In the years I have been around, I've learnt so much 'bout the world, I feel the time is ripe, To share with you my arsenal. In recent months, I've been watching you, Watching you keenly; watching with eyes of steel, My eyes have not slumbered in my watch, My guard has not dropped in my sentry. My son, I am afraid of what I see; I am afraid of what I dream; I am afraid of what I see in your eyes; I am afraid of your zest and vim. My son, I am afraid, The more I think of what you are doing, The more I age past my age, The more people comment on how old I look. These are dark days, my son, Days your grandpa and I never dreamt of, Days graced by pitch darkness, Days I constantly try to wish away. My son, don't get bored; keep still, I am not vacillating, be sure of that, Listen to me this once, Listen to the drawl and drag in my voice. This is the third month since I started my 'vigil', My son, I see different ladies at your side every passing day: Ladies fabulously endowed with 'well-rounded bums'; Ladies with earth-shattering smiles keep you company. They call you 'Mr. Chics - the guy with the move', Thanks to the innumerable sexual partners you keep, This is sickening, my son: Downright filthy and inglorious is what I call it. My son, do you want to see me going to an early grave? Do you want me to talk myself hoarse - and go insane in the process? Do you want me to wet my pillow with tears into the wee hours? Do you want me to see you crumbling like a fallen block of granite? When Aids smiles at you, my son, There'll be no turning back, It will eat and gnaw at your every marrow, It will turn you inside out - Please spare me the pain! I don't want to imagine (but it's part of the nightmare I can't ward off), The tall, handsome son I know, Being reduced to an emaciated sculpture, A sculpture with sores, boils and falling hair. My son, Aids is for real, It's prowling the neighbourhood with a vengeance, Please sit down and rethink your behaviour, An HIV free generation starts with you, my son.

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written by aeichener , April 16, 2007

Impressive poetic piece. But I do not see a connex between HIV/AIDS and promiscuity.

Alexander

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moving piece
written by John Ongeri , April 17, 2007

A moving piece. I was reading this even as I listened to reactions coming from the Virginia shootings. Ofcourse the silent killer prowling our neighbourhoods takes far more lives than a deranged lone gunman. But both indicate a sign of the times.

The dear old lady may have peace tonight if someone reassures her that her (grand)son now conducts his affairs in safety. I liked her message.

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AIDS, poverty
written by Nekessa , April 18, 2007

Kisumujah, we had a similar discussion here and here a few months ago. The discussion there will shed some light on the Scandinavian case -- simply put poverty places Africa at a more vulnerable position in dealing with many diseases, least of all AIDS.

Alex is right, there is little connection between promiscuity and AIDS. It takes just one incidence of unprotected sex, even within marriage, or other sanctified relationship, to contract the disease.

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HIV aids
written by kisumuJah , April 18, 2007

Lets face it, the piece above written about AIDS is really misinformed and more aimed at creating fear than educating anybody. Now, if you want people to desist from something, you don't threaten them, you give the reasons why they should not. What I mean is that you simply don't tell a thief not to steal or that it is bad because it will land him in jail. No, you advice him on the moral, cultural and even religious impacts thieving has. You then let him decide on the right course of action.
I find it really ridiculous that you did not mention anything other than promiscuity as the course of HIV. There is more than one way of contracting HIV. Apart from that, there is something called protection; if you protect yourself, you could sleep with a zillion babes without being infected.

I have had intense discussion with my friends as to whether HIV has become more of a poor man's disease. Look, in the Scandinavian countries there are many people living with HIV, but there are few deaths caused by AIDS. I know of a Kenyan friend who used to live in a Scandinavian country but decided to move back to Kenya. He did contract the virus after living there for 12 years. He came back to Scandinavia on the verge of death. With almost no CD4 cells left. We thought he was not going to make it. He was thin and frail. Two years down the line, you cannot believe that he is the same man. He is now fit as a fiddle.

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Aid vs Malaria
written by kisumuJah , April 18, 2007

Nekessa, there is some truth in Richard's article yes, I just dont like its threatening nature, devoid of advice. By the way, there was a time when small pox threatened to wipe out people in Europe. The threat was so great that if one contracted the disease, he and his family would be detained in their house with no food or visitors until they all died.

Having said that, we must not forget that HIV/AIDS is not the number one killer in AFrica. The greatest killer is MALARIA. Not many people are aware of this but it is the truth.

Aids has howver, been given prominence.

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True on Malaria
written by Nekessa , April 18, 2007

thus the argument on poverty.

I do agree with you on the tone of Ritch's poem. Perhaps too, he is writing from the perspective of many, not just wananchi, but leaders as well. Remember when PCs in Nyanza would ban discos in Nyanza because they believed the nightlife attributed to Nyanza having the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates? Of course those were misplaced notions, and an avenue such as this calls for the discussion that we are having.

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written by a guest , April 19, 2007

I went straight to Nekessa's and Alex's thoughts after reading Ritch's post. At first glance I dismissed it as 'a grandmotherly tone' that finds company amongst 'good girls are in church and child fundraisers'.

On second thought, I asked myself, how many Kenyans could have been where we have, have been privileged to see what we see, and meet what we have met. Not many. This implies that we must look at the majority or most affected and ask ourselves where they are in life (situationwise). I recall a while back when WHO said Uganda's AIDS gains were slipping, and that there is much more progress in a faith based approach.

It is at this point that I thought Rich's piece may just be part of what Kenya needs. Good old advice from father to son. For ours is still a communal approach to life.

While promiscuity is not directly linked to HIV spread, it is a behavioural practice that puts one at higher risk. So Nekessa and Alex, take note of that. HIV has spread like wild fire in married households in Kenya, and it is as a result of multiple sexual patners (chained sexual partners-where Paul sleeps with Njeri, and Njeri slept with Kimani, Kimani had an unprotected romp with Tei... technically, Paul may as well have slept with all this guys... if none of them is protected). We ran this in one peer educators session, just sharing microbes in tubes.

Honey

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Protection is moral
written by aeichener , April 19, 2007

Promiscuity is a scape-goat, and there is little wrong with it "in and by" itself. What is wrong, may be several immoral attitudes often associated with promiscuity. As to the causes of HIV/AIDS, promiscuity can only play any role if the fully imputable one prime cause is already present: unprotected sex.

And that is where education efforts do - rightly - concentrate. Efforts both as to consciousness raising, and as to attitude change.

I wrote above "fully imputable". But that is only half true, for to one half of the players it must be more imputed than to the other. I do not buy for a split second the racist implication so often present in public AIDS discourse, that The African Man (Homo niger communis) be unable to control his primal animal urges and thus sadly cannot be expected to use a condom because it just isn't a possible option for him in the heat of passion. Crap.

What is necessary is something else. Women - in many parts of Agrica and in fact in many parts of the world entire, for this is a commun noxious effect of patriarchy - do not have the agency to demand the use of condoms. They do not have the agency to deny sexual intercourse without protection. That is the problem. A "say no!" attitude must be fostered and bred, instead of harping on chastity, conjugal fidelity and the lily-white value of abstention that isn't practised anyhow. See Charity's recent fine piece on the church, in a related vein.

Alexander

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