AIDS in Africa

I watched a video on YouTube called Deadly Catch - Kenya. The video talks about a community near Lake Victoria. Lake Victory is a big fishing industry. In this industry men go to fish and the women buy the fish from the men.  The women wait for the men to come back with fish but the fish isn't reserved for anyone. To get fish reserved the women form a sexual relationship with the fishermen call the Joboya System. After receiving fish from the fishermen, they take the fish to the bus to bring to the vendors. The women form sexual relationships with the bus drivers to reserve a spot on the bus for them and with the vendors to make sure they have room to sell their fish. It's pretty upsetting seeing women have to do this to support their family. Most of the women do this because their husbands died of AIDS. But while the women believe they are helping their kids by making money doing this. They are also developing AIDS and soon could be leaving their children parentless if they don't receive treatment.

The next video I watched was 28 stories of AIDS in Africa. She talks about several of her experiences in Africa. She talked about Africa's economy was crippled due to the fact that people ages 18 to 35 were the majority with AIDS. She talked about how they were the productive workers. They grew food, earned money, and had kids. What I think she was getting at was that if people didn't grow, what would people eat. Without people making money, how could people buy anything? Last if people with kids died then who would watch those kids and support them. Since no one could support them, those kids would have to grow up earlier and work to make themselves money. Just like the one story she told about the two kids who were five and nine when they lost their parents because of AIDS. She also talks about how people are afraid to tell others that they developed AIDS. People fear they will be neglected from everyone. There are many reasons why people get AIDS, but in Africa it mostly deals with wealth.

I believe the effect of AIDS is so massive in Africa then it is in the United States because in the U.S. you learn about AIDS more and it can be treated. There are far more hospitals in the U.S. then in Africa. With this, help is more frequent in the U.S. then Africa. Stephanie Nolan says how there are more treatments for the B strand which was in the United States, and nothing for the A and C strand which was in Africa. This shows how AIDS can also affect people in Africa more than the United States.

Before watching these videos I knew that Africa had the highest rate of HIV/AIDS in the entire world. I also knew that it was affecting a lot of people a day and killing others. A lot of people can't afford to get medication so it takes over their bodies very quickly.  What I wasn't sure about was how it affected people. With these videos I learned that AIDS can affect economies and education in Africa. If people can't work because they have AIDS then the economy will go down. With that it causes little kids to work at earlier ages causing them to not get an education. Or it could affect their education in a different way. If the teacher get infected with AIDS, who will end up taking their spots. This will cause kids to get no education and never learn about AIDS.

The culture in these videos is easily shown in the Deadly Catch - Kenya video. The culture here relies on Lake Victory and the fishing community. Men get the fish and women buy the fish from the men. Women aren't always guaranteed fish so the form sexual relationships with the fishermen. With the sexual relationships it allows AIDS to spread easily. The one woman says she doesn't want to tell her fishermen that she is HIV positive because then he won't get her fish anymore. Since she isn't telling him, he will end up getting it and giving it to someone else. The women also have relationships with other people to make sure they have connections to get their fish to the market. Most of these sexual relationships are unprotected, which increases their chances of giving and receiving AIDS.

Some solutions are what the Bush Administration did. They gave away condoms to people in Africa, but there isn't enough to protect people engaging in more than four sexual encounters a year. In Africa the Government needs to educate the people about safe sex, abstinence, and monogamous relationships. With that people will learn about AIDS and how to prevent it. Last, I think they should open up some clinics around Africa that will give away medication for AIDS. These clinics will go in areas where there aren't any hospitals and a lot of people have AIDS. The clinic will teach and give away condoms to anyone to try and help prevent further spread of the disease. 

English Videos

The first video is about summaries. Summaries have to be shorter than what you are summarizing. Use facts to help write what you are summarizing. Use your own words without quoting. Be neutral when summarizing, don't favor one point over the other.

The second video talks about the number of keywords you should use when using your libraries database. A good amount is 2 to 4 keywords.

The third video talks about the importance of citations. Citations make your writing more credible. Insufficiently citing your sources can result in failing your paper or expelled from the university.

HIV/AIDS Pandemic

HIV/AIDS became a pandemic when it spread worldwide. Some nations handled it well and others didn't. The United States didn't do a bad job but didn't do a good job. Other nations like Uganda and Thailand did a good job.

The first thing they did that was good was they went to bathhouses and closed them down until they made sure that they were having protected sex. The Surgeon General mailed an AIDS brochure to every American household. Another thing that was good was President Bush signed Ryan White's CARE act. It was authorized that $4.4 billion over five years would go towards health care and support services in the 16 hardest hit cities with AIDS.

