International Carnival of Pozitivities

Welcome back! And welcome to Edition 2.4 of the International Carnival of Pozitivities! "The What," I hear you ask? Well this carnival is

to provide an international forum for interaction among those of us who are living with HIV/AIDS and for their caregivers, family and/or friends or those who are involved in the fight to end this Worldwide pandemic.

In addition, this

is not intended to provide a forum for debate over the current model of HIV as a cause of AIDS. If you wish to pursue this topic, please find another forum of like-minded bloggers.

Instead, this is about those who are living with this disease, no matter why they have it. No, Ogre doesn't have this disease, but he does know someone who does.

I've known Ron via the "blogosphere" for, geez, I guess it's a few years now. We are pretty far apart on many political issues -- but we can talk to one another about them, without attacking one another and calling each other names (even is he is wrong most of the time ). I've never met Ron in person. He lives more than a couple hours from me, but perhaps one day we'll get a chance to meet in person. In the meantime, we've conversed various times via email about different topics.

Last year Ron started this carnival. He's really done a good job, trying to open up dialog and talk about actually living with this disease. He's kept the carnival up and going once a month for over a year. That's pretty good for a carnival. As you can imagine, many of those who host the carnival are already close to someone, or are someone who has this disease. For this month's carnival, Ron asked me if I'd be willing to host it, to try and spread this far and wide. I agreed.

Again, this isn't about why someone has the disease or how they got it. This is about people who are having to live every day, trying to understand what's going on and why their bodies are reacting the way they are. That's what this carnival is about. So thank you, Ron, for asking me to host. I'm honored to do so. Without further ado, I give you this month's carnival:

First up is Ron himself with an introduction to this week's carnival. Go check that out before you read the rest of this, really. It will help you put a lot in perspective.

As I was reading through all these entires, I decided to put them in random groups because I'm a logical person and must label everything First, there's a glossary of terms related to AIDS, in case you want to know what some of those terms and things mean.

Here's a category I named "detection and prevention:"

Joe sends along news about an early detection system that's being tried in various clinics in NYC. So if you're not sure, but think you might have HIV, this would be a good post to check out, especially if you're in or near NYC.

From The Nata Village (in Africa), they want to know why women are tested for HIV, but men are not, even when it is highly likely that the men have and are spreading the disease. WHO, are you listening? Perhaps you should be...

Slimconomy talks about HIV and "branding." No, not the branding you do to horses and cattle, but the branding you do to products -- hence the term "brand-name" -- which makes me wonder when they have "awareness" days for various things if there's people who actually haven't heard of HIV. Slimconomy sends up a double-dip this month, also sending along HIV and the Bubonic plague. Hey, they could be related, right? Follow the money. Always follow the money.

Masimba Biriwasha sends along a comparison between the spread of TB and HIV in Africa -- and the fact that certain portions of this quick-spreading epidemic are just being ignored by various agencies. Anyone have WHO on speed dial?

Next, there's the poems category:

Poem #1 comes from Marc. He's posted a poem about "Identity." Who are you, anyway? And the poem even manages to work in a truly classic line, "I am not a number!" Thanks for posting it and sending it along, Marc!

Poem #2 is from Marc Olmsted. The poem is called "Curtain Up" and it's about life and hope. According to the author, it's an old poem that was written long ago. Well thanks for digging it out and sharing it!

Here's the video category:

Comprehensive Sex Ed vs Abstinence Only. Well, if the posts are going to go into the political arena, shouldn't the host? I won't -- other than to say that I disagree with portions of this video and question it's factual honesty.

BlueHorse made a video for his English class outlining the AIDS crisis in Zimbabwe. Does it matter to you? Does this crisis affect you?

How about an Italian PSA from the 1990s? Not good enough? How about a second one?

Stephen Mead sends in Weightless. It contains some disturbing pictures and images as well about victims of this ravaging disease.

There were a few posts about addictions (mostly recovery):

Item #1 is from Warrior Scout (he's the one who encouraged Marc from Poem #1 to send in his posting). He's got a mostly serious post about trauma and his suggestions for dealing with trauma -- including that brought on by HIV.

Item #2 is titled, "How to Quit Alcohol." For those who are in that category, the author says, "It's Easy." Don't believe me? Go read how easy it is.

Royce Harden writes about Personal power -- while joining together with other similar people. Once again, you'll have to read that one to make the connection between those two ideas.

Then there's the open commentary category:

Item #1 (possibly NSFW image) is by The Dreamer. He's writing on a rather morbid topic -- death. And he's pointing out that it's coming, whether anyone wants to admit it or not. But the writing has a happy and hopeful ending, so go check it out! Nicely done, Dreamer.

Jack Hampster & Company send along a very short note -- ending with some wonderful advice.

Joe Wright, MD, provides an insiders view into the world of medicine and money. He's only been a doctor a short time, so he's not completely entrenched in the system. He's still asking, "Why are we doing that" instead of simply accepting "that's how it's done here." But it sounds like he's being absorbed into the world of "Big Medicine..."

