AIDS is a mass murderer

you will be pleased to hear that duckrabbit have had a good trip to Dhaka and are probably sleeping soundly by now, gathering strength before capturing some fascinating stories and producing beautiful audio-slideshows… watch this space!

In their absence, I will try and contribute to the blog the best I can… bear with me… I am a beginner blogger!

it’s funny how one thing leads to another on the net. I was checking out  the Mercury prize winner, Speech Debelle – I hadn’t even heard about her before and i’m not won over by her performance on the night… I was hoping that Florence and the machine would win so I guess I am not that objective-

Anyway… going through some of the comments left about the Mercury prize I ended up finding an article on this new AIDS-awareness campaign that is shown on German TV this week ahead of World Aids Day in December. Just goes to show that music can lead you to anything… The German charity behind the film says AIDS has killed 30 million people worldwide, and it wants to shake people up by comparing the virus with a mass murderer.

Well… 30 million people, that is certainly mass murder, and the figures do not seem to be going down in spite of all the effort and money spent on information.  the intention was clearly to shock and shocked it has already, even before its release. Many AIDS charities have labeled the campaign offensive and distasteful, the argument being that it will worsen stigmatisation of AIDS sufferers. I have to admit that I find both the posters and the video clip particularly unpalatable. I thought the idea of giving the virus a face, a scary face, was a good one but the end product is …chilling. Not sure the choice of these particular dictators is judicious when it comes to communicating to people in Africa?

What do you think?

Valerie Leick