Blog 5

As of right now I don't know a whole lot about HIV/AIDS. I know that it attacks your immune system. I have heard that Magic Johnson has HIV and I heard that from the news when he came out to the public with it. I have heard from the news about how deadly it is in Sub-Saharan Africa. I have also heard about what it does and how you can contract it from sex-education that I had in middle school. I would like to learn how HIV/AIDS is being dealt with in the problem areas of the world and how we can help. Something that surprised me during the video that we watched on monday was the fact that people in South Africa have heard about safer sex practices but don't care to use them. It also bothered me that women were not allowed to tell the men that they must wear a condom when having sex. It is also really sad to hear that if women ask their husband to wear a condom, the husbands start to think that the wives have been sleeping around. It also surprised me how structural violence is putting the people at a disadvantage. The leaders of the countries are telling the people wrong information about HIV and AIDS. It is just so wrong for a leader who is suppose to be thinking of the people and who has the peoples support to lie to them about how to contract AIDS or HIV and what he thinks works. The number of new cases in Southern Africa was also very shocking. It is hard to imagine 50% of your population in poverty and that the one thing they can do that doesn't cost money and feels good is to have sex. It is also hard to believe the number of deaths and orphans that survive in Southern Africa and how 13 year old kids have to take care of their younger siblings.