How the AIDS Epidemic in Africa is Affecting the Politics

Sub-Saharan Africa is more heavily affected by HIV and AIDS than any other region of the world. An estimated 22.4 million people are living with HIV in the region - around two thirds of the global total. In 2008 around 1.4 million people died from AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa and 1.9 million people became infected with HIV. Since the beginning of the epidemic, more than 14 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Twenty -five million Africans were living with HIV at the end of 2005, 3 million new infections and 2 million AIDS related deaths occurred in Africa during that year.

The impacts of AIDS in Africa are having a widespread impact on many parts of African Society. In many countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, AIDS is erasing decades of progress and millions of adults are dying from AIDS while they are still young or middle aged. The average life expectancy in Africa is now 47 years. The effect of the AIDS epidemic on households is very ruthless because many households are losing their income earners. Many people that have died from AIDS have left behind partners that have gotten AIDS from them and have also left behind orphans that are struggling to survive without parents care. In all the affected countries, the epidemic is developing and the demand for care for those living with HIV and AIDS rises. Schools are heavily affected by AIDS which is a major concern, because schools can play a critical role in reducing the impact of the epidemic. The HIV and AIDS epidemic has greatly affected labor, which in turn slows down economic activity and social progress. The vast majority of people living with AIDS and HIV in Africa are between the ages or 15 and 49, which is the prime of their living lives. The HIV and AIDS epidemic has already significantly affected Africa’s economic development and has affected Africa’s ability to cope with the epidemic.

Treatment and care in Africa is very critical because everyone deserves the right to live a prosperous life. Antiretroviral drugs help a significant amount because they delay the progress of HIV to AIDS. The drugs are cheap too the government doesn’t have the money to buy cheap, which is where our problem is coming into play. Pharmacies in the west, like the United States, sell antiretroviral drugs very expensively where as they will sell them to Africa for cheap.

Africa needs international support to help fight HIV and AIDS. One of the most important ways in which the situation in Africa can be improved is through the increase of funding. The more money would help to improve both prevention campaigns and the provision of treatment and care for those living with AIDS. The Global Fund is an international funding organization that helps raise money to help fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria in 137 different countries. Global Fund is making a significant difference but still given the massive scale of the AIDS epidemic more money is need.

The International Perspective of the Collapse of the Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was a barrier surrounding West Berlin and East Berlin. The wall was a 96 mile barbed wire barricade and concrete wall with a height of 11.8 feet. The Berlin Wall was a symbol of the Cold War and was built on August 13, 1961. On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall was opened by East Germans and was torn down by the end of 1990. Many countries that surrounded Germany had different reactions on the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

The reaction of the Netherland’s on the collapse of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 can be considered representative for the overall reaction in Western Europe at that time. Initially, there was general euphory that might be compared with a feeling that an innocent convict was at last and luckily be released from prison; only in this case it was a whole nation being set free. Also, more of political importance, the fall of the wall was considered direct proof of the bankruptcy of the communist social and economic system as dictated by the Soviet Union. No longer would the Soviet regime be capable and willing to intermingle and interfere with GDR (and other East European countries) internal affairs.

Almost immediately after this positive reaction, however, there was one of doubt about the social and economic future of the former German Democratic Republic: would it, at reasonably short term, be possible to successfully put together a rigid state-controlled social system into the free-market machinery of Western Europe and what would be the cost of such conversion for the West-German, and indirectly for the European taxpayer? Would it be thinkable that at the same short term and in a reunited Germany, the former East German individual who, in the past since WW II, had never learned to look after himself would be able to convert in this respect to the new situation? It is fair to believe that this sort of questions cannot be answered.

“In between, at the time the wall went down, I was stationed at NATO’s military headquarters (SHAPE) and I remember the first visit of a Russian military party (all impressive top-ranking high brass). We had only known them as potential hostile from pictures, and here they were… as friends and sort of allies.” – John Verzijl. John Verzijl was living in Holland during the fall of the Berlin Wall. He experienced the relief of the Germany becoming one whole nation again.

Most of the countries that border Germany like Poland, Austria, Belgium, France, and Czechoslovakia feel the same way as the Netherlands do. They all thought it was a positive way with dealing with the government and setting the whole nation free. Like the questions above, most of them could not be answered because either people were too fearful to ask the government or to even here the answer. The Berlin Wall was "a symbol of peace, return to freedom and communion of the German people".

"The Night of Broken Glass"

What was the start of the Holocaust? On the night of November 9, 1938, it was final that Hitler declared war on the Jews. This night was called Kristallnacht or “The Night of Broken Glass”. Kristallnacht was mainly instigated by Nazi Party officials and the members of the SA and the Hitler Youth. The name, Kristallnacht literally is German for “Night of Crystal” or more commonly referred to as “The Night of Broken Glass”. This night was named Kristallnacht because of the remains of shattered glass from the windows of Jewish synagogues, homes, and Jewish-owned businesses that remained in the streets of Germany. By the end of the day, the SA or “Storm Troopers” killed more than 91 Jews and injured many others, 177 synagogues and 7,500 businesses were completely burned down to the ground.

