OTGV #19 - Aids Series 5/5 - Voices
Broadcast Date: 30/12/02
Their voices are silent.
Even if they speak, sometimes, family members don't hear.
And when they are gone, families sometimes force themselves to forget.
These are the voices of the HIV positives.
Hi welcome to On the Grapevine with me Chong Ching Liang.
I spoke with Royston Tan, the director of the remarkable film, 48 on AIDs, on why he decide to do this project.
[There're really of a lot of the misunderstood theories of this disease. [It is] Something that I have always been wanting to explore. The opportunity came when Channel NewsAsia approach me to do a special documentary for the 20th anniversary of AIDs. Well I think it was overwhelming for me because I didn't really know what I was getting into. This is definitely one of the most challenging projects that I have ever done because people are not so open about this topic and there were people who shun me because they knew I was in contact with the AIDS patients so they didn't want to talk to me. That three months in the production was a lonely journey for me but I really enjoy the whole process because I think personally for myself, I have misunderstood a lot of things about this disease and I have got a clearer picture [now] and that helped me a lot. I hope it is for the viewers who had seen this film. So Royston, tell me, what is the one big thing that you have gained from this remarkable endeavour? When I am in contact with the AIDs patients, I felt the way they live their lives; they cherish every moment they have. All the little things like the sound of raindrops and the colours of the grass and things like that. And that is something that I have never appreciated and it makes appreciate things even more now.]
48 on AIDS was shown on Channel NewsAsia on World Aids Day at the beginning of this month.
Here are the voices of the afflicted, beginning with two young boys who symbolise the innocents who’re swept into the AIDS maelstrom.
[Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are.][I think for most of us AIDS is still very distant, very unknown you know. It's a disease that happens to other people or other countries but you know when it strikes home, then you think of it very differently. And when you have knowledge of someone, whom you knew, who is so full of life, so talented, who actually succumbed to it, then you feel the full impact. You know, the pain, and ... and the sense of loss and my greatest wish if I can ever make a wish is that I never again have to know of any other who's succumb to this disease.][I never know that I would become a transgender okay? Or I will become a sex worker and caught HIV. Okay, so now I feel like, maybe it's still a dream. Maybe one day I'll wake up and it's not real. I never feel sorry for being HIV now because that changes my life from a sex worker to a skilled worker. So that's something that I never thought I can be.] [You appreciate all these little things because somehow having this is sort of an awakening I guess like 'Hey!' you know you gotta open your eyes and don't take things for granted anymore and every little things is so meaningful like just turning on the tap and watching the water flow through, taking a shower and all these types of things. I always like to pass on a very positive type of thinking to show them that it's not a death sentence after all and with the will and a lot of positive thinking, life just goes on.] [To me, I feel even if you've contracted the disease, its better not to know because more often than not, if it turns out that if you do then it changes your whole perspective on life. It's like the same as... same reason why people don't want to know about their future lah.] [I don't think that I will live beyond the age of 55 because by then, I think I should have AIDS and I am sure that ten years down the road, on this day, will be lighting a candle for me because I am not here any more.] [I do have friends who are gays and I ....] [To those who thinks that AIDs is a moral disease, it may surprise you to find that the husband didn't contract the virus by fooling around but the entire family, husband, wife and child all have HIV. And how do you look them in the eyes and say you did something wrong and being punished for it?] [People themselves cannot change the perception. We have to tell them how. So we have to give a face to AIDs. Today people only see when they hear AIDS, to see drug addicts, a dirty, smelly very sick drug addict but they don't see the loving husband, the mother, the little child who are suffering from AIDs. We are using...]
This brings us to the end of On the Grapevine's 5-part look at AIDS and the lives it touches.
This is Chong Ching Liang for Newsradio 938.
====================
Newsradio
http://newsradio.mediacorpradio.com/
Action for Aids
http://afa.org.sg
Their voices are silent.
Even if they speak, sometimes, family members don't hear.
And when they are gone, families sometimes force themselves to forget.
These are the voices of the HIV positives.
Hi welcome to On the Grapevine with me Chong Ching Liang.
I spoke with Royston Tan, the director of the remarkable film, 48 on AIDs, on why he decide to do this project.
[There're really of a lot of the misunderstood theories of this disease. [It is] Something that I have always been wanting to explore. The opportunity came when Channel NewsAsia approach me to do a special documentary for the 20th anniversary of AIDs. Well I think it was overwhelming for me because I didn't really know what I was getting into. This is definitely one of the most challenging projects that I have ever done because people are not so open about this topic and there were people who shun me because they knew I was in contact with the AIDS patients so they didn't want to talk to me. That three months in the production was a lonely journey for me but I really enjoy the whole process because I think personally for myself, I have misunderstood a lot of things about this disease and I have got a clearer picture [now] and that helped me a lot. I hope it is for the viewers who had seen this film. So Royston, tell me, what is the one big thing that you have gained from this remarkable endeavour? When I am in contact with the AIDs patients, I felt the way they live their lives; they cherish every moment they have. All the little things like the sound of raindrops and the colours of the grass and things like that. And that is something that I have never appreciated and it makes appreciate things even more now.]
48 on AIDS was shown on Channel NewsAsia on World Aids Day at the beginning of this month.
Here are the voices of the afflicted, beginning with two young boys who symbolise the innocents who’re swept into the AIDS maelstrom.
[Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are.][I think for most of us AIDS is still very distant, very unknown you know. It's a disease that happens to other people or other countries but you know when it strikes home, then you think of it very differently. And when you have knowledge of someone, whom you knew, who is so full of life, so talented, who actually succumbed to it, then you feel the full impact. You know, the pain, and ... and the sense of loss and my greatest wish if I can ever make a wish is that I never again have to know of any other who's succumb to this disease.][I never know that I would become a transgender okay? Or I will become a sex worker and caught HIV. Okay, so now I feel like, maybe it's still a dream. Maybe one day I'll wake up and it's not real. I never feel sorry for being HIV now because that changes my life from a sex worker to a skilled worker. So that's something that I never thought I can be.] [You appreciate all these little things because somehow having this is sort of an awakening I guess like 'Hey!' you know you gotta open your eyes and don't take things for granted anymore and every little things is so meaningful like just turning on the tap and watching the water flow through, taking a shower and all these types of things. I always like to pass on a very positive type of thinking to show them that it's not a death sentence after all and with the will and a lot of positive thinking, life just goes on.] [To me, I feel even if you've contracted the disease, its better not to know because more often than not, if it turns out that if you do then it changes your whole perspective on life. It's like the same as... same reason why people don't want to know about their future lah.] [I don't think that I will live beyond the age of 55 because by then, I think I should have AIDS and I am sure that ten years down the road, on this day, will be lighting a candle for me because I am not here any more.] [I do have friends who are gays and I ....] [To those who thinks that AIDs is a moral disease, it may surprise you to find that the husband didn't contract the virus by fooling around but the entire family, husband, wife and child all have HIV. And how do you look them in the eyes and say you did something wrong and being punished for it?] [People themselves cannot change the perception. We have to tell them how. So we have to give a face to AIDs. Today people only see when they hear AIDS, to see drug addicts, a dirty, smelly very sick drug addict but they don't see the loving husband, the mother, the little child who are suffering from AIDs. We are using...]
This brings us to the end of On the Grapevine's 5-part look at AIDS and the lives it touches.
This is Chong Ching Liang for Newsradio 938.
====================
Newsradio
http://newsradio.mediacorpradio.com/
Action for Aids
http://afa.org.sg
posted by CHONG Ching-liang | 5:04 PM
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