WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2010-09-09 Time: 14:00:01 Posted By: News Poster
Harare – Journalism or journalists rather are an interesting lot. As we seek to inform, educate and entertain, we are driven by five critical elements: why, when, where, what and how?
But what seems to be the Fourth Estate’s major pillar is the adage, “when a dog bites a man, it’s not news; but when a man bites a dog, therein is the news.” This titillates journalists, people’s lives in particular, and they leave no stone unturned.
As a profession they are also at that vantage position to “tell it all” without really feeling bad about it since they believe that it is their responsibility. Last weekend was a case in point when Zimswag hosted the Akon/Sean Paul concert in Harare. The media hype reached fever pitch when the two stars jetted into the country.
Days after the pair left Zimbabwe, readers are still reading different elements of their show, somewhat like the paper trail this writer talked about recently.
However, despite the poetic licence that is used in telling other people’s stories, it is very rare for journalists to tell their own stories – in their own words, that is. Others either tell their stories, and in some cases bits of these narratives are told after their demise – as their epitaph. It is in this context that The Arena salutes the new column “HIV walk with Catherine Murombedzi”.
In her first instalment last Friday, the author made it abundantly clear that she was not only going to talk about HIV and Aids, but that she was doing it from a point of knowledge. She told the world that she is a journalist living positively with the HIV virus that causes the Acquired Immuno- Deficiency Syndrome.
In retrospect, and considering the stigma that has walked hand in glove with this condition, this writer thinks that it was one of the bravest and most daring moves made by Catherine, considering that it is from someone in a profession that is so used to tell other people’s positive conditions.
Even then, not many journalists have been privy to talk about people who willingly want to tell other people about their status. Most of what is written is issues, and not the people affected.
Although this writer has spoken with Catherine about the issue, commenting on it feels different. She said smiling, “I thought that I had told you because we speak with each other a lot.”
After reading the first draft, this writer was lost for words. Not because Catherine was saying it, but because she was telling the world that not only is she living positively, but that she is also a mother, wife and a JOURNALIST. She was also not blaming anyone. Her story did not have any tinge of bitterness.
That was the issue – demystifying HIV and Aids even among her professional colleagues and in the process removing the stigmatisation that continues to be so rampant in our society despite the fact that HIV and Aids have been around for more than two decades.
In this writer’s view, Catherine’s tell-it-all was a call to professional colleagues to wake up and smell the coffee.
It is also a wake-up call to the whole nation, for despite feeling the toll that the HIV and Aids pandemic has had, the nation has however, decided to live in a denial state, and in some cases playing the blame game: cultural norms and values, especially witchcraft.
We are also a society that has taken comfort in the fact that with medication now “readily” available, why bother tell other people? We also remain a society, which still believes that it is improper to tell people outside of the family that we have conditions such as cancer, asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, etc.
Even when we wear those “Medic Alert” tags, we would rather the world does not know. Fear rules the roost. The writer captured this last year in a Kwayedza story where one old lady, with eyes in her tears said, “My daughters, you are experts at hiding information about your health conditions. You don’t even hide money the way you do with your HIV status. But what you don’t know is, it is better to tell early so that you are properly cared for!”
This writer also feels that Catherine did not tell her story because of undue pressures, nor was it a story she was telling so that people could feel sorry for her. Hildegarde thought that she did it because she realised that it was about time that the nation also realised that it is a condition that does not discriminate, and that even her professional colleagues were in danger.
Notwithstanding the pain and the price that she probably has to pay for “coming out of the closet”, it is not for naught. She has unshackled people in different professions to follow her example. The way the late Auxilia Chimusoro did.
A cursory view of media reports shows that HIV and Aids are conditions looked upon as conditions for the poor, while others (also infected in some cases) make money by telling their stories. The many times that this writer has watched the local talk show “Mai Chisamba Show” on ZTV, tackling the HIV and Aids pandemic web, it is the so-called ordinary people (single and/or couples) who come forward to say that they are living positively.
There are no high flying professionals despite the trends set by the late activist Lynde Francis and also what Tendai Westerhoff has been doing. Even the availability of anti-retroviral therapy has not helped professionals to come out.
Some in the journalistic fraternity might have felt betrayed, because it is always easy to talk about others, and not about oneself, but Catherine’s “HIV walk” as said before is a wake-up call.
Surely, there is no way that so many acres of space could continue to be written about HIV and Aids, without the condition affecting those telling other people’s stories.
As this writer reflected on Catherine’s “walk”, she asked herself a number of very difficult questions. Why did Catherine decide to do it now? How did she tell her family and friends before telling the wider world? Was there any backlash, then and now, and why? Now that the story is in the public domain, how is her family coping despite the fact that they knew? How about the wider family network? Are they comfortable with the move she took?
The writer checked with her and she said her seventeen-year-old son whom she described as reserved sent her an SMS when he got back to school on Tuesday and it read: “Mom that was one brave thing you did and I’m proud of you…”
Still, there are more questions because even among professional colleagues, it was a revelation that caught some unawares as people still prefer the “the don’t ask, don’t tell” approach, due to a number of problems faced at the workplace.
The information given in the article shows that Catherine seems to know where she is going. Maybe the burden now is with her professional colleagues, especially women in the media. How do they view Catherine’s move? Are they lending her emotional and spiritual support?
For apart from telling other people’s HIV and Aids stories, women in the media have also been immensely affected, just like everybody from the lowest to the greatest. Can they use their “influential positions” as launch pads for other professional groups?
Are they able to start support groups that are not confined to media houses, but that look at media women in general and how the HIV and Aids pandemic has affected them? Is that possible?
Working as a united front, can they find out why in 2010 it is still difficult for many to openly come out and say that they are living positively?
Another million-dollar question is that now that the story is in the public domain, how are the numerous NGOs dealing with HIV and Aids, and how are they going to help professional women – that is, get them out of those closets where they make a living from HIV and Aids, instead of seeing themselves as equally affected people?
As the column develops, will there be a “born again” syndrome where more women professionals will see no problem at all talking about their status? How many nurses, teachers, doctors, CEOs, politicians will also confidently walk along with Catherine and millions of other people worldwide?
Original Source: 
Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Original date published: 9 September 2010
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201009090129.html?viewall=1