Watch the video clip below (thanks hans!). Post a statement reflecting on something that was said in the video and how it relates to what we learned about global warming or what we are learning now about HIV & AIDS.
For example, here's my statement: (92) HONORABLE PEOPLE: Seeing/listening to this part made me think of when President Mbeki spoke at the 12th HIV/AIDS conference in South Africa. In front of 12,000 people he held to his belief that "a virus cannot cause a syndrome."
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When I watched this clip I was thinking about how we might debate global warming but we can't debate that we are trashing our home like a gerbil pooping in our own food dish.
Maybe we all want a 'cause' to rally around to affect widespread change - but what I can't escape is that if I love my children (and by extension our students are all our children) then I need to live differently, teach differently and think differently.
Because when my grandchildren reach into the proverbial food dish I want them to find a tasty nugget of healthy green gerbil food. Not poo.
In the part about addictions, vonnegut says that people are addicted to fossil fuels. In my opinion this isn't the only thing that, we as species, are addicted to. Many of our leaders and activists are horribly addicted to the belief that they lead a moral existance. They surround themselves with the horrors of the world and fight them with such valient gusto and enthusiasm that their judgement can become cloudy and their perception of reality skewed. A prime example is the denial of the connection between HIV and AIDS by the President of South Africa. It is his belief that he is saving his people from a poisonous drug they don't need. Another good example is how we force poor third world countries to use expensive alternative forms of energy. It may work for us but we have infinitly more money than they do. For instance in some remote corner of Africa a small clinic about the size of a small house is forced to use solar power. All they have is a fridge for keeping vaccines and blood fresh and a few flourecent lights. The unreliable solar panels they are forced to use are 3 times more expensive than gas or coal. But it onl gets worse, the solar panels are so weak that they head of the clinic can only run the fridge or the lights not both at the same time. If they used fossil fules they could use both and possible save more lives.
In '(43) People Playing With Fire' - I thought of from the movie, Zackie Achmat (the activist against the expensive Pfizer drugs) and how like Promethius he "stole" in this case business from the drug companies and imported the generic drugs to those in South Africa who are HIV positive breaking Pfizer's monopoly. Promethius giving fire to humans both helped and hurt society and was punished by the gods and "it is now claimed that the gods were right to do that" What if acts like that of Zackie somehow hurt the drug companies so much, funding for development of new drugs was delayed.
(43) PEOPLE PLAYING WITH FIRE
This is my whole wacky crazy theory on the whole AIDS bit. So here we've got some Mad Crazy Political Organization in which no one knows about. They take some poor, dull humane being and give him HIV in hopes that he will spread it like wild fire. In which case he does; now their whole scheme would be that if a greater population were infected then more people would die. Like Mbeki says, it's[HIV/AIDS]is caused by poverty. So by making sure the poor people recieve this deadly disease in turn will "take them off your hands"; because what doesn't help you sure does hurt you. And some people see the poor as dragging down their economy or something...
...down with the oppressive!
42. Addicted People. Kurt Vonnegut says everyone is addicted to fossil fuels. That addiction has cost so much. Now we are fighting for the last resources of fuel on earth. What is going to happen when our children need it? Are they going to have to go back and live like a caveman? Unless the GENIUSES in White lab coats find something else for us to use... we are pretty much screwed. All the fuel we burn is most of the reason there is global warming. People are so addicted to their own life that they don't even care for the lives of future generations.
chloe g.
(37) People IN THE DARK: Seeing/listening to this part made me think of all of the people in South Africa that do not know that they are HIV/AIDS. And if they do have HIV/AIDS they know little to nothing about it and how it works.
-Mike Topercer
Sayde...
(71) DRUNK PEOPLE
What Vonnegut says about power is completely true about the main powers of our world today. Power is like the ultimate alchohol. Everyone wants some, and once they get a little bit, all they want is more. Unfortunatly, there is not enough of this supreme alcohol in the world to possibly satisfy the power-hungry human population, and people constantly fight over who should get the biggest glass. With the whole global warming issue, the power-hungriness of the world population shows its true colors. Though certain countries and their governments have the resources to change the way they run themselves to cut down on their impact on global warming, they don't because it could possibly take away some of their global power, mostly through the economy. Countries don't want to have to settle for a smaller glass, even if it means sacraficing the world in its place
(122) A case of people- pox
I truely agree with this statement, "i think the planet's immune system is trying to get rid of us with AIDS and new strains of flu and tuberculosis and so on."
many new diseases have no solution to cuel it so if we keep screw up our planet with keep using fossil fuels and atomic energy, result is the end of the world and it seems like the earth try to get rid of us. Not only the AIDS and flu stuffs, but the global warming also treaten us with frequent huricanes, tornados, floods, droughts and changing in food change by higher temp. we should think one more time in using fossil fuels and atomic energy, those things can kill not only the earth but also ourselves.
Jess N.
70 (AS FOR BABY PEOPLE...)
I completely agree with this. People don't care whats going on. They think they don't need to cut back on fossil fuels or save electricity because there is still time. People will continue to believe they have more time to stop global warming until it is too late. What then? If people don't start caring now, there is no hope for the planet. :-(
PEOPLE PLAYING WITH FIRE: Even once people are aware that they have HIV, they continue to have sex with (and infect) others who haven't a clue. Women are also being irresponsible and playing with fire when they, knowing they have HIV, have unprotected sex with their partner and get pregnant. Although there are drugs to prevent the spreading of the disease from mother to their un-born child, they are not 100% effective. It is not fair to give HIV to an innocent child.
