Reading Response Pathologies 1-2

The discrepancy between treatment of AIDS victims in Guantanamo  Bay and in Cuba, and the U.S. response was horrifying. The deplorable conditions the Haitians lived in and the beatings and forced medical procedures they endured are devastating. I find the rhetoric behind the allowance (and indeed, support) of this to be terrifying. The quote against the decision to allow some Haitians to be transferred to the U.S. was particularly startling, stating that one of the problems was “the judge’s very expansive rules of the right of aliens, who came into American hands purely out of our own humanitarian impulses to rescue them at sea” (66). This statement is enraging, painting the Americans who tortured the refugees as altruistic and the Haitians as strange and not entitled to basic human rights. The Haitians did not ask to be rescued and certainly did not ask for the inhumane treatment they received.

I understand the fear surrounding AIDS, but there is no excuse for the violation of human rights. The military, government, and apparently the American public seemed not to see the Haitians as humans in need of help, but as nothing more than repulsive carriers of disease. The contrast between the American-run “oasis” and the Cuban “prison camp” is absurd and should be reversed. The Cuban program treated AIDS patients as humans, in need of help and capable of being educated and making their own choices between fair options. Even with Farmer’s explanations, it’s difficult to make sense of the U.S. media portrayal of the Cuban program.