of all people with HIV in the Africa have not been tested and do not know they are carrying the virus. Since the beginning of the epidemic, AIDS has killed nearly 19 million people worldwide, including some millions of youths. AIDS has replaced malaria and tuberculosis as the world’s deadliest infectious disease among youths and is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide. Over 13 million children have been orphaned by the epidemic, All over the world,a growing number of countries Cameroon inclusive have reduced HIV prevalence through sound prevention efforts. however, in 2005,there was still 4.1 million new HIV infections with over 40percent occurring among young people aged 15-24. According to latest estimate, HIV prevention services reach only one in ten of the persons at risk, in an era when the world has committed to working toward universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010,there is clearly an urgent need to intensify HIV prevention efforts in both size and scale.

Hence they is a need for all this issues and death be found more solutions to save lifes and as the coming of the future Word Aid Days ahead, they is a need for this issues to be address or else tears will never stop running from the eyes of humanity and also organizations like UN AIDS,SYINC, WAD Up to never relent their effort in this struggles and fight.

- M. Franck, 21, Cameroon

When does ever physical suffering call out for another to correspondingly create even greater emotional suffering? What right do we have to indulge in causally fallacious assumptions which yoke physical disease to a moral stain? What right do we have to remove logical distinctions to segregate others instead? How many times are we blinded to the injunction “to aid” embedded in AIDs itself?

Anonymous, 22.

So what’s this all about?

WAD Up! is an innovative online multimedia initiative looking at HIV/AIDS through the eyes of young people in Singapore. Using web2.0 tools like Facebook and Youtube, it combines the technology of digital media, the creativity of artistic expression, and the power of personal experience – to tell our own stories about AIDS. In conjunction with World AIDS Day, 1 Dec 2007.

Get the full story here.

Do your bit!

As part of a new collaboration, HOPE and WAD Up! organisers are joining forces to leverage on creative expression to raise more awareness and increase outreach for the HOPE concert!

The HOPE Concert is jointly organized by Safehaven and Action-for-AIDS and will be held on 13 December 2007 at 7.30pm at the Kreta Ayer People’s Theatre. The objectives for the concert are several fold: to promote awareness and understanding of AIDS problem in Singapore to combat this deadly disease, to raise funds for the Action for AIDS Medical Subsidy Fund, and to encourage non-discrimination of HIV-positive people amongst us.

The two-hour show will feature highly-acclaimed American pop-duo Jason & deMarco, who will be singing inspirational original compositions filled with lush harmonies from their latest albums, “Till the End of Time” and “Spirit Pop”. They will be accompanied by popular local artistes, including Hossan Leong, Selena Tan, John Lee of Vocaluptuous fame, Eunice Olsen, Chua En-lai and many others as they take to the stage to raise money and promote a very worthy cause.

To get your free tickets to the concert: Just e-mail to wadup@syinc.org your very own personal reflection on AIDS/HIV in two or three paragraphs. Better still, get creative and do up a short video clip with your handphone and send us the youtube link! There’s no right or wrong – it’s your voice we are interested in. So beam us your content now!

NB. Don’t forget to include your full name, school/org/co., email, mobile – and how many tix you’d like. With this info, your ticket(s) will then be held in your name at the door.

Ben Tan, 18, student

I recently attended a UNIFEM talk and there was one case where by the lady had inherited AIDS through her abusive husband. Even though he knew he had AIDS, he decided to exclude this vital piece of information from his wife and continued to have sexual intercourse with her. He had the mentality that “so what if I have AIDS, I am going to die; I just want to have great sex until I die”. Such disgustingly selfish mentality is actually very common in rural villages etc. and the strange thing is that in that particular community, women are commonly seen as the cause of transmission and are discriminated whereas the men get away with it scot free.

It goes to show, that, in order to combat discrimination, educating people through talks etc would be beneficiary is reducing discrimination against AIDS victims.

Rasyidah, 18, student