Thanks to USNews and World Report for the top pic. And thanks to my boyfriend Greg who took the bottom picture of me this past summer. I think these images together highlight a chilling and shameful disparity. Seems pretty black and white to me.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
AIDS in Africa (top pic) vs. AIDS in USA. Any questions?
Thanks to USNews and World Report for the top pic. And thanks to my boyfriend Greg who took the bottom picture of me this past summer. I think these images together highlight a chilling and shameful disparity. Seems pretty black and white to me.
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2 comments:
Dear Jay,
I know you asked for an image on AIDS in Africa on World AIDS day.
Here is
the image that I found and a description on what it means to me.
Africa as a whole can stop the spread of HIV if it can prevent mother
to
child natal infection which is only possible if all mothers are tested
on a
regular basis. This photograph speaks to that hope that mothers will
move
beyond their fears and be tested so that they can protect their
children.
Consider the possibility that a whole new generation will be born HIV
free.
But this will only happen if society and the male power within Africa
allow
themselves to value women and not to demonize them as sexual objects
and
furthermore to see infected people as loving human beings verses
something
to fear and to isolate and to eliminate. This I fear is a long time in
coming.
This photograph depicts an older orphaned sibling caring for her
younger
brother. Their mother died earlier in 1999 from AIDS. The image below
is
the HIV test result taken in Kampala at a same day testing center
sponsored
by USAID. Mothers who have to walk 50 miles in some cases to get
tested -
can wait here at this clinic only an hour for their result. This test
turned blue, indicating that the person tested has the HIV virus.
While this may sound tragic - the hope now is that when a person knows
their
status - they can take steps and treatment to prevent infection between
mother and child. The hope is a youthful generation born free of HIV.
But
will the United States support and fully fund this effort?
Here in the United States we are familiar with HIV as a sexually
transmitted
disease. While this is also true in much of Africa, the fastest and
most
tragic way population is effected is unknowingly at birth. In many
cases
the children infected at birth do not live past 3 years of age, the
mothers
never having been tested. This is truly a genocide in that whole
populations, races of people are being wiped out at birth. As we have
the
means to prevent this - how can the rich western Nations not be charged
with
Crimes Against Humanity?
Clearly this can no longer be an economic issue. This is a human issue
whose time has come to resolve.
Peter Lien
Much of the problem in the early years, was the American media's portrayal of AIDS as a disease of white gay men. Black Americans were given few reasons to believe that AIDS could affect them, even though black men made up a large proportion of the early cases of AIDS in the gay and bisexual community, and from the outset, black heterosexual adults and children were significantly more likely to be infected than white heterosexuals.
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