HESO 449B 003: INTERNATIONAL HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT
Spring term, 2009

Thursday, 2:00PM to 5:00PM (Jan. 5th – April 8th)

Family Practice Board Room, David Strangway Building
(suite 300-5950 University Boulevard)

This seminar will take a practical, hands-on approach to health-based international development projects, with students learning about what it takes to create successful projects. The seminar is divided into two major components. The first will prime students on key international health and development themes, focusing on the Millennium Development Goals, and will introduce students to the grounding principles of successful international development projects. The second part of the course requires students to work in pairs to research, plan and develop a viable international health focused project meeting the needs of a specific community. These projects will receive feedback from faculty advisors and field experts. Upon completion of the course, students will have knowledge on what it takes to plan successful development projects and will have researched and developed their own fully-implementable project. There exists the possibility for students in the course to receive funding to travel and implement the most viable project that comes out of the class. Please see the course website for more details: inthealthdev.wordpress.com

If you are interested in registeration, please get in touch with me via email (inthealthaid AT gmail DOT com) and I can fwd you contact information of the coordinators.

-trisha

Thanks again,

Aneil

Will this course be offered next semester?

Thanks!

Aneil

The video basically suggests America protects its peanut industry through tariffs while preaching free trade via IMF structural adjustments. This means African countries like Senegal are producing export crops (peanuts) that are worth very little, in order to get loans and aid from the west. It makes sense for each country to produce what they’re best at, but this clearly isn’t working for Senegal.

Countries with successful liberal economies are trying to help less developed countries – while at the same time competing with them! I don’t know what the solution is, but I think it starts with playing by one set of rules.

In my opinion, the only set of rules that works that really works is free trade. Free trade hurts some people in the short term, but we can’t help but compete with each other regardless, so might as well focus on competing better. As long as we’re following the same set of rules in good faith, the poorest countries have a a better chance. What are other people’s thoughts on this?

I also think this type of video gets directly to one of the root causes of poverty in a way that most people can absorb and enjoy. It puts a complex problem into simple terms, while entertaining the viewer. I think that this is just as effective as the Pulitzer winning vulture photo. What do other people think?

What one must really take to heart in this field is the ethical issues at hand. I wonder if this photographer gained insight into who this child was, what his/her family history was, what his/her fate was? Or was this photographer viewing this context from an external lens, detached, exploiting the environment around? Is that justified if it in fact raises awareness and gets a message accross to a public audience who would otherwise rather care to watch the new episode of Grey’s Anatomy then know what is occuring in the world around them?

These are the questions you must take forward with you as you get deeper into your field..

Desperation, isolation, submission. The looming vulture signifying the ticking clock… what can be done within the time that is left for that child? Can you feel yourself wishing you were there, to pick up the child, or beat the bird with a stick? (I’m interested to know what the photographer did). It’s hard to pull your eyes away… you can’t help but stare… and feel overwhelming guilty.

As Hans said, I don’t think anything beats raw, professional journalism when it comes to raising awareness. We need journalists that are know the facts to communicate what is going on in the world around us. But I’m not sure that it’s one size fits all. It’s an interdisciplinary problem that calls for multiple approaches. The job of the journalist is to keep the issue alive, to keep people aware, with the hope that you will reach the people that have the knowledge, skills, and above all, creativity, to come up with NEW ideas and approaches.

People do suffer from “compassion fatigue”, but my response is to keep pushing. Push through the fatigue, and there will be another wave of interest on the horizon. In fact, push harder. Take more pictures, write more stories… tell it like it is… and explore new avenues for doing so. (I like the Nut Video… I’ll write about it later)

I understand the frustration with ‘volunteerism’ and wonder myself at how much good it does. But it is something and it shows that people are listening. Perhaps we haven’t perfected the role of the international volunteer. But everything in life operates like this… it’s a matter of trial and error. When volunteerism goes to far, when it becomes a self-righteous holiday at the expense of the people we are trying to help, we need reporters to say that and tell the world what went wrong. Feedback… it’s all about feedback systems. Trial, error, trial, success.

People will probably undergo ‘volunteer fatigue’ at some point anyway. When it seems that everyone has done everything, and the novelty has worn off, I’m sure there will be a slide… and the next new thing will be on the agenda. In the meantime, let’s just keep an eye on volunteers and tell the world about the good, the bad, and the ugly… sparing no expense.

“I just want to post what I thought about Media and humanitarian efforts. This is closely tied to what Dr. Shafik Dharamsi is working on (Ethical International Service Learning). The whole thing with the media reporting upon what is happening around the world by portraying the worst does cause compassion fatigue, but wouldn’t ‘progress fatigue’ be the result of what happens if we show what is good. I just think the the media has taken this path because it is what appeals to human nature the most. Everybody knows how it is: we remember one bad thing, its hard to remember all the good., people remember mistakes. This is probably because humans view themselves and others as ‘good’ , so good becomes normal, and when something bad happens thats out of the normal so we remember it.

Now back to ethical ISL, by having advertisements that compel people to volunteer overseas, at least I think, won’t do the world any better. This will just contribute to voluntourism which I personally don’t think helps. As Dr. James Orbinski said, politics is important, and it is politics that I think will cause the greatest change, and these political efforts will be based on the awareness and activism of citizens in their own country. Granted, those who go overseas bring back a certain amount of awareness, but weighing the good and bad, having professional journalists overseas reporting is better than having people going overseas to build buildings or teaching english (I have no evidence to back that up though).

So I agree with what Kevin said in class. Raising Awareness. That is what media should do. Not pushing people to go overseas to help. Because if we do, for-profit organizations will sprout up catering to those who want to help (but how much help are they providing). If that is the path we take then ethical ISL is something that should have to be looked into.

Media and politics. I recommend people read about “CNN effect” and “Manufacturing Consent” (manufacturing consent by Noam Chomsky is really good, or just look up the terms online).”

I really don’t know what solutions to offer, but I do have another problem to throw in to the mix. Currently, consumption patterns in the Western world is the major contributor to climate change. Developing countries are working towards raising their standards of living based on precedent set by our way of life. This means that even if North American and European countries are able to decrease CO2 output and transition to more sustainable production and consumption patterns, other countries will be increasing their CO2 emissions as people can afford to consume more. This means the rate of global warming is going to increase further before it starts to decrease.

I don’t know if I explained that very well… it’s something I learned about in a geography course. It raises the question: can countries striving to increase their standards of living do so in a more environmentally friendly way, without further contributing to global warming? ie. can they decrease child mortality rates, increase access to education, empower women (achieve MDG goals) without causing increased use of fossil fuel and other natural resources through cars, manufactured goods, processed foods, etc.

Now back to ethical ISL, by having advertisements that compel people to volunteer overseas, at least I think, won’t do the world any better. This will just contribute to voluntourism which I personally don’t think helps. As Dr. James Orbinski said, politics is important, and it is politics that I think will cause the greatest change, and these political efforts will be based on the awareness and activism of citizens in their own country. Granted, those who go overseas bring back a certain amount of awareness, but weighing the good and bad, having professional journalists overseas reporting is better than having people going overseas to build buildings or teaching english (I have no evidence to back that up though).

So I agree with what Kevin said in class. Raising Awareness. That is what media should do. Not pushing people to go overseas to help. Because if we do, for-profit organizations will sprout up catering to those who want to help (but how much help are they providing). If that is the path we take then ethical ISL is something that should have to be looked into.

Media and politics. I recommend people read about “CNN effect” and “Manufacturing Consent” (manufacturing consent by Noam Chomsky is really good, or just look up the terms online).