TakingITGlobal - Panorama - Receiving Stations

Published on: Jan 6, 2004

Topic:

Type: Opinions

https://www.tigweb.org/express/panorama/article.html?ContentID=2678

One’s life is a gigantic role-plying episode. At any one time in life, we are playing or assuming a particular role. How well and successful we sail through the hurdles of this life depends then on how well we play our roles along the line. For example in any learning process, there is the speaker and the listener. You are either playing the role of a teacher speaking or the student listening, you are either writing or reading what somebody wrote. Role-playing is thus an integral part of human existence. A great teacher – Thomas Emerson wrote, “It takes two to speak the truth. One to speak and the other to listen.” Speaking and listening make up a profitable conversation again in speaking; there is the broadcasting station and the receiving station. Progress thus depends really on how each of these stations plays their roles.

A broadcasting station that sends out the wrong messages or the right messages in the wrong way is as good as no station at all and could be a danger to the growth of the receiving station. In the same way, the Broadcasting station with a good methodology, communication skills and enriching messages would just be as good as a Rev. Pastor in the cockpit of a jet bomber if there is no receiving station turned to the right channel to receive the information.

Receiving the right information is just as important as acting upon that information to realize positive results other wise the learning process would have no meaning. Good information well received should be able to set into motion the right actions and modalities of attaining desirable results otherwise, it becomes another species of seeds falling on rocky grounds as Jesus’ parable of the Sower tells us.

Today the world over, we are leaving in another Noah’s era with a gigantic flood. Unlike that of Noah’s time, it’s most devastating and dangerous. HIV/AIDS is the flood I’m talking about. The statistics are frightening, according to the global estimates by UNAIDS, 40 million adults and children were living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2001 and of this number, as much as 28,500,000 are found in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. 5 million people were infected with HIV and 3 million died of AIDS in 2001 the world over.
UNAIDS goes pathetically to say that at the end of 2001 world wide, out of the:
1. 5 million people infected with HIV, 800 000 were children aged 15.
2. 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS, 3 million where children aged 15.
3. 3 million people dead from AIDS, 580,000 were children aged 15.

To worsen the situation, AIDS had orphaned 14 million children worldwide at the end of 2001. How does it feel like to imagine 14 million children living without a parent?

Frightening statistics as such confirm to us that the answer to any question demanding whether a cure is around the horizon remains a firm no. We would have loved to think that a cure is possible now or may be we keep dreaming of a future vaccine that will render AIDS history. Whatever our state of mind is, the truth is that HIV rages on. It has already devastated Africa. It's on a rampage in Eastern Europe, and it's getting out of control in parts of China and India. Asia as a whole is the only region apart from Sub-Saharan Africa today with more people living with HIV/AIDS than any other region on earth.

The HIV rains are extremely heavy and so the AIDS floods are sweeping through all the corridors of the earth already. I am just afraid that before we have time to build an ark like that of Noah, everything would have been watched away. Even if we did, there might not be the available pair of humans to put into the ark, as all would have been bed ridden by the AIDS.

Being able to construct an accommodating ark and getting inside in time would depend on how much we have tuned our receiving stations to capture the instructions and messages from the broadcasting stations. Noah succeeded to get all that was needed in his ark because he had tuned his receiving station to God’s broadcasting station. He was there to receive every bit of information and instruction that God gave him and most importantly, he was ready to act upon this information to produce the ark. That is why he survived the flood.

How many of us today have turned our receiving stations to the stations broadcasting information on preventing HIV/AIDS. How many of us have that burning desire to assume the role of readers, listeners or students to learn what this mysterious disease is all about? We find ourselves fighting and enemy we don even know. Our receiving stations especially in the third world are tuned to other things; we worry over politics, militarism and false democracy. We hang around power and worry over territorial boundaries while giving little attention to the fundamental aspects of our lives – health.