The cause for the violent outburst was the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris, Ernst vom Rath, two days earlier, on November 7, 1938. Vom Rath was killed by Herschel Grynszpan, a Jewish teenager whose parents had been recently deported out of Germany, along with 17,000 other Polish Jews. After his parents lived in Germany for 27 years, they got relocated to Poland. Revenge was the real reason why Grynszpan killed Vom Rath, revenge. The Nazi’s had treated his family and millions of other Jewish families with no respect and treated them like they were animals. They were beaten and then thrown into concentration camps as if they mean nothing to the world and nothing to no one. 25,000 men were gathered up later that day, and were sent to concentration camps where they were brutalized by SS guards and sometimes even beaten to death. If these were my family members that were getting brutally beaten then I definitely would have revenge on the people that are hurting my family. Grynszpan had every right to do what he did and personally I think the Nazi’s deserved it.

Many children were transported out of Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia by “Kindertransports” and were bound for England. For the next 11 months, these “Kindertransports” carried 10,000 Jewish children safely to England. “But on the other hand, their parents remained, trapped by their misguided belief that things couldn’t get much worse. Only one child in 10 would ever see his or her parents again (Amicor Preserve Blog)”. Most parents boarded a train headed in the opposite direction: east to Theresienstadt, a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia.

What would have happened if Herschel Grynszpan never killed Ernst vom Rath? Would Kristallnacht have ever existed? The name Kristallnacht would probably not have been used but the violent outburst would have happened eventually if Grynszpan didn’t assassinate vom Rath. Kristallnacht could have been used as the name for another battle that would have shattered glass everywhere on Germany’s streets. But Adolf Hitler and the Nazi’s would have started slaughtering the Jew s because Hitler thought they were the reason why Germany was blamed for World War I. To Hitler, the Jews were the cause of every little thing that has gone wrong in Germany. Kristallnacht or “The Night of Broken Glass” was perhaps the most important aspect of the Holocaust and the start of the persecution of Jews.

If Cubism was not in Pablo Picasso's life, then would it have affected him otherwise?

Cubism was one of the most influential and revolutionary movements in art and because of this, the world will never be the same. Cubism has been around since the 1900’s and the development was attributed to Pablo Picasso and George Braque. Cubism was the main focus in Picasso's life. He went through many periods of different types of cubism during his lifetime. His blue period, which only last a few years during World War I, consisted of only painting pictures with different hues of blue. He was also going through a difficult time his life, dealing with financial issues and the death of a close friend. His rose period occurred right after his blue period because he believed he had fallen in love. Again, during his rose period, Picasso painted with different hues of red and pink.

Analytic and Synthetic cubism are the two main branches of cubism. Analytic cubism was a radical and influential movement that only lasted from 1907 to 1911 in France. Analytic cubism interprets natural forms and compressed the forms into geometric parts on a two-dimensional canvas. Color was not used often in analytic cubism but mainly used blue, grey, and ochre. Many artists geometric forms like the cylinder, sphere, and the cone to depict the natural world. On the other hand, synthetic cubism is the second main movement within cubism. It was distinguished by the preamble of different texture, surfaces, collage elements, papier colle, and a large variety of merged subject matter. Newspaper clippings and sheet music were popular to include in collages.

Pablo Picasso was born on October 25, 1881. His father, Jose Ruiz Biasco, was a professor of drawing and his mother was Maria Picasso Lopez. Picasso’s father taught him how to draw and paint. When he was of age, his father enrolled him into a local art academy but he dropped out when he was 20 and because the famous painter that he is today. He was acknowledged for his work while he was still alive which was rare for the 20^th century. Pablo Picasso died on April 8, 1973 at the age of 91 because of natural causes.

From the research that I have investigated about Pablo Picasso and cubism, I learned that if cubism was not in Picasso’s life then it would have changed his life dramatically. If he and Braque didn’t influence cubism then they would have never been able to express their emotions and feelings as well as they did through their paintings. When Picasso was going through is “blue period”, he was expressing his emotions through his dark, depressing paintings and cubism helped him express them even more. Picasso’s life would not have been as interesting without cubism because cubism is primarily what made up his life. He, first, founded it and then made it his main focus in his life. After many, many years of using cubism, he finally moved on to work on another type of art movement. But besides that, he became famous for his cubist paintings. If he had not influenced this art movement then he would be an undiscovered painter.

Video on Pablo Picasso:
http://www.biography.com/video.do?name=hispanicheritage&bcpid=1753218635&bclid=1773233161&bctid=1713753559

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