I get the impression that people somehow draw comfort from the official figures that show the vast majority of new HIV infections come from the drug injecting communities. I have italicized the word 'official' in order to highlight the fact that those figures need to be multiplied by 10 in order to get anywhere near the real level of incidence of that lethal illness. Statistics from around the world show that ONLY ONE IN 10 PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV HAS BEEN TESTED FOR HIV.The 2006 Report on the global AIDS epidemic by the United Nations emphasized the urgent need for comprehensive, robust national HIV programmes to be significantly increased and to target resources where they can be most effective. "If anything has been learnt from the past 25 years of the epidemic, it is that HIV prevention works", it screams at the deaf people in power seemingly unconcerned with the incalculable damage to our society that AIDS has already caused.

And what has been the sum total of the efforts in Paradise Island to implement a "comprehensive, robust national HIV prevention programme" as recommended by the United Nations? Almost nothing. Yes, we have had the new HIV and AIDS Preventive Measures Bill but the inordinately long time for the Bill to eventually mutate into enabling legislation has in the meantime created hundreds more victims. Paralysis of thought in the eighties and nineties has now given way to paralysis of action in the first decade of the twenty first century.

Over two years ago, I wrote the following regarding the lack of action by those supposedly in the vanguard of the fight against this terrible illness:  "We have something called NATRESA which is now headed by someone who believes that drug addiction is not such a problem as to constitute an emergency;  We have various agencies that appear to specialise in training for social workers and nothing else; there are a number of organisations led by well paid 'experts' in attending conferences that simply regurgitate all that is already known and needs to be known on the subject. We have so called feminist/ women's organisations who will declare World War Three if some advert emphasises the sexual attributes of women but who remain disgustingly quiet when faced with an epidemic that is largely transmitted by men to women. We have a Minister for women who stupidly believes that the only way to combat AIDS is by training even more people to continue the ineffectual job done so far. Self appointed representatives of God are regularly screeching their imprecations at responsible people who want to protect themselves by using condoms."  Two years later, nothing has changed. The fight against AIDS has followed the same ineffectual path as the fight against corruption: a largely unsuccessful campaign to 'inform' the public about the nature of the problem whilst doing nothing to tackle the problem itself. There isn't one Mauritian who does not know what corruption is and we do not need anyone to state the obvious to us anymore: what we want is visible and effective action to nail the corrupt bastards.

I have often criticized Bérenger for doing hardly anything to combat the AIDS epidemic apart from chairing meetings. However, his proposal of over two years ago for a Select Committee of parliamentarians from all parties to analyse the situation and propose preventative measures is sound in principle; if all parties are involved, it will destroy the reticence of politicians to voice positive and realistic ideas to combat the AIDS epidemic because of the fear of being tarred with the 'drug lover' brush by their opponents. But the Select Committee proposal will only work if its members view the situation as an emergency and not as a talking shop designed specifically for prevarication and tergiversation whilst thousands more become infected with an illness that will condemn them to certain death. It could do worse than adopting the latest UNAIDS finding as its leitmotif:  "20 years of research and experience confirm that HIV epidemics among injecting drug users can be prevented, stabilized, and even reversed using a comprehensive package of HIV prevention and care with needle and syringe exchange and methadone substitution treatment as its central components". So far, the methadone substitution and needle exchange programmes have involved only a minute proportion of addicts, and only idiotic politicians can therefore express any surprise at the consequential increase in the number of HIV/AIDS sufferers.

We used to lead the world in the league tables of proportion of the population suffering from diabetes and cardiac problems; we are now close to becoming the world champions (excluding Africa) in the number of AIDS sufferers compared to the rest of the population. The average incidence of AIDS in the world is 1%, and Paradise Island now boasts an incidence of nearly double that, at 1.8%. We have at least 100 school kids suffering from that unforgiving illness, and we still insist on force feeding them a so called sex education that is based on biological imperatives and not on the human aspects of sexuality. We refuse to insist that all buildings where young people traditionally gather for a bit of fun (for example, night clubs, discos, restaurants, etc) have condom dispensing machines so that any youthful exuberance can at least be adequately protected from that lethal disease.   

Am I being alarmist and unnecessarily causing people to worry? I hope so. The AIDS epidemic is now following its predictable course and has started to infect heterosexual people in increasing numbers. Every part and community of Paradise Island is now affected, and only those who loudly claim a close affinity to God still insist that the problem is not as bad as this. What sort of morality underpins the thinking of sanctimonious idiots who claim that making condoms more widely available is tantamount to inciting young people to have sex with each other? In my experience, the young have never needed any encouragement to explore their sexuality; therefore any action to prevent them from catching AIDS from new partners (apart from telling them to wait until marriage in order to have sex, as if they would!) is the only practical solution to the problem.

Politicians have no trouble whatsoever making decisions that will fill their pockets or improve their standards of living; in the blink of an eye, they will shamelessly exploit the privileges that they have voted for themselves without feeling the need to refer the matter to a committee or to a panel of highly paid so-called consultants; the meagre resources of the Treasury are depleted further by the immoral purchase of duty free luxury cars and 'missions' overseas that bring absolutely nothing to this country; we accept with forbearance and resignation the ludicrous calls for ser sintir  whilst  rich people are now allowed to pay far less income tax than they used to and even less for luxury cars than ever before; unrealistically high salaries and privileges are given to a group of buffoons to chair and lead a wide range of authorities that outlived their existence a long time ago.

How long do you think it takes politicians to decide whether to go on a mission or not? About the same length of time it takes idiots to decide which luxury car to buy at knock down prices in order to impress their equally idiotic friends. And yet, these are the very same people who will tell you that the AIDS problem is highly complicated and needs a great deal of time in order to come up with the ideal solution.

The solutions are simple and are known to have worked effectively around the world. I will repeat them again for those whose speed of thought is inversely proportional to the speed of the luxury cars bought with our money:  1/ a massive sex education programme to exhort people to use condoms with new sex partners and a realistic media campaign to restigmatise unprotected sexual intercourse. 2/ a comprehensive needle/syringe exchange system to stop drug addicts from passing the virus to other addicts combined with a heroin substitution programme carried out in a healthy, clinical environment. Why do our politicians persist in behaving like rabbits caught in the headlights and refuse to implement properly these two programmes recommended by the World Health Organisation?

Most readers of this paper won't find it difficult to understand these two solutions. Our political leaders will and will put forward all sorts of spurious reasons for their complete lack of action to combat the AIDS epidemic. The brakes on that particular car went a long time ago and nobody knows the identity of its next victims; but if nothing is done soon, it is inevitable that the next victim will be someone close to you. In the meantime, the grinning idiots watching the car drive without any controls whatsoever are day dreaming about exotic capitals for their next mission.

I wrote some of the above two long years ago. What has been achieved so far? Less than a hundred addicts on methadone and no syringe/needle exchange programme as yet. School children are catching the HIV virus in increasing numbers, and drugs are everywhere on the island, with drug dealers released on bail soon after arrest in order to respect their human rights so that they can continue their lucrative and lethal trade. The MBC prefers to show us the same ugly faces in their news reports instead of educating the public that pays for its existence about this illness and the measures to be taken in order to prevent anyone from catching it. And politicians have the nerve to say that they are servi nou pei whilst this nightmare continues…

Paradise Island? Yes, but led by politicians from Hell, irrespective of whichever party is in power.