-Nicoya
People playing with fire. . .I absolutly agree with Nic. After watching the movie, I was so upset with Donna and her families decisions. I couldn't believe that a family, could do that to one another. Donna being HIV + knowingly, and "handing it" to her family is in my mind the same thing as killing them. They know what the risks are, and they are completely aware that they can't afford medicene. Although she took medication during her pregnancy, the meds are not 100% effective, like Nicoya said.
...whitney
37) People IN THE DARK
I thought of the movie an how people are knowingly infecting others. An these others are the ones in the dark. If they want to control this problem then they have to stop spreading it, for one thing. They other thought i had was, the president is keeping the nation in the dark, I feel there is more to the story than “a virus cannot cause a syndrome." I feel there is something deeper than that.
(92) HONORABLE PEOPLE
The "guesser" I see is Al Gore. He does seem to have a good idea, but he is making very very very sure that he IS BEING LISTENED TO! And he is, but not everyone takes his claims to be credible, though I do. He seems bent on being heard just as much as he is helping the environment.
In response to the statement about people being addicted to fossil fuels, i found this to be a valid and good analogy. I agree with this and bleive that if this "addiction" continues just like any other issue of addiction something will go wrong
When she talks about being addicted to fossil fuels i believe it is more of an addiction to our current way of life. People (including me) could not imagine changing their personal environment to preserve the greater environment. I also agree with the bit about guessers. People have guessed to answer the unanswerable forever, like when they believed the world was flat. So we just have to choose whose guess seems more correct and cross our fingers.
(71) DRUNK PEOPLE, i believe that the prez of south Africa is man drunk off of power as vonnegut says because he would have to be drunk to not understand that hiv causes aids because there are scientist who hve proof that hiv cause to aids and the prez's excuse is that a virus can not cause a syndrome and all i can think is that this man is drunk.
Guessers: I think it's scary to think that many things came to be through guessing...In science we guess we call it a hypothesis to have a name to cover up just "guess"...Guessing can take us to unimaginable things and places such as the technololy avaible to us now, and sometimes guessing can lead us in paths we never thought would be traveled...Guess is a scary word knowing that it's outcome is never a positive thing. Guessing has taken us this far and spectacular and fatal results have come from guessing...but it's just something that happens...
-Allie Lee
(122) A CASE OF PEOPLE-POX
I see that we,as members of this world and this planet, do not care what we are doing. We are destroying the planet. A lot of us do not feel that much about how global warming is destroying our planet right now and in future. We do not behave like whom do not care of tommorow even though tommorow is our last day. This comment recognizes me that she as well as I and my class concerns about global warming right now in earth and our people.
-Kevin Moon-
Guessing people-
I related the guessing people-part to the movie becuase it says " because power corrupts us and absolute power corrupts us absolutely" ..." Human beings have had to guess about almost everything for the past million years or so. The most leading characters in our history books have been our most enthralling and comething most terrifying guessers." These ignorant guessers are shaping the world such as President Mbeki is doing with South Africa. He has a certain opinion about how HIV does not cause AIDS and that ignorant "guess" is killing thousands of his people.
-Rachel Rollins
(81) Guessing People- "Human beings have had to guess about almost everything for the past million years or so."
This part makes me think of all of the people guessing about global warming. There is scientific evidence for and against it, so there isn't really any way to call the side you support right. It is more saying that the side you support has a better guess, not better fact.
When the lady on youtube said “people in the dark” it make me thing of the video we watched in class. The people in South Africa were in the dark, not knowing, why there president was making the choices that he did. The people did not know why there president was limiting the drugs that were in the country. In parliament he gave no legitimate reasons. When I was watching the video this was the first thing that came to mind.
Nick Caruso
(81) GUESSING PEOPLE-"Human beings have had to guess about almost everything for the past million years or so." This quote really opens my eyes because we don't really know anything that is completely fact. We all just agree on one thing and then call it the truth. This whole global warming thing is just a big problem we don't know about, that scientists pretend to understand. Same thing with the AIDS situation, a complex diesase with no real cure is just another thing human beings know nothing about SEX AND GRIFFIN.. GRIFFIN IS STUPID.. EVERYONE KNOWS IT... RIGHT GRIFF? STOP LAUGHING.. I WILL KICK UR ASS HAHAHA, thanks tak, good point. Tak got me thinking as well, what if I'm not really stupid, maybe everyone else is, and I'm just way ahead of my time. Who really knows? I guess the world is full of "guessing people".
Stupid Griff
(70) As for baby people…- I agree and disagree with what Kurt says. People do give a damn about the plant and the harm that we are doing, however he is right that very few people are acting upon global warming. The actions that we take now, will still be too late for the future of our children, because carbon does not come into effect after many years.
In (71) drunk people he says "because power corrupts us, and absolute power corrupts us absolutly". This reminds me on first place at the president of South Africa. He has the power in this country to change something. Does he do that? This is the part I don't understand. The president says that HIV doesn't cause AIDS. He knows that he has a lot influence at people in this country, so he could do something about this prblem. Many people listen to him and look up to him so if he says HIV doesn't cause AIDS many people will believe him. Why does know one come and explain him the truth, so he can help his country?
He has the power and he also corrupts us with this wrong statement he makes.
-Carol
(37) People in the dark : lots of people or maybe everyone in thia planet knows that we are destroying earth but we trying to ignore our probelm. for example: president in South Afria believe taht HIV does not cause AIDS like he is in the dark by alone.
I saw the same thing that ji saw. It seemed as though people are trying to ignore the major problems in this world. We all know that global warming is a major problem and that it needs to be fixed as soon as possible but we as a people don't do anything about it. It is the exact same thing in South Africa. President Mbeki is always saying that a virus like HIV can't possibly create a syndrome like AIDS. He is always looking for an excuse as to why he isn't fighting it. He blames it on the poor and he blames it on science. We need to start figuring out solutions to these major global problems.
-Stephen G.
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