Last Friday was World Aids Day.

I sat reading The Independent as I ate my breakfast and found myself getting more and more enraged as I read it.

I don't like the Independent as a paper. It never seems to have much news in it any,ore. It is some commentary on whichever issue appears to be in Vogue that day, informs us in big letters across the front page of just how horrific this issue is, spends several pages getting on it's pappery high horse about how the government is doing nothing to fix whatever problem they've decided is the most important for that particular day.

So, on Friday the front cover read ' WORLD AIDS DAY'. Across the top of the page it said that a percentage of the money made from the sales of the paper that day would go towards fighting AIDS in Africa. At the bottom of the page there was the (red) symbol: a campaign related to the Make Poverty History campaign where huge corporate companies pretend that they're not completely soul's and are trying to help put the world to right but only because this is the new trendy way to do it.

The next few pages of the paper had several articles about the AIDS epidemic in Africa. About how horrific it was that so many people in Africa were suffering and how it was a huge problem and wasn't it time we did something about it. Each article was complete with photo of generic African orphan or group of women. Every single page was talking about how more needed to be done to fight AIDS in Africa and put a stop to it.

Friday 1st December is WORLD AIDS day. Not AFRICAN AIDS Day.

Why fight AIDS in Africa? Why not fight AIDS EVERYWHERE? It is a global problem. People in every single country in the world are suffering from HIV and AIDS. I appreciate that it is a huge problem in Africa but it is not confined to one continent.

When I as at University I did some work with a local AIDS charity called Positive Action Southwest. I met the people who worked there and the people they helped. I met and talked to several people who were suffering with HIV and AIDS.

Why, suddenly, is their suffering any less important than someone living in Africa? Yes, there are a lot more drugs available in the UK but that doesn't make the mental and emotional side of things any easier to deal with. The side effects of some of these drugs are horrific. Drugs don't always make things better. Drugs don't make them any less important.

45% of people in Britain think that there is a cure for AIDS. There isn't. It is still a death sentence wherever you live in the world.

I wore my red ribbon on Friday. I showed my awareness but somehow I feel like World AIDS Day has taken a step backwards.