Dragonette provides us with violently happy. It's a post in which she wonders, out loud, about what is going on. I think she's trying, violently, to come to grips with her diagnosis. I cannot imagine how hard that must be.

Then there's the post about anger -- and it's innocence? To make sense of the connection between those two states, you're going to have to go read that nicely done article.

Aurora Rayne sends along an update to "what was going on in the wonderful virus filled wonderland that is my blood." Gah (Strong Language Warning).

Zoriah has a news report about the current condition of AIDS in Asia. We hear a lot about AIDS in America, and AIDS in Africa, but AIDS in Asia doesn't get much coverage, does it? Oh, this is a photojournalist, so the pictures may be rather disturbing to you.

Anirudha Alam gives us something. The title is "En-gendering AIDS Prevention Gateway to Sustainable Development." Sorry, I don't get that one. I just don't understand. He's from Bangladesh, so perhaps they just have very different issues going on there right now that I can't comprehend. Thanks for sending it along, anyway, Anirudha.

Finally, the Life Group in LA needs translators. Imagine how bad it must be to have this horrible disease and not be able to communicate with anyone about it.

Thank you again, Ron, for inviting me to host this. And thank you one and and all, each who contributed an entry to this carnival. I cannot imagine what it is like to live with this disease. And thank you good readers, each and every one, for reading this far and hopefully exploring at least one of those links. If you did read this, I implore each one of you to follow at least one link and leave a comment on that post to let the people know you've been there and read what they had to say.

Any misspellings or broken links are my own fault, not the carnival participant's. Please do comment and let me know about them so I can fix them if you see any.

Oh, I almost forgot! Last month's edition was posted at Living Mindfully with HIV/AIDS, and next month will appear at Slimconomy!

Posted by: Ogre at 01:02 PM

Comments

1 Ogre, thanks for hosting this...I often wondered if there was such a thing for this cause, this issue. It's extremely important to educate people about this awful disease; how to cope with its effects and, how to stay positive through it all. Attitude affects outcome with so many illnesses.

I will link to this. And, a great carnival with lots of links -many of which I have saved for reading later!

Kudos to you too, for being able to reach across the aisle, put aside political differences for the greater good of ALL.

Posted by: Raven at October 10, 2007 03:29 PM (xBVt0)

2 Thank you for your kind words, Raven. One of the reasons Ron and I discussed this was to get exposure of these issues to people who perhaps don't see them too often.

Posted by: Ogre at October 10, 2007 03:32 PM (oifEm)

3 You're welcome Ogre.

Posted by: Raven at October 10, 2007 04:37 PM (xBVt0)

4 Great edition, Ogre!

How have you been? We need to re-start TTHT again soon. I will be in touch about that....

Posted by: coturnix at October 10, 2007 04:59 PM (Fu387)

5 Bravo, Bravo, Bravissimo! Well Done Ogre. I lost a beloved brother-in-law to AIDS some 12 years ago and I still miss him. This treatment for HIV and AIDS has come a long way in the last few years and carnivals like help others understand what those who are living with HIV and AIDS are going through... Again, well done my friend!

Posted by: GM Roper at October 10, 2007 05:10 PM (S60yG)

6 Good to read from you coturnix! I'd be more than happy to help out with getting the TTHT going again!

And thank you, GM, for your kind words.

Posted by: Ogre at October 10, 2007 05:25 PM (oifEm)

7 Very well done. Thanks for hosting the Carnival.

Posted by: Steve Schalchlin at October 10, 2007 06:00 PM (F0hh6)

8 i echo the gratitude for hosting the carnival. i always manage to find some compelling reading and some great ideas here.
:p

Posted by: warrior scout at October 10, 2007 06:07 PM (9myfc)

9 aw kind of ya to spread the love bro!

Posted by: Angel at October 10, 2007 06:12 PM (C6UZm)

10 You all are too kind! Thank you for reading and commenting.

Posted by: Ogre at October 10, 2007 07:26 PM (oifEm)

11 Well Ogre you're a hero to me, for posting this.

For all the reasons I said above my friend.
This is a very comprehensive post too- with ALL these links I will have plenty of reading material (which I'm starting now..lol)

Posted by: Raven at October 10, 2007 08:56 PM (MeD5Y)

12 Hey Ogre!

Many, many thanks again for hosting this edition of the ICP. I am very grateful to you and your readers for taking the time to learn more about HIV/AIDS from those of us living with the illness and our friends/families and allies.

Excellent job!

Peace to you and all of your readers.

Ron

Posted by: Ron Hudson at October 10, 2007 09:02 PM (XNG84)

13 Thank you again, Raven.

And Ron, it didn't turn out too bad, did it? This has definitely spread the word far and wide, to even more people who have not commented here, but have spoken to me in email. If the goal was to get more exposure, I'd say we reached that goal!

Posted by: Ogre at October 11, 2007 02:21 AM (wkwq7)

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