Why humanity has failed to stop the spread of HIV is the central question of “The Age of AIDS.” Over four hours, the series examines one of the most important scientific and political stories of our time: the story of a mysterious agent that invaded the human species and exploited its frailties and compulsions — sexual desire and drug addiction, bigotry and greed, political indifference and bureaucratic inertia — to spread itself across the globe. – Frontline: The Age of AIDS.
In a few weeks I will begin my final 300+ hour internship at a local AIDS clinic. I am very excited and nervous for this opportunity but know it is where God wants me to be. God has been preparing my heart for this journey, and I’ve been preparing my head. I have started educating myself more about the AIDS crisis and was is going on around the world (not just in Africa). A huge source of my knowledge has come from documentaries (I must confess, we signed up for a Netflix account largely so I could watch these documentaries). So far I’ve watched, Frontline: The Age of AIDS and Pandemic: Facing Aids. Coming up are The Gift/Does anyone die of AIDS anymore? (can’t find a link), Absolutely Positive and The Ride: 7 Days to end AIDS. Frontline was by far the best one I’ve seen so far – and I learned so much! Well worth the 4 hours, it’s amazing how much I was clueless about and learned just by watching the film.
What I learned in my head:
AIDS likely came from monkeys in the Congo around the 1930s – but it was from nomad groups hunting the monkeys, and when butchering them, they became infected (not having sex with the monkeys, as I had been falsley believing earlier). Because of the monogamous relationships in the tribes, it most likely would infect 1-3 people in the tribe, but then die out. This pattern continued until men began leaving the tribe for work and traveled into the towns by bus, where monogamy was not as popular and the disease began to spread.
Congo used to be ruled by Belgium (ie ‘white people’) and when Belgium pulled out there people returned to Europe and AIDS began spreading in Europe. Then Congo hired Haitians to come fill the gaps the Belgiums had left (as school teachers, etc.) and Haitians began to contract the disease (because all the Haitians left eventually too and returned to Haiti). Then the Haitians traveled to the US and the disease spread to North America. Fast forward to today and the disease is everywhere.
What I learned in my heart:
AIDS is an illness and makes people very sick, I will just be helping sick people. The reason we (as a society) have neglected to help AIDS victims is the way of contracting the disease is in ‘taboo’ ways such as sex or needle exchange. But no matter what – they’re sick people who need help. Why wouldn’t we help?
image via icimkeklayl on Flickr
