On December 30 of 2004, my country suffered a tremendous tragedy that still remains in all of our hearts and souls… A stupid kid from the crowd lit some fireworks during a rock festival that was being held in a theatre with more than 3000 people inside… The flames touched the roof of the place and began the ignition of the acoustic panels… The lights went out and suddenly the air became unbreathable… The result: 194 people dead, and hundreds more hospitalized…
The week after this tragedy, the news reported another death related to it. So now the dead were 195. But something called my attention. This last guy´s death was reported as an HIV related one. The newspapers said that the fact that he was HIV+ added a fatal cofactor to his exposure to the toxic smoke that emanated from the acoustic panels… Of course the newspapers didn´t emphazise the fact that this guy had gone in and out the place 3 or 4 times to rescue as many people he could, before falling down on his knees and vanishing, … He saved lots of lifes thanks to his courage and his athletic state, before suddenly dying of HIV related complications, don´t you think ?!!!
From my point of view, this little story reflects how deeply nailed in our consciousness is the message of
I remember talking to some people about it and their thought was: “eventually he was going to die anyway”. As if his death wouldn't count because the HIV would have surely done it sooner or later!
Of course, because of the tragedy, the whole public health system collapsed that week… Hundreds of wounded were hospitalized… Everyone went crazy; doctors, nurses, firemen, relatives, politicians, everybody… Some doctor might have thought “Hey, here we have one that looks awful… he is not gonna make it… and guess what? He tested positive on the Elisa… No time for a confirmatory… So, what the hell… let´s say he died of AIDS… Who´s going to question it?”
Maybe I´m wrong about that, but one thing seems certain. If you are HIV positive, you must die, for the sake of everyone´s rational closure.
Marcos el Abogado (aka) "Funes el Memorioso" lives and works in Buenos Aires.
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