Day Five and films galore.

My first night at M's and after lovely ciabatta toast with Manuka honey and a cup of tea I am on my way to the morning's sessions.

Arriving at a more subdued convention centre the buzz is somewhat gone. Perhaps it is that the Bill Clinton Show has come and gone, althought Bob Geldoff is still a big attraction but I think I will miss him too. I have next an interesting 90 minute session on aging with HIV, then, if I have time, I will catch an Indian movie on transgenders. Then a late lunch with G and back to my new Dutch friend's movie at 4.30 to end the day. 

Yes the pace is quite reduced and some people are already gone, done their presentation and are no longer interested or just burnt out. But the die-hards are here and still loving every dramatic step of the AIDS' journey. I must admit I am a little jaded and really feel my job is nearly done. Today's two events are virtually my last as tomorrow it is a big wind-down.

Out on the Square...

My PNG friends attracting a lot of attention....

The female condom is the answer where Africans refuse to use the male condom. Again it is the women in the forefront of HIV prevention in the developing countries. What I sincerely believe is that the future and necessary change lies with the undoubted and proven strength of the trans-gender population. These people  are OUT, as they have to be. They are discriminated against more than all others, they have nothing to lose and everything to gain, and their numbers are in the ascendant especially in countries like Thailand, India and the Pacific Islands.  And the are strong within themselves.The problem is that these are the countries with the most antiquated laws regarding sexual freedom of expression and this is where the changes must happen, beginning from the grass-roots but bringing the lawmakers on board to cement the changes.

This is essentially what Michael Kirby is preaching about, but he sees the political pressures are too much in evidence for the law to effect the change. However one must never give up as the changes will eventually happen, but hopefully before millions more in the third world countries die of no treatment brought about by ignorance and fundamental church thinking. The British Empire has much to answer for in its historic promoting of outdated Victorian Christian teachings regarding sex and its practice. 

The panel arriving

Chaired by Rob Moodie...

Dutch Peter Reiss, Amsterdam chief. Multi morbidity increasing in aging with hiv.

Denmark more are dying from smoking than hiv. So what's new?

Are these AIDS related conditions (ARC) accentuated, or accelerated by hiv?

Transition to Aged Care facilities...David Menadue hiv poz. since 1984

Wasting and drug co effects. Mobility problems.

Developed diabetes 1994,  dental problems, osteoarthritis, a burden of illness. 

Cosmetic aids available...but always diarrhoea!

Co-ordination of care.. David has six specialists at Alfred Hospital.

HIV literacy...mistakes can be made.

Stigma and discrimination...prejudice. Need to be addressed.

Nursing care towards end of life. More problems as funding is problematic.

Ignorance still there. Thankful for excellent HIV care in OZ.

Carol Nawina pan African women's coalition.

Also had TB and had HIV, KS, Herpes,  since 2002, husband sied in 2001, now she is 50 yo.

International HIV advocate. Over 1,000 CD4 count.

Older African women very hard to get information on HIV.

Pear shape changes, weight goes up, vaginal wall thins, infection more possible.

Stigma from churches. Health care workers.

Many HIV poz people hiding in their rooms in Africa.

Carol has good support around her.

Professor of Epidemiology in Colombia. Wafaa El-Sadhr.

Studies in Sub Saharan Africa half million subjects 50 yrs or older.

Cafe Creperie Choix on Collins where I had lunch with old friend Graeme...very nice indeed!

Just out of Chuppan Chupai (Hide and Seek), a wonderful Pakistani movie which won best documentary at the Queer Mumbai film fesitval in 2103. Treating the open yet closed world of transgenders and their associated problems in a country where they are struggling to make laws equal for all sexes. I exchanged cards with the fim makers and hope to get hold of a copy of their film which was sad but hopeful, for my friends in Wellington. It is clear the advanced position of the sexual fredom in our Western countries, expecially NZ with its recent marriage equality laws.

Back for penultimate move called 'In My Skin', a fifteen minute NY short doco of nine transgenders putting on a theatrical   production in downtown Manhattan, legendary Public Theatre, Joe's Pub, Asserting their equality and independence in that most free city, New York,  I could feel the sub-continent population of trans people became green with envy at their pride and healthy self esteem, although they too, the Americans, had been through discrimination and hatred at some level during their lives. No trans person ie ever free from others' judging them. Others who just don't have a level of understanding of the differences in mankind, and the fact that we are all created equal. It was an excellent vignette. 

And now for the Dutch movie I have been looking forward to.

A little later...'The Time thereafter' was a great success. Dutch, so of course serious and meaningful, but with a certain legerete which gave it such an easy palatable taste for everyone in the room, who I believe, as I certainly did, thoroughly enjoyed it. It was unpretentious but true, the director obviously having the full confidence of the five main characters who had become HIV positive at different times, in different ways, and they were a very heterogenous group. A woman photographer, talented and driven, with her loving husband; a young gay Finnish man living in Amsterdam with his partner, a pregnant young woman recently diagnosed with a husband also HIV positive, a bright, young, ambitious Mexican boy who wants to change the world, and finally but not least, a very long- term positive Dutch gay man who, because of meds related osteoarthritis condition had chosen to become a double leg amputee, but who was the most joyful and happy person in the documentary. It was their story and well written and extremely well photographed. A great ending for me to the major five days of the Convention.