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14 years ago
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Spring15 years ago
Saturday, 2 October 2010
"Every solution creates another problem." I remember hearing this from my former biology teacher, Mr. Gumbay, and I even have it written on my notebook. "You can never make everyone happy." This is something that I've realized, and learned from experiences of being a SRC member. I remember these because I think they are so very true.
I was talking to a friend yesterday. She is the same age as me, 11th grade. She is an artist wannabe, and I am also interested in art, so I suggested her that traveling might help her to prepare for her portfolio. She agreed with me. Then we started to discuss which countries are worth to visit. She suggested Egypt. I suggested some countries in Europe. Then she asked me about my trip to Africa (Kenya and Tanzania) in this summer. "Have you seen people's lifestyle there?" she asked, "were they poor? Did you get to have direct contacts with the them? With all the diseases, life must be really difficult for them huh?" I expected every single question that she asked. It's because I've already been asked the same questions for a several times since I'd come back from the trip. However, I did my best to answer, and explain everything to her.
Yes, I have seen how people's lives were in Kenya. Generally poor, which I felt sorry for, but at the same time I was also impressed by the fact that they were still able to survive even thought life is hard. And because life is so hard for them, their view of values are very different from ours. They only get things that they need, not things that they want, but complete useless. I have learned this from a hotel manager's sharing of her own experience of opening a hotel in Tanzania. She is British (I figured it out based on her accent). She said that people's view of values are so different from hers that sometimes it made it difficult to manage them.
"With all the diseases, life must be very difficult for them huh?" Yes, even though life is already hard for the majority, the diseases has made it worse. HIV/AIDS, and malaria are fairly common in Kenya. 7.1 ~ 8.5% of the adult (age above 15) population in Kenya has HIV/AIDS. It is not rare for people to die from HIV/AIDS. Therefore, there are many orphans caused by HIV/AIDS deaths. I remember seeing a women sitting under a tree beside the road, with her likely-4-year-old daughter standing beside her, in her last stage of HIV. She was as thin as a skeleton, and the fact that I know she was dying broke my heart. We visited an orphanage called Nyumbani, which means "home" in Swahili. The orphans in Nyumbani are all HIV positive, and are all complete abandoned. I was lucky to have a chance to talk to the druggist who worked in Nyumbani. Through the conversation with the druggist, I was informed that the drugs have kept the children alive for much longer than the children before, when there were no drugs to help them yet. This gave me the weirdest feeling ever. I pity these children, yet they all seem so happy to be alive that made me feel like I shouldn't feel sorry for them.
"So... after the trip, do you want to become a doctor to help those people?" My friend asked me at last. I told her that I would if I am capable of doing it, but I'm not confident enough to say that I shall save a million lives from HIV/AIDS in the furure. If I'm not mistaken, I heard that there is now a posibility to figure out a cure for HIV/AIDS. However, a problem that came into my mind when I hear about the possible cure, is the problem of overpopulation. This might sound immoral, but in Kenya, families believe that the more children you have, the richer you are. It is not unusual to see a family with 5 children in Kenya. And so, will the cure of HIV/AIDS in Kenya lead to another problem, which is worsening the problem of overpopulation? Or maybe causing a high population density in Kenya, which may effect the wildlife with various reasons? As I said, every solution creates another problem, and I don't think people will be happy if they cannot continue to "be rich".
Reference:
I was talking to a friend yesterday. She is the same age as me, 11th grade. She is an artist wannabe, and I am also interested in art, so I suggested her that traveling might help her to prepare for her portfolio. She agreed with me. Then we started to discuss which countries are worth to visit. She suggested Egypt. I suggested some countries in Europe. Then she asked me about my trip to Africa (Kenya and Tanzania) in this summer. "Have you seen people's lifestyle there?" she asked, "were they poor? Did you get to have direct contacts with the them? With all the diseases, life must be really difficult for them huh?" I expected every single question that she asked. It's because I've already been asked the same questions for a several times since I'd come back from the trip. However, I did my best to answer, and explain everything to her.
Yes, I have seen how people's lives were in Kenya. Generally poor, which I felt sorry for, but at the same time I was also impressed by the fact that they were still able to survive even thought life is hard. And because life is so hard for them, their view of values are very different from ours. They only get things that they need, not things that they want, but complete useless. I have learned this from a hotel manager's sharing of her own experience of opening a hotel in Tanzania. She is British (I figured it out based on her accent). She said that people's view of values are so different from hers that sometimes it made it difficult to manage them.
"With all the diseases, life must be very difficult for them huh?" Yes, even though life is already hard for the majority, the diseases has made it worse. HIV/AIDS, and malaria are fairly common in Kenya. 7.1 ~ 8.5% of the adult (age above 15) population in Kenya has HIV/AIDS. It is not rare for people to die from HIV/AIDS. Therefore, there are many orphans caused by HIV/AIDS deaths. I remember seeing a women sitting under a tree beside the road, with her likely-4-year-old daughter standing beside her, in her last stage of HIV. She was as thin as a skeleton, and the fact that I know she was dying broke my heart. We visited an orphanage called Nyumbani, which means "home" in Swahili. The orphans in Nyumbani are all HIV positive, and are all complete abandoned. I was lucky to have a chance to talk to the druggist who worked in Nyumbani. Through the conversation with the druggist, I was informed that the drugs have kept the children alive for much longer than the children before, when there were no drugs to help them yet. This gave me the weirdest feeling ever. I pity these children, yet they all seem so happy to be alive that made me feel like I shouldn't feel sorry for them.
"So... after the trip, do you want to become a doctor to help those people?" My friend asked me at last. I told her that I would if I am capable of doing it, but I'm not confident enough to say that I shall save a million lives from HIV/AIDS in the furure. If I'm not mistaken, I heard that there is now a posibility to figure out a cure for HIV/AIDS. However, a problem that came into my mind when I hear about the possible cure, is the problem of overpopulation. This might sound immoral, but in Kenya, families believe that the more children you have, the richer you are. It is not unusual to see a family with 5 children in Kenya. And so, will the cure of HIV/AIDS in Kenya lead to another problem, which is worsening the problem of overpopulation? Or maybe causing a high population density in Kenya, which may effect the wildlife with various reasons? As I said, every solution creates another problem, and I don't think people will be happy if they cannot continue to "be rich".
Reference:
- http://www.laprogressive.com/gender-discrimination/this-era-of-black-women-and-hivaids/ [Image: This Era of Black Women and HIV/AIDS. Copyright © 2008-2010.]
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2 comments:
I think that the problem of AIDs will not be cured any time soon. It seems to be an issue that will continue to be a problem in today's world. Of course that if one day AIDs is cured, I believe that another epidemic disease will appear. Like how you quoted Mr.Gumbay, "Every solution creates another problem," there will never truly be one solution that will solve every solution on earth. I believe that we will always have something that needs to be solved, but at the same time more problems will arise.
The issue with AIDs in underdeveloped countries is very interesting. I mean, there are a lot of factors as to why AIDs is so frequent in those countries. The issue with overpopulation that you mentioned is a good issue to think about. The problem with overpopulation is because of scarcity, but scarcity is always present in today's world. Therefore, problems seem to always arise one after another.
This post flows so well! Very organic. It also reminds me of a favorite quote of mine: every answer leads to new questions.
To address your post more specifically, you've identified a bit of a frightening possibility: that AIDS is potentially curbing an overpopulation disaster. I suppose we could say the same for hunger and war. You might want to check the work of Thomas Malthus.
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