Readmore - The Canadian Harm Reduction Network

Letters from Africa

2003-04-10

Talk About Your Midlife Crisis.....

My birthday is coming up so I've been 'looking back' of late and it is very, very clear to me that I am crazy. Seems like I never left the adolescent rage phase behind.... you know fighting conformity, while conforming in so many ways :).

So, I am a white, male, soon to be 42 year old professional Social Worker (a story in and of itself), who left the 'security' of his Consulting/Counselling Practise in Vancouver because he felt 'the winds were somehow changing' in Canada.... I/We(?) seemed to be becoming more afraid, less tolerant, increasingly disconnected from the environment/ each other/ 'our selves'. (Just look at what is happening in the World today! ....and BC certainly doesn't seem like a place to return to, at present, to find meaningful 'social' work).

How have I coped? First, as some of you witnessed, I ran as the Federal NDP candidate in Vancouver Centre last election :) Then, 'I got outa Dodge' by volunteering in Africa to do HIV/AIDS work.

And what has happened since I left 'home'? (Many of you have laboured through my 'updates' over the past year and a half so you have a pretty good idea). I've replicated the wheel! Instead of being the professional '____ disturber' in the West, I've let myself loose on Zambia.... poor, poor Zambia. I descended on this 38 year old, landlocked, relatively stable, 'developing', 'Christian'.... Nation to provoke taboos such as; sex, drugs, violence, hypocrisy, grief and loss, scarcity.... So I must be crazy, right?

One example, as if you need any others- Next week I will make a second attempt at bringing together a group of people who currently aren't talking/working with one another... You know; Drug Enforcement personnel, human rights activists, Alcohol and Drug prevention and treatment providers, 'health' workers, HIV/AIDS advocates, etc. For what purpose? To discuss, amoung other issues, the total failure of the Global 'War on Drugs'! Everywhere I travel I find that alcohol and other drugs are plentiful, easily available, and cheaper than last year. At the same time we add millions of new 'casualties' to our simplistic and ill-conceived global war.... seeing any parallels? In fact many people now argue that the 'war' itself is inflicting more 'harms' on human beings than drugs themselves. I want Zambia to understand that it doesn't have to 'follow the herd' by criminalizing thousands of its citizens, many of whom are/will be young, mostly poor and I would suggest are trying to cope with

A few other examples;

Today, Zambia will let me on national radio for the fourth time since arriving to talk about HIV - abstinence/condoms/stigma and discrimination.....

Within the month ZARAN will print my response to their newsletter provocation about HIV in prisons. (Where I identify that; "Sodomy (or 'anal sex') is occurring throughout Zambia- in homosexual, bi-sexual and heterosexual relationships, between those who are monogamous/faithful and those who are not."... "Let’s be honest: ignorance, fear, hatred and resulting acts of violence have many faces. Some are visible but many are hidden or subtle. What legal, human rights, and spiritual discussions could we be having in Zambia? What 'opportunities' to protect citizens and reduce the spread of HIV are we missing because of misinformation, hatred and existing homophobic beliefs... of Church and State?"

So who is crazy now?! :)

Much love, Scott.