A Four-Decade Pandemic

A Four-Decade Pandemic

Many of us know what it is like to have our lives changed by a virus. It is a confusing, scary, and sometimes numbing time for everyone involved. However, while the self-isolation we are experiencing is very recent, the people in sub-Saharan Africa have been affected by a virus pandemic since the 1980s and remarkably little has been done to fix their situation. 1.1 million people die from the HIV virus every year in South Africa and 22 more million are reported as freshly diagnosed with AIDS, but not receiving treatment for it (Bernstein). This virus affects many demographics that might already be susceptible to other diseases, such as young women, children, gay men, drug users, and transgender people. It has been 40 years since the HIV virus first surfaced and yet millions are still getting infected and dying from it. So what is being done to fix it?

According to Avert, a global organization dedicated to education about HIV, 67% of infected adults in sub-Saharan Africa are on antiretroviral treatment (“HIV”). This kind of pill is used not to get rid of the virus, but to stop it from reproducing and to keep the person alive. Another way to prevent infection which has proved effective is simply through education. In Senegal, this tactic seems to be particularly effective because the country’s leaders try to include marginalized groups that are affected by the virus. For example, by offering aid and education to sex workers, Senegal’s leaders have been able to reduce HIV infection among sex workers from 28% in 2002 to 7% in 2018 (“How”). Furthermore, some Western associations are trying to help find a concrete cure for the virus, with funding from the UN (Bernstein). So far, nothing has been proved to eradicate the virus altogether, but the effort itself offers us a shred of hope in the face of the pandemic. All of these ways of fighting the virus seem to be mostly effective, but the truth is that they are not available to everyone.

Two of the groups most heavily affected by the virus are gay men and transgender people (“HIV”). But almost no information is available about these groups because Africa has a long-standing history of legalized homophobia and transphobia. For instance, while Senegal is making strides through helping sex workers, it is still illegal in that country to have gay sex and it is punishable by up to 5 years in prison (“How”). It is very difficult for someone to fight the disease they have if they are afraid of saying how they got it because of these kinds of repercussions. To add on, HIV is especially common among young girls because of the South African tradition of child brides. Little girls are being abused by older men, causing them to get HIV and very little is being done about the causes of this kind of infection (Karim). Furthermore, there is almost no information available about transgender people, women in particular, despite studies showing that this demographic is particularly affected by the virus (Karim). Until African culture changes to alleviate the prejudice against these groups, the continued spread of the virus seems inevitable.

Throughout the last 40 years, more and more people in sub-Saharan Africa have been infected with HIV, despite the fact that some of them have access to medical centers for education and prevention. This pandemic will continue as long as there are groups in this area that are marginalized or ignored.

Works Cited

“HIV and AIDS in East and Southern Africa Regional Overview.” Avert: Global Information and Education on HIV and AIDS, Avert, 31 Oct. 2019, www.avert.org/professionals/hiv-around-world/sub-saharan-africa/overview.

“How a Small African Nation Is Beating AIDS.” The Economist, The Economist Newspaper, 1 Mar. 2018, www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2018/03/01/how-a-small-african-nation-is-beating-aids.

Bernstein, Lenny. “A Cure for AIDS Is No Longer Unthinkable.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 16 July 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/a-cure-for-aids-is-no-longer-unthinkable/2016/07/15/434f75aa-4a9d-11e6-bdb9-701687974517_story.html.

Karim, Quarraisha Abdool. “Putting Women in the Centre of the Global HIV Response Is Key to Achieving Epidemic Control.” IOL, IOL | News That Connects South Africans, 12 Mar. 2020, www.iol.co.za/news/opinion/putting-women-in-the-centre-of-the-global-hiv-response-is-key-to-achieving-epidemic-control-44679177.

Mcneil, Donald G. “Another H.I.V. Vaccine Fails a Trial, Disappointing Researchers.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 4 Feb. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/02/04/health/hiv-vaccine.html?searchResultPosition=1.

The Three Blood Spots

”The headman held the violin upright and peered into the black interior of the body, like an officious customs officer searching for drugs. I noticed three blood spots in his left eye, one large and two small, all the same shade of bright red.” (3)

“The headman’s breath smelt of decay. His small eyes, one of them marked as always by three blood spots, fixed me in a savage stare.” (129)

Throughout Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, the narrator pays particular attention to the three blood spots in the village headman’s eye. In particular, these spots come up whenever the headman is being threatening or aggressive towards the boys. This is because the spots represent the peasants’ lack of education or proper access to medical facilities. When they’re first seen in the story, the headman is deciding whether the narrator can keep his violin, his only prized possession. The narrator notices the three spots, “all the same shade of bright red.” Later in the story, when the headman is trying to arrest the narrator, he gets fixed “in a savage stare” and the spots are mentioned again. These spots could be a representation of the fact that the less wealthy and educated peasants who don’t even have access to doctors are now put in a position of power over the boys and, while in the city the spots may have been ridiculed, in the village they strike fear into the narrator’s heart.

The Message Within

The sheepskin coat in “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress” is used as a symbol to show the boys’ desire to learn despite the lack of intellectual liberty.

Given to him by the villagers in the “Phoenix of the Sky”, the Narrator’s sheepskin coat is a short coat made of patches of wool varying in length and texture. Inside, the coat is bare hide and much of it is old and cracked. Because of the sentimental value of the coat, it is a prized possession of the narrator, and he keeps it close to himself. After reading Balzac’s Ursule Mirouët, the Narrator is so struck by Balzac and the freedom and lives of the characters that he feels he must copy down as much of the book as possible. He says, “It was the first time in my life that I had felt any desire to copy sentences from a book. I ransacked the room for paper, but all I could find was a few sheets of note paper intended for letters to our parents. I decided I would write directly onto the inside of my sheepskin coat.” (58) The Narrator having a “desire to copy sentences” shows that he sought a private space to escape the harsh reality of the Cultural Revolution. The lack of intellectual liberty drove the narrator to copy these passages onto the coat in order to revisit the story in private without risking his chances of escaping reeducation. 

Soon after, Luo takes the coat with him on his daily pilgrimage to the Little Seamstress’ house. After returning, he tells the Narrator, “When she’d finished reading she sat there quite still, open-mouthed. Your coat was resting on the flat of her hands, the way a sacred object lies in the plans of the pious.” (62) Similarly to the Narrator, the coat allows the Seamstress and escape from her reality into a world of expression and freedom. The author specifically chooses the words, “the way a sacred object lies in the plans of the pious” shows how important the coat truly is. The use of the word “pious” compares the coat to a religious object in the eyes of an extremely devout religious person shows the ultimate importance importance of it.