In memory of Javi
Another December 1st is here, International Day against AIDS. That other pandemic against which there is still no effective vaccine.
Why does this happen if, 9 months after the onset of the one that now affects us, Covid-19, we already have several? How is it possible that more than 30 years after its appearance there is no vaccine against AIDS? Is it because its form of transmission is different; less “normal”?
December 1 is a day to demand greater efforts against this cruel disease, for example, greater involvement in obtaining an effective vaccine.
Also to reflect on what we do not do well, to denounce governments and organizations that do not get involved enough, or simply to remember our loved ones taken by this cruel disease.
Precisely in reference to the memories lived another year, I look back to the not so distant 1992, when the loss of my brother Javi due to that monster made me fully involve myself with those who had been in an unequal fight for years, specifically the Citizens' Commission Against AIDS.
A cruel time in which ignorance and, as now, irresponsibility swept away a qualified part of our youth.
Curiously the most sensitive, creative and rebellious, especially in music and the arts.
Among them was my younger brother, leader of the rock group “Retales”, which was a hit in Madrid’s bars in the late 70s and early 80s. They unconsciously played Russian roulette, exchanging deaths among themselves, which took four of its five members.
I remember in 1992 the efforts to convince the Parliament of Navarra, of which I was a part at that time, to approve measures that would try to stop the spread of the pandemic, or the stubbornness of a UPN Government of Navarra determined not to understand, that The use of condoms was one of the most effective measures.
Even, not without a certain amount of embarrassment, that episode that made us national news, when we discovered that the then Minister of Health had given the order to remove the condom from an anti-AIDS kit, whose distribution was approved by said Parliament after an arduous political struggle.
Not much time has passed since then, and although there are still conservative pockets in our society that defend sexual abstinence as a way of avoiding contagion, we have made some progress.
Now, the few scientific advances have managed to turn it into a disease like diabetes, which you suffer from, but it doesn't kill you.
But we should not let our guard down, and symptoms of this are particularly evident among young people. This is why December 1st should also serve to alert the authorities to this danger. Not one step back in this difficult fight.
Support for victims must also continue. One of the biggest problems is the stigmatisation of those affected, which is still evident in important sectors of our society.
Support that must be directed not only to their health care, but also to social care, and even cultural or economic care. Much progress has been made in this area since 1992, but we still have a long way to go.
But we cannot, we must not, remain only in the attention of those closest to us, we have to raise our gaze and direct it to the tremendous and unjust situation in the Third World, especially in that continent massacred by wars, hunger..., and AIDS: Africa. Without forgetting Southeast Asia, part of the Caribbean and the Eastern European countries.
There, more than 8,000 people die of AIDS every day. Every hour, nearly 600 people are infected, and even more dramatic, every minute a child dies from the virus.
In Africa, the irresponsible actions of the pharmaceutical industry prevent the distribution of existing generic drugs because they are much cheaper.
A form of collective crime, of hidden genocide that we must denounce forcefully. This is in collaboration with sectors that are determined to carry out irresponsible campaigns against the use of condoms.
Fortunately, in the Catholic Church, the emergence of a new Pope, Francis, is changing the direction of a hierarchy that was turning its back on reality, although unfortunately this change is going too slowly.
There is much talk in the current era about the defense of Human Rights. Isn't the right to life the most important? How then do we consent to this mass violation? Will we continue to look the other way, being complicit in this situation, when they show us those terrible images?
I defend the relative effectiveness of the so-called “international days of…”, because they serve the function of remembering, of denouncing again.
That is why, as every year, I write these lines as this new December 1 approaches, thanking the informative work of those who agree to publish it.
Those of us who have been closely affected by this terrible disease do not need them, because every day images of the loved one who was taken from us pass through our memory, and we curse them a thousand times, but for the rest of our society they are necessary, although only so that they do not forget that it exists.
That is why from here I express my solidarity with those who suffer from it, as well as my support for the organizations that collaborate on the ground to make their lives easier and prevent new people from ending up suffering from it.
At the same time, I raise my voice, denounce and curse all those, be they governments, industries, religious or political institutions, that prevent effective means from being put in place to prevent its progression, whether by lowering the price of medicines, with effective preventive measures such as the use of condoms, or with an effective vaccine that never arrives.
This December 1, 2020 will be another day of struggle against AIDS, and once again the red ribbon will be on our clothing, although we should not limit ourselves to that exclusively, nor should it only be on this day, but rather our involvement, our fight, should be extended to the 365 days of the year.
Putting pressure on our institutions to shout loud and clear that if Covid-19 deserves a vaccine, so does AIDS.
We will see….
Signed. José Luis Úriz Iglesias (Former parliamentarian and councillor of the PSN-PSOE).
