HIV/AIDS

There are an estimated 38.6 million people now living with HIV/AIDS. Its claims over 2 million lives per year and over 500,000 of which are children. The worst of the pandemic can be found in Africa. The drugs that can keep someone alive used to cost $20,000 per year. Now they only cost $200 (£100), largely due to people campaigning for something to be done about it.

So for someone to live for a year with HIV/AIDS it would only cost the price of an ipod nano. If you live on less than a dollar a day however, as do most f the 3rd world, there’s still no way you could afford $200 a year. So can we 'the rich' countries and our governments do even more. The fact is despite the progress we are still not even close to defeating HIV/AIDs.

By 2008, UNAIDS $22 billion a year will be needed to combat AIDS successfully. These seem like big numbers, the task seems too much for even developed governments like the UK and the US pr is it? The US alone has spent, and plans to spend $435 billion in Iraq since the conflict began in 2003. That is more money than it would cost to tackle AIDS successfully for 20 years. The UK defence budget in 2005 was $500 billion – enough to pay the 2006 shortfall in funds needed to tackle HIV 33 times over.

The finger shouldn't be pointed at the government alone though. A survey by UK credit card company Mint throws some light on our personal spending. In 2004, the UK population spent:

• £35.4 billion on clothes – $66.6 billion, three years worth of a totally effective response to HIV covering the entire globe.
• $123 billion on eating out.
• $29.3 billion on tobacco.

The cost of tackling HIV is nothing compared to what we spend each year in the UK alone on cigarettes. I'm not saying that buying clothes or eating out once in a while is wrong, but we are the rich people of the world, 3rd world countries can't afford any of those things at all. it's up to us to think of others and to make sure we are not spending all our money on ourselves. Letting the chance slip away from us; that’s what we can’t afford. (Figs taken from christian-aid.org)

Sexually transmitted HIV is the biggest cause of the disease in Africa. The problem is how do you tackle this. People say it is unrealistic to preach abstinance as not everybody is going to listen to this. Maybe this is why God told us in His Word at the beginning to not have sex before marriage because he knew in 2000AD so many people would die from HIV/AIDS. Now the church is being encouraged to support the use of contraception, but surely this will only ease the symptoms of HIV being sexually transmitted and not actually cure the disease. The only way for HIV to die out is for people to stop having sex outside of marriage. So what do you think is the right thing to do?

skateboarding bulldog

This dog is legendary!

Honey Monster

I had to take my hamster honey to the vet today. I was letting her run about when I thought I saw her limping. But on closer inpection in turned out she had actually lost a patch of hair the size of my thumb beside her leg. I freaked out, I couldn't believe I had only noticed it now, given I usually let her out every day. So I took her to the vet and he said that she had this hereditary thing where some form of mite lies dormant on her skin from birth, and when it becomes active she would lose her hair, and apparently it will get worse before it gets better


So he give her an injection to take out the mite, and as he injected her she was in obvious pain, and she give me this look of 'how could you do this to me'. I felt so incredibily bad; I felt like a daddy who had just scolded their child for the first time. Then I thought, I wonder is this how God feels when bad stuff happens to us. Too often we say to God why have you done this to me, and just like it pained me to give honey that injection, it breaks God's heart to see us go though things that hurt us.

But I let her have that injection for the greater good. Honey may never appreciate that the reason why I gave her it was so that she could grow her hair back, and in the same way, when God lets us go through stuff that we find difficult, we need to appreciate that God has greater wisdom than we do (just like I had greater wisdom than honey), and He has a greater plan and we will benefit in some way in the future, we just need to trust Him.

Come on Tim!

Well we bid a final farewell to the 'darling of British tennis' on Saturday, as Tim Henman hit the winning shot that sent Great Britain into the World Group of Davis Cup Tennis for the first time since 2002. It seems a shame now that Tim has left, because that leaves GB with only one good singles player in Andrew Murray, and will probably be relegated straight away!

But the weekend was all about Tim Henman, and as a short tribute to him, I really must say that I and the rest of Great Britain will really miss him. There was just something about his 'rollercoaster' matches that got the nation gripped, yet something tells me that watching Andy Murray take on the baton, just will not be the same thing. Even though Andy is tipped to go further than what Tim did, there was just an extra class about Tim.

Tim Spent 2 years at world no.4, winning 11 tournaments, and a fine career match record of 496 wins to 274 losses. He made the Wimbledon semi-final four times in five years, and once each at the French ans US Opens (all in the same year!). The closest he ever got to winning his beloved Wimbledon was in 2001 where he lost to Goran Ivanisevic despite being 2 sets to 1 up before rain interrupted play. With the draw opening up Pistol Pete having been earlier knocked out, this was Tim's best chance but it was not to be, Goran went on that year to take the championship.

Tim boasts a 6-7 record against world no.1 the unbeatable Rodger Federer, a record only bettered by Rafael Nadal. Indeed Tim had Federer's scalp in his early years at one stage holding a 6-1 winning record over him! Tim was also a shrewd doubles players with 4 titles accredited to him and an Olympic Silver Medal at Atlanta 96.

So here's to Tim Henman, a fine player whom Great Britain just did not give enough credit for his excellent achievements. His game will be sorely missed as the beautiful serve and volley is no longer popular within tennis, and for one last time...Come on Tim!

New Blog

Hi,

I'm Chris, right now I'm 22, and some of the 'secondary' things I mention on the About me section are that I am a student at university in Belfast finishing up a Math Degree, with the intentions of going onto a PCGE afterwards. I love guitar, outdoor pursuits, good movies, christian music, sports (especially tennis) my hamster (honey monster) and in particularly I love Melanie. I currently work in spar to help pay the rent, I lead a cell group in my church which I love, I am the treasurer of the tennis club at queens, and I'm trying to learn a wee bit of spanish too! In the future I'm not entirely sure what I want to do looks like, but I do know it will be for God.

That was just a little more about me. On this blog if I do manage to keep it, I intend on letting loose some of the thoughts that have crossed my mind over the course of time. If you have blogspot and want me to link you just ask!