Poems by Alex

There used to be a lot of discrimination
But Martin Luther King ended the segregation
In the U.S. everything turned fun
But in Africa there is none
The economy is really low
And trying to raise it takes slow
The people are all slaves
And the kids don’t play any games
All they do is work
They can’t even eat any pork
But no one gets paid
And eventually the people begin to fade


In Africa it’s not that fun being black
They carry you around like a sack
You have to go this way and that way
And there’s practically nothing you can say
All you can see are waves
Of nothing but slaves
The kids can’t even go to the arcade
Because the people barely get paid.

HIV and AIDs

HIV/AIDS is causing a really big problem in African economic growth and population. Many African people get HIV and then die because of AIDS, and this became a major issue especially in some parts of Africa, which are affected more by HIV/AIDS than any other part of the world. The amount of people that have HIV/AIDS and then die because of it varies from some countries to other countries. Some countries like Cameroon have 5.4% of the people infected with HIV, while other countries, like Swaziland have 33.4% of the population infected with HIV. The growth of HIV spread in Africa has increased a lot from the 1990’s to 2008. More and more people are infected with HIV, and then die because of AIDS. By the end of 2007, around 22.5 million people were living with HIV, and around 1.7 million additional people were infected in just that one year. Also, households are ruined by this growth of HIV infections. Many families are loosing their home income earners, or workers have to stay home to care for the other people in the family that are infected with HIV. The average life expectancy in Africa is now only 47 years because of HIV/AIDS, when it could have been 62 years without them. HIV and AIDS are really destroying Africa, and there isn’t too much that is or could be done about it.
-Article by Alex K.

Dream Big

Dream big
Dream with your eyes wide open
Because one day those dreams may become reality
Helping someone won't make you lose respect
But instead you will gain
-By: Sunbul

Kids in Africa

- So far, Aids has killed 17.2 million Africans.
- Right now, there are 16 million African refugees.
- The unemployment rate in Africa is 75%.
- Many of the children who are lucky enough to attend school go there hungry.
- In 1998, over 56 million African children didn't go to school.
- One in six African babies die before they are able to reach their first birthday.

So many orphans in Africa

Many kids in Africa are becoming orphans because they are loosing their parents and relatives to Aids and HIV. That is really sad. Imagine having to see your loved ones everyday, knowing that they have a disease. Then waking up one morning, expecting to kiss from your mother to start the day, but they don't wake up because it's too late. All the responsibilities are taken away from you in less than a minute. You have no one that will wake up early in the morning to get your breakfast ready, no one that will kiss you when you get hurt, or to tell you to stop crying when your heart gets broken. The next thing you know you have to go and live in an orphanage for the rest of your life. Probably even start doing work that was meant for adults. How would you feel if you had to live the rest of your life with no guardian and you expected to be forced to be doing work that was way above your level?

Food Shortages in Africa

Africa is suffering from food shortages. This is because the rights to own private property (land) in Africa are being taken away. Quotes from a website: "In 1994, when South America still exported agricultural products on a massive scale, it had 85,000 farmers using less than 7% of the total land surface. Right now, less than 10,000 commercial farmers remain, raising crops on less than 0.75% of the total land surface. The country is now facing serious food shortages for the first time in it's entire recorded agricultural history since the mid-1600's." That's not right. You can learn more about this on the link to the website on the blog page.

Our Glory

We Africans carry the weight
of twenty white men.
We pray to God that we'll be
free one day, Amen.
We may live as equal,
but we are the sequel
of Martin Luther King Jr.s story.
And at the end we'll find glory.
-By: Sunbul

Kids Go To War

Kids are going to war in Africa. That is total injustice. Kids aren't born to fight, they are supposed to have fun and be carefree. None of the children in Africa are having the experiences they are supposed to have. They are always working; they clean, do laundry in a lake or river, they pick crops, and some don't even go to school. That sounds like the life of a slave to me, not a life that a child normally has.

Degrassi Helps!

Degrassi is a show for teens. It is about several conflicts in a school called "Degrassi". So when the cast members go to Africa, they all pitch in to help build a brand new school called, you guessed it, "Degrassi". If you could have, would you have went and helped?

Ripped Off!

Africa's economy is really low. One of the main reasons is that there is unequal international trade. Other countries are ripping Africa off. There is nothing they can do about it. The only way that other countries will stop doing this to Africa is if people take a stand about it. But no one cares because no one knows. If the media payed half as much as attention to Africa as they did to celebrity drama, things will be a lot better, don't you think?

Poor Conditions in Africa

In Africa, people live in really poor conditions. There is a very poor grandmother in Africa right now that has to raise eight grandchildren after her four children died from Aids and HIV. The children live in a small hut, probably smaller than my room (which is pretty small to begin with) and they sleep on a very thin and skinny mattress together.Sometimes the grandmother doesn't have everything she needs to support the children, so she has to ask neighbors for help, but they don't usually have much either. What would you do if you were one of the grandchildren or the grandmother in this situation?

Days and days go by and I just sit here

Days and days go by
and I just sit here
looking at everybody.
There's a white kid playing with a black.
There's a white man asking a black woman
and a black man asking a white woman
for marriage.
Days and days go by
and I just sit here.
There's a group of kids making fun of a black.
I hear a shot gun, see it with my eyes.
The white man shot a black and
another black is blamed.
The black man kills a white
and he is blamed.
Days and days go by
and I just sit here.
I'm a 93 year old man
maybe what I see are all illusions,
maybe, just maybe, I'm going crazy
seeing love one day and racism the other.
Days and days go by
and I just sit here.
-By: Sunbul :)

Family of Brothers

A family of three or four boys live in Africa right now. They live together and work really hard to live after they lost all of their close ones to Aids. The oldest brother is fifteen years old and he always puts his brothers first. They don't really have a chance to be kids and the oldest always keeps his feelings in all the time so his brothers won't be scared. How do you feel about the situation?

Shot ?!?

A four-year old African-American shot himself in the head. Why do you think this happened and what is your reaction to this?:(

Idol Gives Back

Who watched American Idol? Well, on April 9th of '08, American Idol did a special show to contribute to Africa called "Idol Gives Back." They asked people to call in and donate money, and they raised over $22 million dollars.The money is going to six different funds :The Children's Defense Fund, Children's Health Fund, The Global Fund, Make It Right, Malaria No More, Save the Children. How do you think that money can be used to help Africa and which other fund do you think the money should go to help Africa?

Can We Ever Clean This Mess?

What do you think of this poem:
Cracked lips, parched land
Dusty promises of help at hand
Hungry children with Christmas cards
Won't help a world that's growing too fast
I wish it would rain on Africa
But storm clouds gathering won't bring relief
Just darker days with no hope of peace in Africa
Guns and bombs, tears and mud
All the love erased with blood
But bound by dept to hopelessness
Can we ever clean this mess?
-Found By: Alex K.