atlas puts down the sky {it's over}
.....they've cured aids,
http://www.webmd.com/hiv-aids/news/20101215/hiv-aids-cure-faq
roll that sentence around in your mouth, they've cured aids.
they're words i never thought i would say.
and the gratitude i feel is a physical overflowing; shock and disbelief; elation and tears.
this torrent of relief, this great unburdening, i'm literally weeping as i type, stopping to shudder and marvel at the ending of this great evil, hands covering my mouth lest i fail to articulate this sensation.
of course the break through came from stem cells, why wouldn't it? as 'no country for old men' told us, there are no clean getaways. if ever there was a reason to brace against the tide of ignorance that has swelled around stem cells this is it.
the only point of comparison i can muster is the fall of the berlin wall, convenient, since as both have originated from Deutschland, but this is the twitter generation, who the fuck cares about the 80's any more [sic]? aids has never touched my life personally, which is a ham-fisted expression we use to say, "i don't have it and neither do those close to me", but aids has framed every datum of my socialisation surrounding sex and sexuality. the fear aids has inspired for my generation maps so cleanly onto the iron curtain reality of those born a decade before me, for my generation it has simply always been reality, a lynch pin understanding, as much as the idea of civilised society itself. sex = aids. and while that is clearly untrue the understanding doesn't come unstuck, well, until half an hour ago
Martin i hope you read this in the morning, with a cooling cup of tea in reach, because you'll need it, as much as i need your perspective right now.
this officially makes tomorrow "go-fuck-a-stranger day!"*
*(this most certainly does not make it "go-fuck-a-stranger day!", did you not listen to me when i was going on at you about hyperbole?)
http://www.webmd.com/hiv-aids/news/20101215/hiv-aids-cure-faq
roll that sentence around in your mouth, they've cured aids.
they're words i never thought i would say.
and the gratitude i feel is a physical overflowing; shock and disbelief; elation and tears.
this torrent of relief, this great unburdening, i'm literally weeping as i type, stopping to shudder and marvel at the ending of this great evil, hands covering my mouth lest i fail to articulate this sensation.
of course the break through came from stem cells, why wouldn't it? as 'no country for old men' told us, there are no clean getaways. if ever there was a reason to brace against the tide of ignorance that has swelled around stem cells this is it.
the only point of comparison i can muster is the fall of the berlin wall, convenient, since as both have originated from Deutschland, but this is the twitter generation, who the fuck cares about the 80's any more [sic]? aids has never touched my life personally, which is a ham-fisted expression we use to say, "i don't have it and neither do those close to me", but aids has framed every datum of my socialisation surrounding sex and sexuality. the fear aids has inspired for my generation maps so cleanly onto the iron curtain reality of those born a decade before me, for my generation it has simply always been reality, a lynch pin understanding, as much as the idea of civilised society itself. sex = aids. and while that is clearly untrue the understanding doesn't come unstuck, well, until half an hour ago
Martin i hope you read this in the morning, with a cooling cup of tea in reach, because you'll need it, as much as i need your perspective right now.
this officially makes tomorrow "go-fuck-a-stranger day!"*
*(this most certainly does not make it "go-fuck-a-stranger day!", did you not listen to me when i was going on at you about hyperbole?)
Labels: "go-fuck-a-stranger day", the end of aids
posted by Run for the Dawn | 6:13 AM
7 Comments:
I'm going to hate myself for being the party pooper on this one, because it IS such very wonderful news... but how cost effective is this treatment?
You see AIDS ceased to be "a very nasty fucker of a disease" some time ago, and became a developmental issue instead.
If this cure had be discovered, or if the first patient received the cure in, say, Tanzania, or Rwanda or Congo, etc. I'd jump out of my seat and say "that's it lads! close the curtains, crisis over! AIDS is done!" however, this revelation came to us in a very lucrative part of the world, where AIDS reseaarchers have never struggled for funding, and treatments (although admittedly not cures) have been readily available (though expensive) for some time.
Don't get me wrong, I still think today is the day to sing "ding dong the witch is dead" and celebrate this marvelous breakthrough in Medical technology, but now that we have dealt with AIDS the disease, I will be infinitely happier still when we have dealt with AIDS the socio-ecnomic /political/developmental issue!
Love, Dae
Fuck yeah dude, I knew i couldn't talk to just anybody about this, the complexity of the medical research world and the socio-economic underpinnings of the disease means you are absolutely correct, but as I posted on my guitar gear forum:
"Obviously this isn't a blanket, shot in the arm cure, or a vaccine, but it is the beginning of the end of the era of AIDS. While many doubters will come forwards they will not be scientist's, because any one with any bio-science background will know how curative vectors work, if it's observable and the conditions are known, it will be reproducable in time.
miracles don't exist in medicine, f**kING hard working people, with passion and intellect and courage are what exists in medicine. from the tireless nurses to the brave doctors and researchers, to the courageous sufferers of these horrible afflictions, they are all the heroes of this."
This will only galvanize those incredible people working on a vaccine, and hopefully get them the funding they need.
In a proper world surely the industrial-pharmacy complex would have routed their executives bonuses into a cure, and by god we might have seen it far sooner than now.
Hard to argue with that last point old boy.
Of course the would have got there just as quick if they had routed half the profits they make by provide society the ability to eliminate difference (psycho-pharmacuetics) into AIDS.
Fear not, on some level I still choose to believe the day of true Morality will come... whether or not it will be in our lifetimes is a different issue
The first time I learned about AIDS was from this commercial, which is now one of the most famous examples of health promotion in Australian history. It distinguishes between "gays" and "the rest of us." The figure of the Grim Reaper was meant to draw a parallel with the fourteenth century bubonic plague - an analogy drawn out more fully in Vincent Ward's movie "The Navigator" in which a fourteenth century boy escapes the plague ridden fourteenth century to arrive in the plague ridden twentieth century... and the Grim Reaper followed everywhere.
When I first realised I was gay, I was pretty sure that it meant I was destined for tragedy. Depictions of gays in movies, stories, television and folklore involved a tragic end, either for themselves (martyred to AIDS) or for others (gay predators - often with AIDS). AIDS and homophobia have been the Scylla and Charybdis of my sexuality since about the age of 11.
This was a great post, and I'm only sorry my earlier replies didn't make it up. "Request too large" said Google. That'll learn me for trying to stick an essay in the comment box in one hit.
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