It was AIDS days yesterday. Nelson Mandela held an AIDS concert featuring international stars to raise money and awareness including U2 and Beyoncee over the weekend. They were playing movies on TV including a local one which features male prostitutes and the American film Philadelphia.

I never really paid attention to AIDS awareness back at home. Even in China, there wasn't much publicity because the government is trying to hide this reality from the public. Apparently, there are high rates of HIV/AIDS there as well, but the statistics have been undergraound. While I was there last year, a local high school at Haidian, the district I was living, was just introducing a sex education component to the cirriculum.

Here, AIDS awareness is a full-blown campaign, from huge road signs on the high way to catchy advertisements on the radio and TV. I heard a really kitsch radio commercial using rap to try to reach the teenage segment of the population. Huge billboards and television featuring young people stress the choice of abstinence over getting laid. In some washrooms, a box of condoms are available for people to pick up and use.

Education on this issue is prevalent in schools as well. The seven year old daughter of a colleague knows about sex and AIDS. In a country where at least some statistics are known about the virus, pre-adolescents are learning the cold facts in the classroom. Apparently, there are 4.2 million HIV-positive people in South Africa (2000), the highest number in any country in the world.

People in townships know about it and close family members and friends fall victim to the virus. When I was in the Southern Drakensberg in the rural village of Matatiele, a tour guide showed me around the area. He bent down over a small leafy plant and began digging around it with a stick. It's a furry bulbous root called the African potato. He told me that sangomas (traditional healers) use it all the time. It was originally thought to be the cure for AIDS and was in huge demand. But now they have realised that it's good for immunization.

Even the tourism industry has picked up on HIV/AIDS awareness. Some souvenirs such as weaving and beading use the AIDS emblem (red ribbon) as design.

Here is an interesting article about HIV/AIDS in South Africa and the accessibility of treatment to affected people. It's a bit dated (from 2000) and although progress is happening steadily, similar situations are still occuring .