My Beloved Africa

In Stephen Lewis, “Pandemic: My Country Is On Its Knees”, he addresses the appalling gap between vision and current reality of Africa, regarding the HIV/AIDS situation. The purpose of his article was to make the world aware of how HIV/AIDS has affected Africa. This was meant to be seen by anyone and everyone, in hopes of helping the crisis that is decimating Africa.
When reading this article I found that Lewis' conversational style makes for quick and light reading about topics that are quite heavy, as some parts were written so well, I felt as if I had experienced it.  I felt he achieved his purpose through detailed examples, “The wards rumbled with low, almost-inaudible moans, as though those who were ill could not summon the strength to give voice to the pain”, and, “The smell was awful: a room of rotting feces and stale urine. And the eyes, so sunken and glazed and pleading”. After reading this, I felt so sad to hear about Stephens personal experience over in Africa. Although, I know that was his not his intended reaction, he just wants to educate people on the reality of what is happening to the people. I found the most effective phrase in this article was when Stephen talked to the PLWA (people living with aids) group and they said how the profit money goes towards coffins because they are in high demand. I found his personal experiences to be quite informative as I have never knew the how families were impacted by the HIV/AIDS crisis. It breaks my heart to read about how 14-year olds have to be in charge because their parents have passed away.

My question to you is, how much higher does the death toll have to increase, before everyone comes together and actually tried to resolve the crisis?

Back In the Day When I Was Young..

In Margaret Atwood's "Letter To America", it seems as if she was painting us
a picture of comparison of how America used to be when she was growing up,
to what the changes have made America become now.

I think the author was trying to express the confusion and dissapointment with
how America has turned out to be through the speedy changes. The author did
a great job showing this by her remarks and opinions, "I think your recent Iraqi
adventures have been-taking the long view-an ill-advised tactical error. by the
time you read this, Baghdad may or may not be a pancake". I think the intended
audience are those of Americans, as she wants them to see how the changes
have impacted there once great nation. America has made some shocking
decisions towards war and protecting their country. What ever happened to
make peace not war?

I feel that the author was very effective in getting people to realize how much
America has changed through the little phrases she wrote. I feel the most effective
phrase she wrote was, "Let's talk, then, nto about what you're doing to other
people but about what you're doing to yourself", because it shows how America
is more focused on what they can do to other people, rather than focusing
on fixing there nation.

This letter should have been addressed to past leaders as they had great power in
decision making for America as They have had a big part in creating the present
day America. As for the leaders now, they're stuck cleaning up the mess the
others have left behind.

In conclusion, I feel Margaret did a fantastic job expressing how she feels about
the changes America has undergone. By learning about America all through school
I agree that our country's neighbour has certainly developed.  Hopefully this has
 caught the attention of Americans and they can start to become the nation they
once were.


How do you think the past great leaders would think of the present day American?