烏克蘭... 性愛, 毒品, 貧窮 & 愛滋病
英文來源: http://www.brentstirton.com/project_ukraine_words.php
中文來源: 原創翻譯
Ukraine...Sex, Drugs, Poverty & HIV
This is series of images shot over 10 days in 4 cities across Ukraine. It would have been impossible to do this without a collective of enlightened ex-drug addicts and HIV+ Ukrainians without whom I would never have had the access that I did. It would be remiss of me not to thank those extraordinary individuals who moved me every day I worked with them in their often horrifying world.
Ukraine currently has the world’s fast accelerating HIV infection rate, a statistic which until recently has been thought to be largely influenced by IV drug use but which currently officially stands at a 50/50 for IV drugs use and unprotected heterosexual sex. Many experts speculate that it may now be more like 70/30 in favour of unprotected sex which is causing this alarming, unchecked rise in infections.
After the Orange Revolution earlier this year, many Ukrainians are hopeful of a better future, one not so dominated by minimal wage, minimal opportunity and a thinking governed by years of Soviet influence. Right now there are a number of investigations going on across the country by the new government into the previous regimes practices. The principal current effect of this series of changes is that the fragile economy is declining steadily and while officials are scrambling for positions and politicing in a new system, Aids continues to march across the country at a frightening rate.
The reasons for this are myriad and are largely based in ignorance amongst the population, a lack of effective information campaigns, a lack of budget and governmental support for the necessary campaigns and the criminalisation and stigmatisation of HIV by both the Police and in the minds of most of the populace. There is very little understanding of the far reaching implications of Aids and the general consensus is one of “Why should we care for these people, they are criminals.” Most HIV is perceived by Ukrainians to come from drug use and shared infected needles. There is a shocking lack of knowledge across the country on what Aids actually is and how the immune deficiency virus is actually transmitted. In this light most Ukrainians struggle to see why this is something that government should spent precious money on.
There is no perception of how this disease can decimate labour indiscriminately, devastate an almost non-existent health system in a populous country, affecting thousands of family members who must care for victims in the absence of hospital care being available. This is to say nothing of the thousands of abandoned HIV+ babies and children for whom there exists only one State orphanage in the entire country which can accommodate less than 100 children under 4. Thousands of those children are on the streets, HIV+ and many of them incredibly young drug users who are having sex. The street-children and the criminals who seek to use them are fast becoming a new criminal underclass with no common morality and nothing to lose.
這一系列的照片是用了超過10天, 從烏克蘭的4個城市里拍攝的. 如果沒有那些前吸毒者和感染愛滋病病毒的烏克蘭人, 這將會是個不可能完成的任務. 我想感謝那些每天帶我到處走動的人們.
目前, 烏克蘭是世界上愛滋病感染率上升率最快的國家. 事實上, 並不是大家所想像一般, 吸毒者的感染率居冠; 近來的一項統計數字顯示, 無預防措施之(異性的)性交和吸毒者的感染率分別為50/50. 無論如何, 一些專家預測, 無預防措施的性交活動將會導致比例進一步上升到70/30.
經過了今年初的橙色革命(2004-2005)後, 許多的烏克蘭人都期待著的美好未來, 希望可以擺脫一個不再是以低薪水為主, 少量的工作機會, 以及一直被前蘇聯統治下所延續下來思想的族群. 目前的新政府發起了若干調查前度政權所實行的政策的舉動, 這一系列的動作最直接的影
響就是導致脆弱的經濟開始下滑, 與其同時, 政治人物也趁機會爾諛我詐以分一杯羹, 這個時候, 愛滋病繼續以瘋狂數字在全國各地攀升. 由於普羅大眾的無知, 缺乏提供愛滋病資訊的講座會, 缺乏政府的援助以及金錢預算, 再加上警方和大眾對於愛滋病的歧視/誤解, 種種的原因導致了愛滋病肆虐. 很少人會去了解病患, 一般上, 大家都是認為:「為什麼我們要去關心这些人，他們不是罪犯嗎?」. 大多數的烏克蘭人都是通過吸毒和共用針筒注射而被感染的. 他們的人民缺乏有關愛滋病的知識, 比如甚麼是愛滋病, 愛滋病是怎麼傳染的等等. 這些就是政府應該花錢來推行的教育計畫.
你完全沒有辦法去想像這種病毒是如何的摧毀了勞工層的人們, 並且大肆破壞一個幾乎沒有健全的醫療系統的國家, 導致了千百個家庭的成員必須在沒有醫藥護理的情況下照料他們的家人. 這還不包括了數以千計被抛弃的感染孩童, 全國也只有唯一的一家孤兒院, 它只能容納少過100個4歲下兒童. 其他數以千計的孩童都被迫在街上流浪, 甚至造就了很多的年輕吸毒者. 犯罪集團很喜歡利用這一些流浪孩童來進行犯罪活動.
待續... |
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