Retroid Raving

Something that hit us hard in the 90s and early 2000s, in the HIV research community, was the continuing and obstinate HIV/AIDS denialism of those at the top of the government and of the ANC: the incredulity of the international scientific community at the failure of our purported leaders to accept what was by then established scientific fact extended to us, for not being able to convince them. 

Oh, we tried, though: colleagues and frinds of mine served - to no obvious avail - on Mbeki's set-up-to-fail advisory panel; I wrote an article for the Mail & Guardian - now inaccessible - out of sheer frustration and anger after a bemused Swedish scientist asked me "Why does your president not believe HIV causes AIDS?" after he had seen Mbeki on Swedish TV dismissing HIV as a problem; several of us got an open letter to Mbeki published in Nature in 2000, where we said:

"As long as Mr Mbeki is being advised by people with no credibility, we as South African scientists feel dangerously marginalized in the search for solutions to HIV/AIDS". 

We were not nearly as hard hit, however, as people with AIDS: two studies which calculated the excess deaths due to AIDS in South Africa alone due to the failure to roll out ARVs, came up with between 300 000 and 340 000 preventable mortalities.

Now a New Scientist article has exposed the continuing lunacy of the AIDS denialist movement: Johnny Steinberg, in the June 20th Issue, discusses how a small coterie of hard-line activists are still trying to influence the public and governments.  Steinberg covers the topic very well, and takes great care to debunk a series of popular myths, including "AIDS is not caused by HIV", "Antiretroviral drugs are poisons", "HIV tests are flawed", and "The lack of a widespread HIV epidemic is the west proves the orthodoxy is wrong".  I diffidently note that our very own (OK, my!) HIV information web site at UCT did much the same thing a few years back, but then, so did many others across the world. 

The points to be made are that there are still AIDS denialists; that they are pernicious and persuasive; they have done a great deal of damage, and they need to be combatted - and that this article is good ammunition in this fight.

Ed Rybicki

Let us sing in praise of Groupwise....

To what can I compare thee??

A bucket of s&*! comes to mind, but hold!  We can do better than that....

A clunky, fault-ridden, user-unfriendly, rubbish email client with limited functionality which serves merely to frustrate, rather than to actually serve!!!

Consider: I have now twice input a LOOOONG list of addresses - which one has to glean from OTHER Groupwise lists, rather than simply typing them in as actual addresses or sucking in a list, as one can do in applications like Outlook - as a new Group under Frequent Contacts in the Groupwise Address Book...only to see the F**$$%%% thing VANISH, TWICE!!

And this because - unlike Outlook - one cannot simply paste a list of email addresses, saved as a txt file, in the address line.

I could go on: I HATE the fact that one cannot save files from messages, then delete them as attachments (to save space) - which you can do in Outlook.  I HATE the to-me-clunky archiving options.  I HATE that I cannot import the gigabyte or so of archived Outlook mail I have, without losing all subfolders.

But enough of this: I have made a heroic effort to use this cr&*%y (=cruddy, actually B-) client.  I am seriously contemplating erasing all trace of it on any of the computers I have access to.

AAAAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!!

Note added in proof (of uselessness):

I have found out, quite by accident, how one can add addresses to a list - which one can create via the create via the "Address Book" -> "New" options (IF you select "Frequent Contacts" or similar), BUT cannot save contacts into.

You simply open "Groupwise Address Book" and then click and drag the addresses you find there that are relevant to your list, to your new group.  Of course, this means you have to import address lists you make via another application, or create a new contact in your Groupwise Frequent COntacts group for every single entry that is NOT in an existing Groupwise list.

Instead of importing a txt file.  Ah, well.

One constantly finds oneself in situations where strangers are bitterly critical of our nation.  Consider just these examples:

• I am in a bookshop, where I see a whole row of different magazines, all with Jacob Zuma on the cover.  I marvel aloud at this, and someone next to me snorts, and says: "Welcome to the new South Africa, hey!", and stalks off.  I only meant "Look - how interesting!"
  
  
  
  
• I am in an Airbus, waiting to disembark, when the captain announces that we are waiting on a bus, as the ground services had not located a driver.  A passenger behind me laughs bitterly, and says "They better get that right before 2010!"  I tell him about once having to wait over an hour in a plane on the runway at JFK because they couldn't find the stairs, but he seems unmollified, despite us having to wait less than 10 minutes.

And then, and then....  My son's school - Pinelands High, since you asked - does "District Six: The Musical" for their annual drama presentation, and it is a wild success: all the kids in the rainbow cast were fantastic (OK, mine was in it...B-), the choreography and sets were outstanding; people had tears in their eyes afterwards, and I heard someone say "I grew up there!  It was like that!!"

And again in an Airbus: yesterday, attempting to land in a wild, wet and windy Cape Town after at least one go-round, after several before him had failed - our brave SAA captain sets down, and heartfelt applause ensues.  Good will (and relief) abounds.

Good things happen.  We need to take note of them, and remind others.

Or bugger off....

...though we might wish it otherwise.  The bit about "rides", we mean.  From the VC's office this morning:

" The parties, having participated in the internal disciplinary process and having due regard to the complex nature of the matters that gave rise to the enquiry, have reached a mutual agreement to annul the disciplinary enquiry and abandon all charges brought against Dr Ngobeni.”
In acknowledgment of the complexity of this matter, the hardship that it must have caused the parties involved, I wish to apologise for any inconvenience caused, particularly to Dr Ngobeni. Having satisfactorily resolved the matters, Dr Ngobeni has expressed his wish to leave UCT to pursue other interests and we wish him all the very best in his future endeavours." 

An altogether unsatisfactory ending to an altogether unpalatable soap opera.  Ah, well: just like Star Wars, then!  "Ride" well, Obi-Wan!

Given that Retroid is not known to go much TO Jammie Steps, let alone south of them. it is not surprising we missed this (for which we thank an eagle-eyed mathematician):

So yes, the intrepid Field Marshal IS still remembered on UCT Upper Campus.  And the layers of meaning and symbolism go even deeper than suspected.  Ante-pre-post-modernist, almost!

OK, so these are not actual statues or sculptures, but it was too dark on Thursday last - at 11 am - to photograph "All in the Family", so you get what I like to call "inadvertent art" this week.

I had long marvelled at the bravery of this institution in having not one, but many little monuments to a late Afrika Korps and Wehrmacht luminary.  Delightfully seditious, I thought, and a bit naughty: those open-topped, chipped stone-covered concrete cylinders scattered about University Avenue, each neatly labelled "ROMMEL", and obviously in memoriam of the Field-Marshal Erwin Rommel.  And the fact that one could use them as refuse containers, too: at once a utilitarian and a profoundly deep statement on the rubbish-bin of history to which he has been consigned.

These nondescript beige bins are long gone; however, in their place I was pleased to notice these:

Just as beige, but striking in their arrangement: purportedly for more efficient recycling (divided into paper, plastic, bottles, etc.), but "Inadvertent Art" nonetheless - for several reasons.

First, the simple yet profound mathematical statement their lids make: two-dimensional geometric forms (square, oblong, equilaterial triangle, circle), juxtaposed like words in a brief yet highly meaningful message to an alien civilisation (quite appropriate for University Avenue, some SoJS might say, but no matter).  Second, their mute messaging to those who use them every day: "we are more than receptacles, we have meaning"!  Third, the fact that they are placed opposite the venerable Maths Block, on University Avenue: escapees from the stuffy halls of academe, into the world at large.

I call them "Acting Mathematica", and endeavour to use them every day.  So should we all: such repetition may even bring reward, much as spinning a Buddhist prayer wheel does.  It certainly wouldn't hurt.