AIDS Conference

In about a week, the 15th International AIDS Conference will be held in Bangkok, Thailand, and preparations are well underway for the biggest international cultural show ever for an AIDS conference. Describing the July 11 to July 17 event, Chumpon Apisuk, the chief coordinator of the cultural program, stated that,

"We would like to energize the conference with art and culture, to bring color, to bring it alive."

The six-day cultural extravaganza will be displayed on the streets of Bangkok, the main railway station, and in the exhibition halls and corridors of the conference venue. Highlights will include week-long discounted Thai fashions and salon services and performance art featuring Brazilian Adriana Bertini's condom dresses and a traditional Indonesian dance show in drag. Actor Richard Gere will make a special appearance at the opening of a dance performance by Silabha artists.

Sounds like everybody is planning for a fantastic party, sort of like the Super Bowl or Academy Awards. Excuse my furrowed forehead, but it sure seems to me that a conference on an epidemic terminal disease is probably not the most appropriate venue to party and celebrate.

It's also notable that thus far no mention has been made of any anticipated protests. I can't help but feel that an International AIDS Conference in New York or Chicago would draw every leftist moonbat protester that could travel. Bangkok doesn't seem to have the problem. Maybe all international conferences should be held in Bangkok.