It’s time we recognize that HIV/AIDS knows no boundaries. It infiltrates into the most secret sectors of the governments and countries, it mingles within politics, obliterates power. Aggravate the repercussions of war and crosses national and international boundaries unnoticed despite what the frontier guards might think – why not HIV requires no passport or visa.
This therefore means that the ball can not be only in the court of the opinion leaders, national governments and international organizations would just have their time and their work. They would conceive and publish the strategies, they would broadcast the information. A greater part of the work lies in the hands of the individual. People need to tune their receiving stations to receiving and accepting the right information. While the broadcasting stations have a responsibility to send out the right information capable of initiation the right action, the receiving stations need to use this information gained to change behaviour. Knowledge gained that is not being put into effective use is useless.

When we listen to a death announcement over the radio concerning a loved one, we scarcely question the authenticity of the announcement or the background of the announcer; we are carried away by grief and take him for his word. Is this the same thing when an HIV/AIDS educator or resource person talks to us about the disease? I am afraid in most of the cases; it’s the other way round. We start questioning their moral authority, their educational background and justifications. We find all excuses to disbelieve them especially when the picture presented clashes with our static mental stereotypes about the disease.

Situations have come up where in people question their HIV test results given by renowned medical doctors even when they know they had been involved in risky activities. Before the test, they had painted a mental picture about the test that pre and post-test counseling could not wash away thus the reasons for their bewilderment when things turn sour. Going in for a test means accepting the fact that the results could be positive or negative. When the results come out negative, you take future precautions and if it turns out positive, you learn how to cope with the disease. There is no need playing the Cameroon – Nigeria game when your results are announced just as these two countries did after the judgment of the ICJ over the Bakassi peninsular.

This demonstrates yet what happens when the receiving station is not getting the right information from the broadcasting station. But the underlying truth is that apart from the dangers you might put others into, accepting or refusing your test results when there come out positive really will not change the fact that you are now a living corps playing for time.

With the presence of hundreds of broadcasting stations now around the world, staying away from the HIV today means turning your receiving stations to receive the information being broadcasted. You must act upon this information to modify your behaviour. Never say ‘I would act tomorrow’ for that one last sexual intercourse you have planned to have before changing is the one that might infect you with a full dose of the HIV. Should that happen, you know you have signed your demand for a death warrant being AIDS.

« return.



by Abongta Shu Moncha Brain
Published on: Jan 6, 2004
Topic:
Type: Opinions
https://www.tigweb.org/express/panorama/article.html?ContentID=2678


