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‘Anything set in contemporary England is difficult to make, which was one reason The Big Man didn‘t work.’
Despite box office difficulties, Steve Woolley of Palace Pictures has no problem shifting William Mcllvanney ’s Ayrshire a little further south.
‘I love doing the show, but I thought this assignment was too dangerous.’ Amanda de C adenet, presenter of The Word, refuses the deadly mission of interviewing heavy rock group Skid Row in Edinburgh.
‘1 don’t have to say. “Look, I‘m dark and subversive and strange and pervy." lfthey don’t know that by now, I’ve been wasting my time.‘ Marc Almond reckons his public image is well established b y now.
‘I guess I could have been a top class serial killer ifthings had turned out differently.“
Dennis Hopper brings a different slant to role stereotyping.
‘We want BT to be in the First Division, and ifyou want that. you have to pay First Division salaries.‘ BTchairman lain Vallance scores an own goal when trying to justify his £675,000 a yearsalary.
‘Marti Pellow has got more * “ " ‘i soul. talent, and passion in his
‘ " ‘ ‘ing penis than Mick Hucknall has got in his whole * “ ‘ ‘ing body.‘ Wet Wet Wet manager Elliot Davis defends his boy '5 singing talents.
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4 The List 22 November — 5 December I991
World focus on AIDS epidemic
On Sunday 1 December— World AIDS Day - people across the globe will be reflecting on a problem that faces every one of them. Alan Morrison reports on how Scottish-based organisations are using the event to target heterosexual men and the need for health
education in schools.
. hen a 32-year-old basketball player
; announced his retirement from the
} game earlier this month, he caught the attention of more than just the
‘ loyal fans of the Los Angeles Lakers. : A routine insurance test had shown
that Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson, one of America’s most respected sporting heroes, was HIV positive. In recent years, many celebrities have been diagnosed with the virus and some have , gone on to die of AIDS, but Johnson’s case is ' different. He is fit and athletic — and heterosexual. Suddenly America woke up to the fact that AIDS is not solely a problem for homosexuals or drug addicts. Calls to the National AIDS Hotline jumped from 3,800 a day to 40,000. Donations poured in. President Bush set up an American AIDS Task Force. And at last parents and children discussed the subject of safe sex.
Johnson’s announcement is sure to give a slightly different slant to the events of World AIDS Day on Sunday 1 December. According to
the World Health Organisation. three-quarters of the 8—10 million adults with HIV have been infected through heterosexual transmission.
Here in Scotland, Scottish AIDS Monitor had already decided that heterosexual men — ‘the forgotten minority in the AIDS epidemic‘ — were to be targeted on the day.
“Traditionally. the responsibility for contraception — certainly with regard to pregnancy — has been passed onto women,’ says i Paul Trainer, SAM’s Information Officer. ‘What we’re trying to do is to persuade the average man in the street that safer sex is his responsibility as well.’ SAM aims to get over the message that ; carrying condoms, no matter what sex you are.
signifies not promiscuity but common sense. This is a lesson that cannot be learned early enough.
“We have to take the opportunity to use proper education now,’ explains Trainer, “and not just at secondary school level. We believe health education — including sex, sexuality in relationships and HIV/AIDS — should be taught in primary school as part of a comprehensive.
‘ mandatorycurriculum.’ Raising awareness among schoolchildren has ; also been one of the main concerns of The
NAMES Project, the organisation behind the . AIDS Memorial Quilt. ‘The children relate to the
quilt much quicker than their teachers, who have a problem talking about HIV and AIDS,’ says Alastair Hume, the Project’s national director. ‘The quilt cuts through moral attitudes and gets to young people better because it isn’t threatening: it talks about people, not statistics. We can discuss HIV and AIDS in the media of fabric and ; colours and art rather than the whole condom routine that schools baulk at.’
Taking the quilt on tour to schools performs an
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The AIDS Memorial Quilt ‘talks about people. notstatisticsfi educational function that is only part of its aims.
It is also used as a means of raising funds and as a source of emotional support for those who have lost someone through the disease. Regular appearances at Hysteria benefit concerts during the Edinburgh Festival will be supplemented in a few months’ time by a permanent exhibition at
the Project’s national headquarters in Edinburgh, % and another public exhibition will take place in the Royal Museum of Scotland in Chambers
Street between 10—13 December.
Efforts by The NAMES Project, SAM and
other organisations are important, not only to remind the population of Scotland of the constant 3 threat posed by AIDS, but also to redefine attitudes. Already in America there has been a moral backlash against ‘Magic’ Johnson’s
admitted promiscuity. The danger is that only ‘promiscuous’ heterosexuals will be regarded as a ' ‘high risk’ group. The problem is, how do you ' define ‘promiscuous’? Sleeping with twenty people, and practising safe sex? Or unprotected ;‘ sex with two? Let’s hope that, after World AIDS Day, the answer to the question posed on SAM’s , new poster — ‘What does a Scotsman wear under his kilt?’ — can only have one answer: ‘A condom’. ; The NA MES Project organises weekly workshops ; at the Solas HIV/A IDS Resource Centre on Thursdays 7—9pm and at Clovenstone Community Centre on Wednesdays 2—4pm. Details from its headquarters at 86 Constitution Street, Edinburgh (555 3446). Scottish AIDS Monitor can be contacted in Glasgow on 041 353 3133 or Edinburgh on 031 5573885.
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