Dossers, or deserving? Two PN readers write in with very different views on benefits, working, poverty and HIV
“Lick Your Own Balls” says Allan Morris
There’s an old joke, asking why a dog licks his privates. The answer
is, of course, because he can.
Last week, there was an item on BBC London news over a new service for people with HIV, where a charity now delivers healthy meals to those unable to look after themselves and/or eat properly.
Correct me if I’m wrong - and I have no doubt whatsoever that many of you will - but I was under the clear and distinct impression that combination therapy has made life so much more liveable for those of us with the bug.
Apart from a period of around a year, during which I suffered from severe side effects (not, I hasten to add, any sickness caused by the virus itself), HIV has not materially affected the way I live my life. Sure, I’ve had recourse to the social services and a myriad of support organisations, but only for a limited period when I needed them most. It was always my intention to start working again and to live my life as closely as possible to the way it was prior to my diagnosis. I’ve succeeded in that, partly due to the brilliant support I’ve had from the medical fraternity and the above-mentioned groups, but mainly due to my own dogged determination not to allow this bloody disease to change my life in any major way, except positively; no apologies for the pun.
Now, I’m not trying to blow my own trumpet here. I’m merely saying that if a wimp like me with HIV, two inoperable slipped discs, peripheral neuropathy and drug side effects, can manage to carry on as normal, then why can’t the majority of other people, without having to depend on DLA, meals-on-wheels, assisted housing, etc?
I want to know why they can’t cook for themselves. Do they have illnesses
other than HIV? I really don’t understand why in a modern welfare state
where healthcare is still free to most, they can’t manage. This isn’t
an African state, where HIV simply progresses inexorably into Aids and people
just get sicker and die. So someone please tell me - where’s the problem?
Granted, Blair and Blunkett have made it a pretty unattractive proposition
to most people nowadays, but it looks a good prospect to me if you
can claim when you have a life-threatening virus coupled with other
debilitating
illnesses
or side effects. I will go even further; I personally know a few
pozitoids who are perfectly healthy, got DLA a few years back when
it was much
easier and are enjoying all the benefits of presenting themselves
as life’s
victims.
To these people, and those others whom I suspect of doing the same, I would say one thing: don’t expect taxpayers like me to carry you through life forever. Lick your own balls!
“
Aint Nothin’ Dodggy goin’ on”... responds Robin Wright
A dog can indeed lick his balls...now there’s a thought - quite a feat, actually.
But clever-dick swiping (courtesy of the Victor Meldrew wannabee opposite) aside, what is obviously needed right now is a deep intake of breath and pause for thought.
The small number of self-righteous professed champions of HIV now appearing on the pages of HIV magazines with increasing regularity, hurtling away at life, living, working and doing all the normal things expected of a healthy person in their prime, have seemingly become expert physicians, psychologists and social workers.
Pop psychology is one thing, unqualified generalised statements based on a tunnel vision point of view are another and downright dangerous.
Why should everyone be doing it ‘their’ way anyway? This isn’t a competition.
Symptoms and the degree to which they present vary greatly. What’s OK for one person is not OK for another. It’s therefore somewhat naïve to make a comparison and judge other people on one’s own expectations and realisations. Hiding under the umbrella of being a wimp is also no excuse for blowing your own trumpet on accomplishment. What’dya want, a friggin’ medal?
Looking deeper into the feelings this whole issue unearths, it may well be indicative of a general outlook today brought about by the Thatcher legacy: you have to be seen to be achieving or else your status is nothing in society. The ‘I’m OK - f**k the rest’ or worse still ‘I’m OK, so you get your arse into gear’ mentality can be deeply damaging and is hardly a humanitarian approach. (Single parents are another easy target. Many are out at work and contributing to society, yet all we hear about is ‘take their benefits away; make them all go to work; they’re all scroungers’.)
What we should be doing is encouraging, enabling and allowing the opportunity to deal with an (incurable) illness in the manner best suited to the individual. That’s where the professionals come into play.
To get assisted housing or meals-on-wheels will require a plethora of reports from medics, social workers, occupational therapists, and physiotherapists etc. If someone having a meal made for them, having help with shopping, or any other domiciliary help, is going to leave them the energy for something they can enjoy with some semblance of a ‘life’, then I’d say it was a job well done.
Combination therapy might help but it isn’t a cure. It doesn’t work for everyone, it isn’t easily tolerated by everyone and certainly doesn’t make life easier for everyone.
The Blair government has indeed made it more difficult for anyone to scrape through the net using HIV as a means to this alleged easy life, and for good reason. But those of us given better housing and more benefits a few years back, it was also done for a good reason. Do we have to die to prove the point?
As for the ‘pozitoid’ friends and others to whom our Mr Meldrew refers (he’s unashamedly into labels), are they really “enjoying the benefits of presenting themselves as victims”? Are they really just living off the state enjoying life-enhancing privileges? Or are they making the best of what they have, living for the moment, having been through hell on earth to get this far?