One’s life is a gigantic role-plying episode. At any one time in life, we are playing or assuming a particular role. How well and successful we sail through the hurdles of this life depends then on how well we play our roles along the line. For example in any learning process, there is the speaker and the listener. You are either playing the role of a teacher speaking or the student listening, you are either writing or reading what somebody wrote. Role-playing is thus an integral part of human existence. A great teacher – Thomas Emerson wrote, “It takes two to speak the truth. One to speak and the other to listen.” Speaking and listening make up a profitable conversation again in speaking; there is the broadcasting station and the receiving station. Progress thus depends really on how each of these stations plays their roles. A broadcasting station that sends out the wrong messages or the right messages in the wrong way is as good as no station at all and could be a danger to the growth of the receiving station. In the same way, the Broadcasting station with a good methodology, communication skills and enriching messages would just be as good as a Rev. Pastor in the cockpit of a jet bomber if there is no receiving station turned to the right channel to receive the information. Receiving the right information is just as important as acting upon that information to realize positive results other wise the learning process would have no meaning. Good information well received should be able to set into motion the right actions and modalities of attaining desirable results otherwise, it becomes another species of seeds falling on rocky grounds as Jesus’ parable of the Sower tells us. Today the world over, we are leaving in another Noah’s era with a gigantic flood. Unlike that of Noah’s time, it’s most devastating and dangerous. HIV/AIDS is the flood I’m talking about. The statistics are frightening, according to the global estimates by UNAIDS, 40 million adults and children were living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2001 and of this number, as much as 28,500,000 are found in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. 5 million people were infected with HIV and 3 million died of AIDS in 2001 the world over. UNAIDS goes pathetically to say that at the end of 2001 world wide, out of the: 1. 5 million people infected with HIV, 800 000 were children aged 15. 2. 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS, 3 million where children aged 15. 3. 3 million people dead from AIDS, 580,000 were children aged 15. To worsen the situation, AIDS had orphaned 14 million children worldwide at the end of 2001. How does it feel like to imagine 14 million children living without a parent? Frightening statistics as such confirm to us that the answer to any question demanding whether a cure is around the horizon remains a firm no. We would have loved to think that a cure is possible now or may be we keep dreaming of a future vaccine that will render AIDS history. Whatever our state of mind is, the truth is that HIV rages on. It has already devastated Africa. It's on a rampage in Eastern Europe, and it's getting out of control in parts of China and India. Asia as a whole is the only region apart from Sub-Saharan Africa today with more people living with HIV/AIDS than any other region on earth. The HIV rains are extremely heavy and so the AIDS floods are sweeping through all the corridors of the earth already. I am just afraid that before we have time to build an ark like that of Noah, everything would have been watched away. Even if we did, there might not be the available pair of humans to put into the ark, as all would have been bed ridden by the AIDS. Being able to construct an accommodating ark and getting inside in time would depend on how much we have tuned our receiving stations to capture the instructions and messages from the broadcasting stations. Noah succeeded to get all that was needed in his ark because he had tuned his receiving station to God’s broadcasting station. He was there to receive every bit of information and instruction that God gave him and most importantly, he was ready to act upon this information to produce the ark. That is why he survived the flood. How many of us today have turned our receiving stations to the stations broadcasting information on preventing HIV/AIDS. How many of us have that burning desire to assume the role of readers, listeners or students to learn what this mysterious disease is all about? We find ourselves fighting and enemy we don even know. Our receiving stations especially in the third world are tuned to other things; we worry over politics, militarism and false democracy. We hang around power and worry over territorial boundaries while giving little attention to the fundamental aspects of our lives – health. It’s time we recognize that HIV/AIDS knows no boundaries. It infiltrates into the most secret sectors of the governments and countries, it mingles within politics, obliterates power. Aggravate the repercussions of war and crosses national and international boundaries unnoticed despite what the frontier guards might think – why not HIV requires no passport or visa. This therefore means that the ball can not be only in the court of the opinion leaders, national governments and international organizations would just have their time and their work. They would conceive and publish the strategies, they would broadcast the information. A greater part of the work lies in the hands of the individual. People need to tune their receiving stations to receiving and accepting the right information. While the broadcasting stations have a responsibility to send out the right information capable of initiation the right action, the receiving stations need to use this information gained to change behaviour. Knowledge gained that is not being put into effective use is useless. When we listen to a death announcement over the radio concerning a loved one, we scarcely question the authenticity of the announcement or the background of the announcer; we are carried away by grief and take him for his word. Is this the same thing when an HIV/AIDS educator or resource person talks to us about the disease? I am afraid in most of the cases; it’s the other way round. We start questioning their moral authority, their educational background and justifications. We find all excuses to disbelieve them especially when the picture presented clashes with our static mental stereotypes about the disease. Situations have come up where in people question their HIV test results given by renowned medical doctors even when they know they had been involved in risky activities. Before the test, they had painted a mental picture about the test that pre and post-test counseling could not wash away thus the reasons for their bewilderment when things turn sour. Going in for a test means accepting the fact that the results could be positive or negative. When the results come out negative, you take future precautions and if it turns out positive, you learn how to cope with the disease. There is no need playing the Cameroon – Nigeria game when your results are announced just as these two countries did after the judgment of the ICJ over the Bakassi peninsular. This demonstrates yet what happens when the receiving station is not getting the right information from the broadcasting station. But the underlying truth is that apart from the dangers you might put others into, accepting or refusing your test results when there come out positive really will not change the fact that you are now a living corps playing for time. With the presence of hundreds of broadcasting stations now around the world, staying away from the HIV today means turning your receiving stations to receive the information being broadcasted. You must act upon this information to modify your behaviour. Never say ‘I would act tomorrow’ for that one last sexual intercourse you have planned to have before changing is the one that might infect you with a full dose of the HIV. Should that happen, you know you have signed your demand for a death warrant being AIDS. « return.