Ted Talks
Ben Affleck’s favorite Ted Talks speak about looking at things in a different perspective than you have before. One of the Ted Talks I found interesting was James Nachtwey: Flights XDR-TB, James main focus was that “pictures have a powerful influence” in today's world. The media can be devious to only show parts of a story instead of what's really happening in order to catch the attention of the audience around the world. This ties to what people think of Africa, the country is portrayed as the “Africa of poverty” or “Africa of conflict” many people are created to think this way due to the media showing pictures of the country in a negative way.
James coverage on XDR-TB is honestly motivating to me because as long as you are willing to put in the work you can do anything you set your mind to. James trying to break the internet by exposing the hard truth of extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis shows that the world isn't perfect and we as humans turn our backs on each other and don't even bother to help one another. Americans think that if it's not occurring in the United States it does not occur anywhere else and that's where we as Americans need to fix the way we think because the world doesn't revolve around us.
Photos make a huge impact on a person's approach to how they interpret what they see. For instance on social media I tend to look at the pictures rather than the captions because the picture is more interesting to look at. Pictures not only let people convey ideas and concepts it can also been used as a way to manipulate people for good or bad. The way James is utilizing the pictures is to show that XDR-TB is a real problem and it's not going to go away, which then creates an awareness for the drug- resistance. Websites have been created to help donate money for the medical expenses for those in need and to spread awareness.
Being able to use photos and exposing the truth about developing countries really opens the eyes of people in the United States. Just like XDR-TB is finally getting coverage and spreading awareness, the same thing should happen to Africa. Africa is viewed as a country that is poor and full of problems, many people don't think about the reform, economic growth or business opportunity when it comes to Africa. The news tends to talk about the negatives things in Africa because bad news sells well and people feel better about their lives when they hear others have bigger problems than them.
Not only do Africans want to alter the way people think of their country, the people of Africa want to stop the corruption of the country, Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala stated that “African people are no longer willing to tolerate their corrupted leaders.” The people want to be able to uses their resources and to be managed properly for their benefit. Although it's a small step to becoming a democratic country its a huge impact on the country to finally realize that things need to be fair and that the “elite” shouldn’t always get the best of the resources.
Not many people know that Africa is actually a goldmine for business. Africa has resources like timber, gold, copper, oil and diamonds but many people don’t really know about it because their opinion on Africa is that it's a poor country with no stability. The key for Africa becoming a country with a positive future is to go do business over there, businesses will boost up the economy growth which would create more jobs for people and create more money flow throughout the country.
The power of photography and opinions can very much affect anything in either a positive or negative way. In this case photography helped spread awareness for XDR-TB which is really great due to the fact that in those countries people aren't getting the right treatments due to insufficient funds. Just like XDR-TB awareness is being spread, the idea of Africa being economically stable should be able to bring businesses and help Africa grow as a country, and through the help of Ted Talks it did create awareness and change opinions of Africa.
Citations
Affleck, Ben. “Ben Affleck: 8 Talks That Amazed Me.” TED: Ideas Worth Spreading, www.ted.com/playlists/32/ben_affleck_8_talks_that_amaz.
“James Nachtwey Raises Awareness for Drug-Resistance.” TED: Ideas Worth Spreading, www.ted.com/participate/ted-prize/prize-winning-wishes/xdr-tb-org.
Adekoya, Remi. “Why Africans Worry about How Africa Is Portrayed in Western Media | Remi Adekoya.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 28 Nov. 2013, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/28/africans-worry-how-africa-portrayed-western-media.
