Speaker 1: I'm Jason Colvin, I'm d Graves.
Speaker 2: Give us five minutes and we will give you the fire.
Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Surely you Can't
Be Serious Podcast Special Edition five Minutes of Fire. We
are here talking about the lyrics of We Didn't Start
the Fire by Billy Joel. We're covering only five minutes
at a time, which is about to link with the song,
so it works out kind of nicely. So please join
us as we dive into some new lyrics today.
Speaker 2: All right, guys, so here are the topics that we're
going to be covering today.
Speaker 1: Warn debts, almost vets, aids, debt okay, Jason, tell me
about foreign debts.
Speaker 2: Okay. The Latin American debt crisis of nineteen eighty two
originated in the late nineteen seventies when Latin American countries
reached a point where their foreign debt exceeded their earning
power and they could not repay it. A few things
contributed to this, the rise of the international interest rates,
the global economic slow. Latin American countries relied heavily on
raw material exports like oil, minerals and agricultural products. The
global prices began to fall. To make up for this,
the Latin American countries borrowed at higher rates. This put
them in a very risky position. International banks began to
lose confidence in Latin American countries. In nineteen eighty two,
Mexico declared its inability to pay back its debts. Many
countries experienced deep depressions, which led to widespread unemployment, and
it continues to have widespread and lasting effects today. Okay,
do you tell us about homeless vets?
Speaker 1: Okay, Veterans being homeless has been a problem in the
US since as early as nineteen thirty two. In nineteen
thirty four, there were as many as a quarter million
veterans living on the streets. During the Truman administration, there
was one hundred thousand homeless vets just in Chicago and
another twenty five thousand in Washington, DC. And then by
nineteen eighty seven the number had reached an epidemic proportion.
It was something in the neighborhood of three hundred thousand
homeless vets. And this became a big concern, and so
they begin to try to not only address the homeless problem,
but they addressed some of the other mental health issues
that go along with veterans being homeless. Typically they suffer
from PTSD anxiety disorder, and they have a lot of
emotional trauma, either involving their the war itself or injuries
that they might have received there. But since nineteen eighty
seven there's been a push to end this problem. It's
not over yet, but in two thousand and seven the
number was down to about one hundred and fifty four thousand.
By two thousand and twelve it was down to around
sixty two thousand, twenty thirteen, down to fifty seven thousand,
two thousand fourteen, down to fifty four thousand, and twenty fifteen,
down to forty seven thousand, So the numbers keep getting
chipped away, but it is still a continuing problem even today,
thirty five years after this song, all Right, Jason aids
all Right.
Speaker 2: AIDS AIDS stands for acquired immune to fision syndrome. In
nineteen eighty one in the US, rare forms of pneumonia
and cancer begin being reported in high rates for young
gay men and injection drug users. AIDS we know now
attacks and destroys infection fighting c D four cells in
the body. In nineteen eighty two, it's learned that this
virus can be transmitted sexually and is caused by the
HIV virus. Cases are now being reported by blood transfusion patients.
By nineteen eighty three, women start becoming Effective nineteen eighty five,
the pronouncement of AIDS was like a dessence. In nineteen
eighty six, we learned that women can pass HIV through breastfeeding.
In nineteen ninety eight, to ten million people are estimated
to be living with HIV. The virus was located in blood, semen,
and even saliva, which scared the heck out of everybody.
It's much more treatable now, although there still is no cure.
Famous people who have had HIV include Ready Mercury, reg
Luganis Gia Keurengi, Arthur Ashe, Liberachi, Anthony Perkins, Isaac Asimov,
Danny Pintaro, Robert Reid, Roy Cone, Rock Hudson, Ryan White,
Charlie Sheen, and Magic Johnson.
Speaker 1: Okay, guys, that does it for today's episode. Join us
next time for five minutes of fire