May’s International Carnival of Pozitivities is up at dropdeadhappy. Two blog posts stand out - “Myths and misconceptions about HIV and AIDS” by The AIDS Pandemic in which he looks at some of the “old” myths and some more contemporary myths such as HIV is a “black disease” or “two positive people do not need to use condoms” and then all the misconceptions around cure and prevention.

Myths and misconceptions about HIV and AIDS have been around since the very beginning of the pandemic. The first myths stemmed largely from the lack of information on this relatively new disease. ……..These myths have emerged despite the fact that there is now more accurate information on HIV. These new myths also create problems with prevention as people unknowingly put themselves at risk to contract the virus.

The Black Aids Institute post, Adhering to HAART Does Not Remove Risk of Passing on Disease is related to prevention and cure and the kind of news that ends up creating myths and misconceptions.

An article recently published by Switzerland’s Federal Commission for HIV/AIDS states that HIV-positive individuals on effective antiretroviral therapy are not at risk for transmitting HIV to their sexual partners under certain circumstances.

What I fail to understand and find highly irresponsible is why the Swiss AIDS Commission published this since they themselves acknowledge there is no scientific data to support the statement.

The East African reports that lawyers from East Africa and the SADC are to sue China over the arms shipment to Zimbabwe. The lawyers are also planning to “engage the African Union and United Nations into actively addressing the situation”. Whilst African leaders tip toe around Mugabe or worse pander to his madness and violence against his people, African Civil Society has chosen to actively support the people of Zimbabwe in their struggle.

Le Monde diplomatique comments on the inequalities in South Africa highlighted by the preparations for the 2010 World Cup.

South Africa will host the World Cup in 2010 so construction – and corruption – is booming. But almost none of the building or the money can be accessed by the poor who live in shantytowns without proper water, sanitation or electricity.

Speaking of football, the season has ended and once again I havent gotten to see one single live game - next season looks promising though as I have been offered one ticket for a game of my choice (other than the big 4 and the derby game). The best footy blog? The Arseblog for your daily dose of gunner news and which for some strange reason is to become part of Ole Ole from this month. Flamini is off - good riddance, they never learn that the grass for ex-Arsenal players is never ever greener on the other side. Name one ex player that has achieved anything significant after leaving Highbury unless of course it’s the money!

An interview with Phumla Masuku manager of the Chosen Few lesbian soccer team based in Soweto is up at the African Women’s Blog - she discusses sport as a tool for empowerment of women and activism.

Republic of T (Black. Gay. Father. Vegetarian. Buddhist. Liberal) and an excellent blog is one of the nominees for the 2006 Weblog Awards in the LGBT section - he gets my vote

Tags: LGBT; Sport; South Africa; Weblog Awards

Arsenal’s top brass, David Dein and Keith Edelman signed a £350,000 deal with Israel’s tourist board to advertise tourism on billboards in the new Ashburton Grove Stadium. Although the deal was signed it was decided to delay the advertisements during and following the attack by Israel on Lebanon.

The Israeli tourism ministry has delayed the start of its advertising campaign with English football club Arsenal for fear of receiving negative reactions due to the recent war with Lebanese group Hizbullah.

The 515,000 euros deal was announced amid a mass of publicity in February this year. At a press conference in Tel Aviv, Arsenal’s managing director Keith Edelman said Israel would be the club’s “official and exclusive travel destination.”

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I normally write this on a Sunday but am away so it’s early and long as I get carried away.

The dilemmas of blogging - serious or not to be serious? Well a bit of both. It’s been a tough few weeks so am turning to the big story this weekend. “When Saturday Comes”. The season started on a positive note with Liverpool beating the West London Chip Eaters (hoping they all choke in the first couple of weeks); The Rashley Cole saga continues and Reyes - well who would want Reyes? This is a blog roundup so enough of that. Those of you who are Arsenal fans probably already know

The Arse Blog - newly relaunched in Wordpress and apparently the 6th most popular blog in England - definately the best Arsenal blog - though he gets carried away with the usual footy 4-letter-words one of which is particularly offensive to me - cunt - that is such a vile horrible word.

The Global Game has some alternative World Cup awards such as the “Best shoe award”; “Best use of Flash animation in depicting immigrant football cultures”; “Most embarrassing perpetuation of hooliganism stereotype in the guise of irony-laced witticisms” and loads more.
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The earlier post on slavery is poignant in that in 2006 we of African descent still find racism at the centre of our political and personal lives (7 of the last 9 posts on this blog have been on racism). The politics of head butts in French racist discourse are presented via La Plage a group of young Africans who put together the song “Coup de Boule” on Monday afternoon. The rumour on the streets following the game was that Zidane had been insulted by Materazzi as a terrorists, an Arab but even worse, accused of being a collaborator in the Algerian war. Whether these were true or not is not really the point. The point is that France remains in a volatile state. In the minds of France’s young (and old) people of Black and Arab descent something racist and insulting had been said to one of their heroes thus confirming the racist nature of their lives which will remain with them no matter whether you leave the ghetto or not. (Zidane later stated Materazzi insulted his mother and sister but did not expand on that).

Andrew Hussy, “Paris: The Secret History” describes France as a country of extremism. The far right whose refrain is “we will all become Arabs” whilst for the non-white population it is “we exist and you must acknowledge”. Zidane has become a symbol of the fight back from the commons where Chirac kisses him on both cheeks and acknowledges him as a hero. The President is very much aware that the commons are watching and the message must be clear if the country is to avoid a return to last November’s riots.