Health, Trade and Human Rights : Using Film and Other Visual Media in Graduate and Medical Education, volume 2

Description

This work contains forewords by Desmond M. Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus, Cape Town, South Africa and Mogobe Ramose, Chairperson and Professor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, University of South Africa. "Health, Trade and Human Rights" shows how a policy of 'free' rather than 'fair' trade increasingly undermines Third World health. It clearly illustrates how the looming environmental crisis combined with growing levels of health inequity will have adverse effects and details precisely how the 'basic human rights' enshrined in the UN Charter have gradually become subsidiary to the dictates of free trade, enforced by the World Trade Organisation. This groundbreaking new book argues the need for impartial, data-based, and transnational arbitration of equity in health and other human rights - and suggests how this might be accomplished without violence to national rights, with an emphasis on 'regional free trade'. "Health, Trade and Human Rights" provides vital, thought provoking information for general readers with an interest in the Third World and social welfare. Academics and students studying development, international studies and public health will find it invaluable, as will healthcare professionals, international healthcare organisations, care agencies, and international charities. Policy makers and shapers in communities and government will find the content revelatory as will political activists and those with an interest in equality and globalisation. '[The book] criticises the basis, the method and the extent to which the politics of wealth continues to undermine and violate the right of the poor to good health. The combination of experience with scientific rigour is presented in accessible everyday language. It is seductive; inviting the curiosity of the reader to last until the very end of the book. MacDonald's message is clear and unambiguous: war is no longer the father of all things. Instead, justice is the mother of all peace.' - Mogobe Ramose, in his Foreword. 'Astonishingly accessible, informing and inspiring. Statistically sound, penetratingly. accurate, admirably balanced. Theodore MacDonald writes with passion, as well as with sense. Much of what he has to say is drawn from his own experience working as a medical doctor and a mathematician in a broad range of the world's poorest nations. But overarching that is a powerful insight into social and economic issues, along with well-honed skills as a communicator. I am pleased to recommend this splendid book.' - Desmond M. Tutu, in his Foreword.  Read more... Cover......Page 1 Title Page......Page 2 Copyright Page......Page 3 Contents......Page 4 Foreword......Page 7 Foreword......Page 10 Preface......Page 13 Acknowledgements......Page 16 The link with imperialism......Page 18 Whose WHO?......Page 20 Health planning for international trade......Page 22 The 'brain drain' from the third to the first world......Page 23 The health-wealth relationship......Page 24 The health-wealth problem......Page 27 TRIPS......Page 30 WHO and TRIPS......Page 31 The problem of global variations in health......Page 33 Within-poor-community variation......Page 36 References......Page 39 A brief conspectus of development......Page 42 The effect of neo-liberalism on primary healthcare......Page 44 Structural adjustment......Page 46 The sequence of events behind the debt crisis......Page 47 Debt, environment and health......Page 49 Upholding the banks......Page 52 The need to establish an economic basis for human rights......Page 54 First the goods, then the people......Page 55 The impact of emigration on a society's health......Page 56 Wars, health and the debt......Page 57 References......Page 61 Environmental unsustainability......Page 64 The environmental cost of air transport......Page 65 Can carbon dioxide emissions be traded?......Page 66 Water, water everywhere – but not to drink......Page 67 Growing first-world control over water......Page 68 How about a game of golf?......Page 69 What about climate change?......Page 71 The consequences of lack of global control......Page 72 Financial consequences......Page 74 Big tidal waves and tsunamis......Page 75 References......Page 77 Powdered milk: a threat to third-world babies Support for third-world services......Page 78 Market forces, strategic adjustment policies and private enterprise......Page 80 The status of breastfeeding in the third world......Page 81 Breastfeeding as part of the health promotion agenda......Page 82 Third-world economics and breastfeeding......Page 83 Impact on the third world......Page 84 The WHO response......Page 85 Breastfeeding versus market forces......Page 87 Breastfeeding worldwide......Page 89 Nestlé and its impact on the third world......Page 92 Nestle's use of the HIV/AIDS pandemic......Page 95 Other questionable practices revealed by IBFAN......Page 96 References......Page 98 Capitalism: scourge of the third world......Page 100 Africa's relationship with HIV/AIDS......Page 101 Some non-African third-world settings......Page 103 Africa revisited......Page 104 The Zimbabwe situation......Page 105 Disempowerment of women with respect to HIV/AIDS......Page 106 Why women are especially vulnerable......Page 108 Local culture and HIV prevention......Page 109 Male condoms: culture and consequences......Page 110 Are female condoms the answer?......Page 112 STDs as an 'acceptable risk'......Page 113 The effect of lack of basic education......Page 114 Entrenching poverty: a structural adjustment policies bequest......Page 115 A diluted WHO target on HIV/AIDS......Page 117 What is to be done?......Page 119 References......Page 120 Approaches to environmental sustainability......Page 124 Use of biomass......Page 125 How feasible is use of hydrogen?......Page 127 Ubuntu: one idea of community organisation......Page 129 The People's Health Movement......Page 130 The importance of the US contribution......Page 132 Community health impact assessment......Page 133 International Association for Impact Assessment and HuIA......Page 134 Political alternatives......Page 135 Trans-national mediation of equity......Page 137 Is capitalism actually an option?......Page 140 The optimistic view as a solution......Page 142 Pre-political Greening......Page 144 Can Green political power survive bureaucracy?......Page 145 References......Page 147 Index......Page 148