Yeah you know me. Friday's front-page NYT story on Doctors Without Borders giving out free AIDS medicine in South Africa describes the awful politics that keep victims from getting help. Shame, ignorance, penury, and greed all play their part. Tear-jerking, gut-emptying stat: 2.5 million Africans dead from AIDS last year. The impetus for the story is a happy one, though: free care is saving lives.
Akhona Jazi, who once relied on a wheelchair, now walks on her own. Doris Matanda, who weighed 86 pounds, has gained 37 pounds in three months. Pumza Charlie no longer worries about dying from tuberculosis before her 30th birthday. These days, she dreams of finding a job and buying her own house.
Just happy enough to humanize that awful number.
