AIDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For my act of Reisitance Talor, Alyia and I decided to make shirts that displayed a chloroplethic map of Africa's AIDS concentration by country. In displaying this shirt we wished to convey to the public the large percentage of some African nations that are effected by this easily spread virus. The main point of our shirts was to highlight the dact that in the southern part of the continent(i.e.Zimbabwe) as much as twenty-five percent of the population is infected with the virus. We also,in our act were trying to raise awareness as to the effect that the virus has on the personal, economic, and social structure of these countries. All these sectors due to the large percentage of infected people feel the negative impact of each life lost.

I thought that our act of resistance was well executed and had many implicit demands of the reader. Not only did it show the country most devestated by the virus it also showed how dense and massive infection levels were in some parts instead of simply showing that there was infection. I felt that by showing the variation in the percentage of the population infected by using a chlorolethic map caused people to ask questions and inquire about the shirts as well as the situation. Being as that many people didn't understand the map by just lookig at it; they inadvertenly were forced to find out more about the problem and raise their awareness about the issue when they asked for further explaination. Also I think another adavantage of the chloropleth was that it wasn't like other AIDS Awareness shirts which simply presented AIDS as a problem that neeeded to be solved but presented it as a problem that is very real and that is/does effect millions of people internationally.
I think that aside from the obvious connection made by geography students when they saw the map their was a general amazement by those who saw the shirts and found out more about AIDS. I don't think that people were as willing to inquire about the shirts as we had liked them to be.
I think that if we were to do this again that an explanation or key explaining the map would be very helpful. Not that the map didn't speak volumes. I think that the shirts would speak volumes on an international level or maybe just when being viewed by people who understood chlpropleths but maybe not by the general public.
I think that the shirts did raise more awareness to the issue of AIDS infections. I think that the inferences that could be made about the impact that it has on all socio-economic sectors of a country were our chief sucess in that it really makes you think about AIDS Awareness as more of a "war against" instead of just the search for the cure.