Chilling Effect: US Says HIV/AIDS Virus Comes from Haiti

Media has a huge impact on cultures, especially those of semi-peripheral and peripheral nations. In some cases, media may even have a huge impact on the economies of other nations. Such is the case with the US and Haiti.

According to Haiti's profile on the PBS website, many Haitians, during the 1970s, fled to the United States to seek refuge. Around this same time, many people, both Haitians and Americans, were becoming deathly ill from HIV/AIDS, a disease that the people were unfamiliar with. As Haitian and American researchers began to study the disease many began to attribute the problem to other nations people. This led to a war between the nations' media.

HIV/AIDS activist in Haiti

The Haitian media blamed the HIV/AIDS epidemic on on the US' homosexual men while the American media blamed it on Haiti's voodoo practices. American researchers believed that homosexuals, heroin addicts, hemophiliacs, and Haitians were the main cause of the epidemic, coining a new phrase, "the 4H Club". Since the United States is such a dominant force in global media, this caused a lot of problems for Haitians.

One of the most obvious effects of this was discrimination against Haitian immigrants living in the United States. According to PBS, many of them were unable to find jobs and had trouble selling their homes. Back at home, Haiti's economy suffered immensely. Tourism, which, at the time, was the backbone of Haiti's economy, decreased 80 percent within one year because of these accusations. Also, goods that were manufactured in Haiti were not allowed to be sold in the United States.

Haiti's culture also suffered a bit. Before the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Haiti did not acknowledge homosexuality at all. According to the PBS website, being homosexual was something to be ashamed of, making it something that wasn't seen too often. When patients with HIV/AIDS went to their doctors appointments, doctors refrained from asking them questions about such activities. But, with the combination of the epidemic and the accusations of the US media, the people of Haiti had to acknowledge homosexuality. The US brought this to their attention, making it something they now had to pay attention to. Also, the US cast an even dimmer light on Haiti's religious practice of voodoo.

As we can see, the US and other core nations have a dominance over media that can keep peripheral nations in the dark. It goes deeper than just making a profit.