| THAILAND
When the Music is Silenced by Death
BANGKOK — ''Death becomes a dancing partner when one has HIV/AIDS. First you have to accept it, and then dance with Lady Death,'' says the U.S.-born Thai musician Todd Tongdee Lavelle.
Lavelle was referring to the demise of all seven members of the HIV Band, which before the XV International AIDS Conference in July 2004 was still struggling to play on although the musicians were in the terminal stages of AIDS.
The band had a hiatus of two years before regrouping again in 2004, because all the members were either going in or coming out of hospital.
''I really feel sad, but I admire their bravery. These guys were great, they were playing music while confronting death at the same time,'' Lavelle says.
'Boy' Wyachai, a folk-rock who recently returned to Thailand after a sojourn in the United States, agrees with Lavelle. ''They'll be missed among the circle of Thai musicians. They were all sick, sometimes gravely ill, but gave their best when they played,'' he says in an interview.
The HIV Band was set up in 1994 at the Phrabath Namphu Buddhist temple in Lopburi province, about 115 kilometres north of Bangkok, by seven persons living with AIDS patients who wrote songs and performed in Western-style rock.
The brainchild behind the band was Phra Ajarn Alongkot Dikkapanyo, the head monk at the temple. ''When Ajarn Alongkot first set up the temple in the early 1990s, he felt that the Thai population needed to be educated about AIDS,'' recalls Lavelle.
Lavelle adds that at the time, "many people were just put off and scared when they saw them play".
The Buddhist temple has room only for some 400 AIDS sufferers — of whom an average of seven die every day. There is a waiting list of 10,000, mainly poor rural people.
While there are seven slots in the group, the HIV Band had seen more than 30 musicians come and go in the last 20 years. During this time, the not so sick replaced those who had died.
''But now, even the not-so-sick musicians are no longer in the temple to replace the dead members. It's sad,'' says Lavelle, whose band 'Todd Lavelle and Thailand' has been jamming frequently with the HIV Band.
Lavelle has included the HIV Band in his road shows throughout Thailand. For him, the greatest challenge in his musical career, after the AIDS Conference that brought together over 17,000 delegates to the Thai capital, has been encouraging the youth to learn about sexuality.
''Issues like safety through the use of condoms, emotional engagement, culture, the readiness of both people to have sex and desire need to be addressed,'' says Lavelle.
''The core issue needs to be acknowledged,'' he stresses. ''Thais are very sexual beings but they don't want to come to terms with that.''
As part of his band's attempts to reach out to young Thais, Lavelle has written a Thai-language booklet called 'Talk About Love', available at all 7-Eleven convenience stores. ''Lots of Thai kids are confused about this whole thing of sex intermingled with love, emotions and desire,'' he says. ''They receive no help from their parents and teachers who are in a state of denial themselves.''
For example, Lavelle points to the emergence of the term 'gig', which has crept into the vocabulary of the young just a couple of years ago. ''A 'gig' is a regular sexual partner a young girl or boy has on the side, while being in a steady relationship. No questions are supposed to be asked by either the boyfriend or girlfriend. It's pure sex and nothing else with the 'gig','' he reveals.
Lavelle says he has been criticised for bringing up this issue of 'gig' in his concerts. "Someone once said I was denigrating Thai culture. But the issue here is, are Thai kids aware of the need to protect themselves from HIV?'' he asks.
According to 'Bangkok Post' columnist Sanitsuda Ekachai, pregnancies outside wedlock remains rife despite Thai parents' stern preachings on virginity and their rigid stance against premarital sex.
''Thai girls have been taught since childhood to 'rak nuan sa-nguan tua', meaning to take pride in being 'untouched' and 'sexually reserved' -- yet the statistics on first-time sexual experience, pregnancy and abortion among Thai youngsters are much higher than for their peers in Western countries,'' she says in a column.
According to Public Health Ministry statistics, abortion rates among teens rate in Thailand are as high as 16.2 per 1,000 births, compared to 3.1 per 1,000 in Germany, 4.2 in the Netherlands and 8.9 in France.
The average age for first sexual experience in Thailand is 15, compared to 16 in the United States and 16.6 in France. In the Netherlands, the average age for first sexual experience is 17.7.
''I don't agree with the notion of celibacy vows and not having sex till one is married. It just doesn't work that way in Thailand,'' says Lavelle. ''The thing is, in Thailand, young Thais are very active sexually. To pretend it doesn't happen is a step backwards in the fight against AIDS.''
At least 570,000 Thais are living with HIV in this country of 64.5 million people, says the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. — Sonny Inbaraj (END/Copyright IPS)
|
