I guess I probably should have known this by now, but I didn't realize how bad the AIDS epidemic is in South Africa compared to other countries. I think I've spent so much time just looking at South Africa, that I haven't bothered to do any comparative analyses.
What surprised me more than that though, was how little other people in my class seemed to know about the HIV/AIDS epidemic. They were unaware of a lot of the factors that have influenced the severity of the crisis, like how women lack social power and how it is acceptable for men to have multiple families at the same time. In fairness, it is possible that the people in my class were just asleep or hoping someone else would give an answer so that they didn't have to risk the chance of being wrong, but it still got me thinking about my project and how other people view the HIV/AIDS situation. It's an uncomfortable topic, and I think a lot of people just don't like talking about it. I would be interested to know if it is more that way in LDS culture than among other groups of people, because I think we have a tendency to talk about things that are "nice" and bypass a lot of the problems that seem uncomfortable or unfair. I remember as a little girl learning about AIDS and considering it to be something that only bad people got because they deserved it, and I'm sure I'm not the only one that has ever felt that way about AIDS, which I think is really sad. I think if more people were aware, not only of the prevalence of AIDS, but also of the reasons why it is perpetuated, we would be able to be more effective in combating its spread.
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