What the government did badly was that they didn't really teach anyone about HIV/AIDS. Also when President Reagan had his speech he didn't want to talk about it. What the Government didn't do, people in the US did. At the Tony Awards, entertainers were wearing red ribbons to symbolize AIDS awareness. Also, a former drug addict started exchanging needles to try and prevent the spread of AIDS.

On the other hand, Uganda and Thailand were effective with their supports of AIDS. In Uganda Dr. Noerine Kaleeba and 15 other people developed The AIDS Support Organization (TASO) to educate everyone about the disease. They campaigned the ABC model, which meant abstain, be faithful, and use a condom. In Thailand, they handled it well and made sure people were to use condoms. They also made radio stations broadcast information about AIDS.

HIV/AIDS

When talking about HIV/AIDS I think about a serious disease which is not a joking matter. It ruins people's lives and ends up killing them. No one I personally know has it and I hope one day they find a cure if possible. Back when HIV/AIDS first started showing up there was no cure or treatment to help fight it. Today, scientists have a treatment to help fight the disease and slow it down. 

I know that when the disease gets into your body it affects your immune system and shuts it down which causes you to end up being sick and die. The pills they give you to slow the process down can sometimes have side effects. Having HIV/AIDS is just something you don't want to have. So be safe and be cautious with what you do.

Gay Marriages

In English we read an article about same-sex marriages. The article was called A Gay Man's Case Against Gay Marriage. It's about same-sex couples fighting for same-sex marriages. In the article he bring up points about gays and lesbians. He says "What i don't get understand is why gay men and lesbians want to get married", when there relationships have worked very well with out gay marriages.

I suport same-sex marriages and believe that anyone who wants to get married should be able to get married. If they love and cherrish each other, I think they should allow it. What I think is wrong is that some gay activist use marriage as a benefit to get tax breaks, inheritance arrangements, access to health care, and guarenteeing loans and credit.

Destroying the Family

"On the one side, conservatives pointed to abortion, illegitimacy, and homosexuality as forces destroying the family. On the other, liberals cited domestic violence, economic insecurity, and inadequate public supports as the key problems afflicting the family." - Barbara Whitehead

Which side do you think is right, for what causes families to be destroyed? Conservatives think that abortion, illegitimacy, and homosexuality are the forces that destroy families. Liberals think its domestic violence, economic insecurity, and inadequate public that destroy families. I don't think the conservatives are right. Although some parents get mad when they find out there child likes the same sex. The parents soon accept there child's decision and will be there to help support their child. This is why I don't believe in the conservatives. I do believe that the liberals are right. Whether it is the male or female in the domestic violence, no one should hit their loved one or their child. This will cause families to be destroyed. Inadequate public support will affect you to a certain extent. Then with support you can succeed and get passed the problem. Economic insecurity could affect the family. Furthermore, these are not the only problems that affect families. Families can be affected by anything and it can destroy them, but it's up to the parents to try and resolve the problems.

Marriage Tradition

In my English Composition class we read and discussed about marriages. We talked about what are views were on marriage and what we thought about some of the relationships that had cheating rules. Then we started talking about Western Civilizations and what there views on marriages were. Some Western Civilizations had different ways of marriage. Isreal made it that men could have as many wives as they wanted, just as long as the wives were clean and faithful. Divorce wasn't encouraged but if the man saw that his wife wasnt being faithful, he could divorce her. On the other hand, in Medieval Europe the churches influenced marriages greatly. They prohibited divorce but had no proof of marriages until the 13th century. Marriages started out of the church until Priest were there to validate the wedding. The average age of wedding for Medieval Europe was mid-twenties for males and early teens for females.

Furthermore, each religion and civilization have there own views on marriage. Western Civilzation marriages are different from today's traditions. They got married at young ages which is different from today's tradition due to the fact that most people are getting married in there late 20's and early 30's. It's also different due to the fact that men who have more then one wife at a time is frowned upon, while back in the day in Israel men could have as many wives as possible. Something that was similar was that the Priest looked over the wedding as a witness, which is similar to our marriages today.

My views on weddings is that if you are gonna have a baby with a girl, you should be married. Having that ring on her finger would show people that she is married and isn't looking for another man. For instance, if she was to walk into a bar with her friend and a guy sees her. If that guy sees that she doesn't have a ring on he might try and start talking to her. However, if she was to have her ring, then people would know that she is married. I also don't believe in cheating or having open marriages. When I'm married I don't want my wife getting with any other guy besides for me. I certainly wouldn't want to do that to her and get with other women. I don't know how you guys view marriages but this is my opinion on them.

The website I looked at for Western Civilization marriages was, http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/history_of_marriage_in_western.html