World AIDS Day

 
Today is World AIDS Day. Coincidently, I just finished reading a book in which the protagonist commits suicide after discovering that his lifelong habit of seeking out unprotected sex with random women had left his body infected with AIDS (The Company of Women by Khushwant Singh). I thought I would post on the topic since today seems to be the day to raise awareness.

A Sunday Times article about possible plans to make HIV testing routine in this country stated that: “There are believed to be 77,000 people living with HIV in the UK. More than 25,000 people have developed AIDS and 18,787 have died.” The CIA World Fact Book listed countries by number of people  living with HIV/AIDS in 2009. African countries fill the top ten with the virus most prevalent in South Africa. The exception is India fourth and the US eighth. While the UK may not be extremely high on the list, a lot of people who come from high risk areas do live here and Brits travel to high risk areas as well.

The Metro highlighted a story the other day about Poipet, a border town between Cambodia and Thailand where sex trafficking is an issue and so is AIDS. Forced or voluntary prostitution also spreads HIV. A number of Western tourists who travel abroad where the underground sex industry is in easy reach are at a serious risk of bringing it home.

Mr Kumar thoroughly enjoyed “the company of women” and his life story was certainly interesting, but his suicide highlights the stigma that still exists around the virus (whether or not it is sexully transmitted) and the end of his life was early, tragic and full of regrets.

LINKS

Events in the UK

World AIDS Day 2009

The Company of Women

Eye Love London

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

City streets and squares are alive on Thursday nights, bustling with suits, the sound of heavy laughter drifting from after-work crowds gathered outside of pubs, red busses and black cabs moving and stopping. Lights set a more subtle tone on harsh brick buildings, leave an intriguing invite at the entrance of twisting passageways, illuminate shop fronts displaying cigar cases and chilli chocolate fudge.

We walked down to the Blackfriar pub, full of art deco mosaics and low lighting. It is wedge-shaped and was built on the site of a medieval monastery. The night air was refreshing so we sat outside on a low wall drinking and catching up.

For dinner, we ate in the cellar restaurant of Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a pub famous for its association with old writers and journalists including Dr. Johnson whose house is around the corner, the one who said, “If you’re tired of London, you’re tired of life.” We ate steak and ale pies and big plates of chips.

The pub was built many centuries ago, has low ceilings with dark wooden beams, quirky artwork. You could easily be many decades in the past and if they killed the small electric lights and left only candles, centuries. To enter, you walk up one of those intriguing little alleyways. You have a choice of narrow corridors and twisting, awkward staircases, sawdust swept across the floors.

It was a drinking haunt for the likes of Voltaire, Thackeray and Charles Dickens among others. According to their website, “One famous resident was a parrot whose mimicry entertained customers for 40 years, its death was announced on the BBC and obituaries appeared in newspapers all over the world.”

Gorgeous old place, steeped in history and somewhere I will definitely return.

145 Fleet St.,  City of London,  EC4A 2BU

Don’t Feed the Pigeons

One of my London memories as a small child was always feeding the pigeons in Trafalgar Square. There’s not nearly as many now as they’ve taken away the places to buy birdseed.

I saw this sign in Trafalgar Square and was amused by all the different languages. London is definitely a city full of many cultures.

I wonder what’s for dinner…

A stoll down Whitehall on Thursday afternoon: