the one about getting my hands dirty

The government is very sensitive when it comes to addressing our country's current issues on sex-trades, and even more when it comes to the people involved in it. The sexual-taboo is not exactly particular to our country alone but also generally a culture of the common Asians. While trying to be sensitive in addressing prostitutes, and calling them 'commercial sex-workers' so as to reduce the negative connotation attached to such trades, we are also very prone to avoid talking about them at all, or even worse, to pretend that such issue is not that big a deal to us.

The society, at large, is uneasy when forced to confront the reality of these issues. Even for us, at the medical level, try to manipulate words and give broad-covering names to address a certain group of people that you-know and I-know. I am referring to the "marginalised group" that we target, as vulnerable to HIV infection and AIDS.

Who doesn't know what we are talking about when use the phrase "marginalised group" - but to the untrained, anybody can be marginalised in any given context. So what are we trying to achieve here,.. sensitivity and tactfulness - but at the cost of ignorance?

I think the world is ignorant enough as it is already.

Running a meeting a few weeks back brought me to realise, that I too may have a pinch of reservation when it comes to the marginalised groups. I am thinking specifically of the transvestites that roam the night scenes, cat-calling passers-by with their more often than not gruffy voices and sometimes proudly showing off the effect of injectable steroids on their pseudo-appendages. These are the people that too little in the world is willing to work with.

I once gave the permission to a friend to give me a good tight slap on the face - if I ever loose sight of our purpose - our mission, that is to preserve, or fight for, the quality of life. Sounds like a terribly big word - QUALITY OF LIFE. Sometimes I do find myself pondering into its deeper meaning, as if it needs lots and lots of explanation to comprehend.

I once belong to a group of activist yuppies, going round a red lantern district of Kuala Lumpur, fighting for quality of life. We were the Rounders of Jeffrey Rounds. Other members reading this may not exactly conform or agree to my definition of purpose, but there lies the beauty of JR. Apart from about four common ground rules, we were pretty free to come up with our own philosophy and purpose regarding our participation in JR.

Three out of four of the ground rules were basically just to cover for our safety: do not carry money, always wear shoes and always watch for each-others' backs (or back-sides, as we like to put it) and number 4 actually states that we are here on a neutral banner: which pretty much says that people of any religion, race, motives, anything, can come along.

Yep, those were the days when bills and taxes were not much an agenda in our daily lives.

Another remarkable thing about JR was how the ideology of it were spread. Being young and eager, the world belonged to those with a clear vision and an interesting philosophy. Well, clear vision wasn't really one of our greatest strength, as we too build our ideas as we went along, but being able to relate the philosophy behind JR and transplant it in the head of others was the key strategy that kept us going for years, come rain or -- no rain.

One other thing about JR that I just have to mention here, was the willingness to get down and dirty. The street people were very sensitive to whether or not we were sincere in our approach, as we were not the only group going around the area doing 'charity'. So the only way (to me, at least, I can't think of any other better ways) to scrap off prejudices and get down to their level, was really to get down to their level, literally. We would come and sit on the floor, cross-legged, keeping our eyes peeled for stray needles and cockroaches as we listened to their stories. Everybody has a story to tell, and if listening to them will elevate their morale for at least 2 minutes, hey, we're all ears.

So back to my current story. As I was saying... what the world needs more of, is people who are willing to get down and get their hands dirty. As I realised that the HIV picture will never come down by having me sitting down in my air-cond room analysing figures months after months, I will have to come down and and get my hands dirty.

As we were told, once a rounder, always a rounder.