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Hi, I have been told to write a short post called “The Internet Stole my Childhood,” about the videos made by the high-school students featuring the alleged victimisation af girls, and the alleged assault of homeless people, and what role the internet plays in this kind of behaviour. So here it is. The internet did not steal my childhood, where would it put it? On a web page? …Maybe I could look for it on Google…
But in all seriousness, the internet cannot steal one’s “childhood.” The world is changing, along with trends in technology. Back in the ‘good ol’ days,’ there was no internet, but kids were out in the fields, shooting animals at the age of ten. Go figure. The internet, a source of information, cannot be blamed for children’s actions. Kids old enough to research, produce, and sell the demoralization and humiliation of girls are old enough to wear the responsibility of such actions.
If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following.There would be:
- 57 Asians
- 21 Europeans
- 14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
- 8 Africans
- 52 would be female
- 48 would be male
- 70 would be black
- 30 would be white
- 70 would be non-Christian
- 30 would be Christian
- 89 would be heterosexual
- 11 would be homosexual
- 6 people would possess 59% of the entire world’s wealth and all 6 would be from the United States.
- 80 would live in substandard housing
- 70 would be unable to read
- 50 would suffer from malnutrition
- 1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth
- 1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education
- 1 would own a computer
Despite evidence that prevention programs instituted some time ago are beginning to have an impact in some countries, the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to grow. By 2005, the number of those infected had grown to more than 40 million, double the number in 1995. Previous success stories in Thailand and Uganda show potential to weaken as prevention programs have become less diligent. Globally, new infections among women, especially young women, continued to outpace those among men, – a stark reminder that gender inequity and violence against women fuel the epidemic. Life-saving drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV have not been available to the hundreds of thousands of infants who have become needlessly infected at birth or through breastfeeding in the last year. According to UNAIDS and WHO, stigma and discrimination, whether actual or feared, remain perhaps the most difficult obstacles to prevention of HIV.
A unified and global commitment to turning the tide on this disease is nonetheless building. This effort requires more resources and more effective use of resources devoted to research, prevention, care and treatment for those infected with and affected by the disease. Simultaneous and sustained expansion of prevention and treatment efforts are needed if the pace of the epidemic is to be slowed.
REF – Global Health Council
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My Summary
The AIDS Pandemic continues to grow, despite prevention programs in many countries. In the last 10 years, the number of people carrying the deadly disease has doubled, highlighting the need for the additional funding of research and awareness programs. The HIV infection rate in women outpaces that of men by an alarming rate, showing that sexual abuse is a notable factor.
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Human immunodeficiency virus (commonly known as HIV, and formerly known as HTLV-III and lymphadenopathy-associated virus) is a retrovirus that is the cause of the disease known as AIDS, or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, a syndrome where the immune system begins to fail, leading to many life-threatening opportunistic infections.
HIV primarily infects vital components of the human immune system such as CD4+ T cells, macrophages and dendritic cells. It also directly and indirectly destroys CD4+ T cells. As CD4+ T cells are required for the proper functioning of the immune system, when enough CD4+ T cells have been destroyed by HIV, the immune system functions poorly, leading to AIDS. HIV also directly attacks organs such as the kidneys, heart and brain, leading to acute renal failure, cardiomyopathy, dementia and encephalopathy. Many of the problems faced by people infected with HIV result from failure of the immune system to protect from opportunistic infections and cancers.
HIV is transmitted through direct contact of a mucous membrane with a bodily fluid containing HIV, such as blood, semen, vaginal fluid, preseminal fluid or breast milk. This transmission can come in the form of: penetrative (anal or vaginal) sex; oral sex; blood transfusion; contaminated needles; exchange between mother and infant during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding; or other exposure to one of the above bodily fluids.
REF – Wikipedia
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My Summary
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) attacks the immune system, causing extreme vunerability to other infections that would normally be detected and fought by the body (known as AIDS, or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). HIV targets dendritic cells (which act as the immune system’s CIA, collecting chemical samples from invading pathogens and presenting them to T-helper cells, such as CD4+T cells), CD4+T cells (the platoon commanders of the immune system, which order macrophages to attack known pathogens), and macrophages (the soldiers of the immune system, which act on the order of T-helper cells such as the CD4+T cell to attack pathogens), leading to AIDS. HIV is transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluid, such as blood, semen, and breastmilk.
