more literary quotes...
'For these survivors, remembering is a duty. They do not want to forget, and above all they do not want the world to forget, because they understand that their experiences were not meaningless...' Primo Levi (in the front of the Edwin Cameron book 'Witness to AIDS')
If you ever come across a copy, read 'If this is a man...' (Se questo รจ un uomo...)by Italian author Primo Levi. It's probably sold with another book called 'The Truce' (La Tregua). I studied it at University and it is incredibly moving. It's the true story of Primo Levi's experiences in Auschwitz and how he survived the 'de-personalisation' tactics of the Nazis, reducing people to numbers and bodies rather than individuals who didn't deserve to die.
Interesting that Edwin Cameron should choose to preface his book with the above quote. Although AIDS is a disease that threatens to 'de-personalise' the sufferer, and often does, it doesn't have to be. In KwaZulu Natal, sometimes the team finds people suffering alone in silence, ready to die. They may be surrounded by children or family who don't know what is happening, unaware and ignorant of the virus that is eating their parent's life away. Often it is too late to save these people, but they can at least be helped to die with dignity, surrounded by love, prayers and care. And to know that their children will be cared for after they've gone. They don't die just as a body wasted away to nothing by a rampant disease, but as an individual human being, loved and cared for.
Millions died in Auschwitz and the like around 60 years ago, today millions are dying of AIDS.
If you ever come across a copy, read 'If this is a man...' (Se questo รจ un uomo...)by Italian author Primo Levi. It's probably sold with another book called 'The Truce' (La Tregua). I studied it at University and it is incredibly moving. It's the true story of Primo Levi's experiences in Auschwitz and how he survived the 'de-personalisation' tactics of the Nazis, reducing people to numbers and bodies rather than individuals who didn't deserve to die.
Interesting that Edwin Cameron should choose to preface his book with the above quote. Although AIDS is a disease that threatens to 'de-personalise' the sufferer, and often does, it doesn't have to be. In KwaZulu Natal, sometimes the team finds people suffering alone in silence, ready to die. They may be surrounded by children or family who don't know what is happening, unaware and ignorant of the virus that is eating their parent's life away. Often it is too late to save these people, but they can at least be helped to die with dignity, surrounded by love, prayers and care. And to know that their children will be cared for after they've gone. They don't die just as a body wasted away to nothing by a rampant disease, but as an individual human being, loved and cared for.
Millions died in Auschwitz and the like around 60 years ago, today millions are dying of AIDS.
posted by Caroline @ 6:13 pm
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