A taste of action

posted by Janine

I want to comment on the pictures that Mikkel posted of these lovely big ladies and excited men. These were people demonstrating last week on the 'Global Day of Action', a day of protest organised by TAC (Treatment Action Campaign) -the organisation I'm working at.

It turns out that I got here at a very interesting moment: TAC is quite an 'activist' organisation but this is the first time since 2004 that there's so much action going on. They are mobilising people, getting on the streets and even getting arrested and sprayed with pepperspray by the police! (just for the record: I was there but just as a witness).

The protests are all about the Minister of Health who should be fired because she is:

• letting prisoners die of Aids due to a lack of treatment

• responsible for a country with the most people with HIV/Aids in the world, without having an actual, coherent plan to do something about it,

• pretending that beetroot, garlic and lemon can cure or prevent Aids!

So that's why we were demonstrating. In the days leading up to the event, the other volunteers and me were running around faxing and calling the press to make sure these protests would get the attention they needed. The results have been good: TAC has been in the news(papers) almost everyday last week! And yes, I even made it to the 7 o'clock news myself...

Other than that I am a lousy activist. I am a sissy 'cause I notice that I'm used to things being comfortable and taken care of. Instead of standing 'on the barricades' a whole day, blaming the Health Minister for spending her time drinking cappuchinos, I caught myself longing for a cup of coffee in a warm place myself!

This is seriously wrong, when you know and see how people keep on singing, yelling, marching and dancing with a non-stop flow of energy. It's where the spirit of the Apartheid-struggle shows itself: in the old days, people used to demonstrate and march for tens of miles, sometimes without food and in terrible weather conditions. Just because they had a mission. Now it's not that different, there's just another mission: getting rid of HIV/Aids. I need to learn something from that. No more cappuchinos... Let's get the spirit!