In Africa, The Art of Listening

Summary:

Throughout the course of this article, Elon Musk makes it clear that no one has died after the end of the PEPFAR program; however, this was proven to be false. President Trump shut this program down to help reduce taxes on American citizens. Many people in South Sudan are prone to the sexually transmitted disease known as HIV. This makes it a dangerous country to give birth, not only because of the spread of HIV, but also because of the lack of money for proper medical treatment, procedures, and technology when giving birth. The PEPFAR program provided South Sudanese citizens with the medicine needed to prevent HIV, saving their lives. With the ending of this program, many of those who were prescribed to have HIV ended up passing away, due to a lack of treatment.

Along with the PEPFAR, Trump ended the USAID nutrition program, which created another existing known problem for South Sudan, malnutrition. This reduced the amount of food that was available to families; sometimes, families would be reduced to one meal a day. With reduced meals, the shutdown of the USAID also caused many in South Sudan to die. Overall, this article clearly explains how the ending of the PEPFAR and USAID programs caused many people to die due to a lack of HIV medication and food, further proving Elon Musk wrong.

Interpretation:

After reading this article, one main thing it makes me think of is how you can't believe everything you read or see. Elon Musk is a smart and rich man, making him trustworthy to many people. So, when Elon claims that the ending of the PEPFAR and USAID nutrition program was not going to cause deaths, most may believe him without any evidence. However, in this article, the author provides a plethora of evidence saying that many people in South Sudan have died from HIV and malnutrition, a result of the end of these programs. For example, both Martha Juan and Viola Kiden have been killed because they lived in an area of South Sudan that could not get access to the antiretroviral drugs after the USAID program ended (Kristof). It is important not to believe everything someone may say, just because they are smart and rich, especially without any real evidence.

Critique:

One thing I found problematic about the article is that the author did not provide enough reasoning for why Trump decided to cut the PEPFAR and USAID programs. The article only provides one real reason as to why Trump ended the programs: Americans have to pay extra taxes. One problem with that is that the US taxpayers only pay about 12 cents per day, which is not a lot for the average American citizen.

Reflection:

Listening has a lot to do with making documentary images because it is not just taking photos that is important, it is also understanding the feelings of the people affected by a certain problem. Taking a photo comes second to understanding someone's story. The article was not only able to share beautiful images of the families that were affected and treated, but also the poor conditions. With this, the author provides real-life experiences from those impacted in South Sudan. Being able to learn about some of the people who were affected throughout the article made the images much more impactful than it we hadn't learn about them.