Dr. Paul Farmer Interview

Dr. Paul Farmer, physician and anthropologist--and social justice advocate for the poorest of the poor--visited Notre Dame this fall for our Academic Forum on "The Global Health Crisis." He joined amazing development economist Dr. Jeffrey Sachs as distinguished guest on the panel.

On my profile, you'll see Dr. Farmer's books are listed under favorites. I wish we didn't have to read about the suffering of the poor--which would mean they weren't suffering--but "Pathologies of Power" was the most poignant, compelling work I've ever read. I believe it, along with "The Uses of Haiti" and "Infections and Inequalities," have significantly shaped my worldview. I hope it continues to be shaped--and I continue to shape it--in this way.

When Dr. Farmer was here, I had the chance to interview him:
http://science.nd.edu/research/profiles/bollman_farmer.htm

My First Letter to the Editor

I wrote a letter to the New York Times on Wednesday, responding to their article extolling the virtues of the UN in Haiti in cracking down on gangs. From all accounts in the many independent news reports I read (while procrastinating studying), what's actually happening is the UN killing innocent civilians in an attempt to take control over Cite Soleil, one of the world's absolute worst slums. Repression by violence, no effort to address the desperate needs of the residents. December 22 was the most extreme massacre, but the killing has continued. Furthermore, the UN makes much less of an effort to disarm gangs in other areas, like "The Little Machete Army" or the paramilitary groups that still create terror. As one commentator put it, MINUSTAH is "Peacekeeping by Paramilitarism."

I would link the original Times article, but I'm a little worried about copyright issues...It was a February 10 piece by Marc Lacey entitled "UN Troops Fight Haiti's Gangs One Battered Street at a Time."

So here's the letter, since the Times would never publish something so critical of their reporting:

To the Editor:

The article “U.N. Peacekeepers Fight Gangs in Haiti” (Feb. 10) ends with a sentence that is tragically false when applied to U.N. actions on a whole in Cite Soleil: “Nobody was hit.”

In fact, many non-militant civilians have been hit. As “collateral damage” resulting from MINUSTAH’s efforts, dozens of unarmed people, including women and children, have fallen victim to UN bullets. Two young girls, Alexandra and Stephanie Lubin, were killed in a February 1 assault on the Boston district. Doctors Without Borders, which runs a hospital in Cite Soleil, reported at least 6 dead and 63 wounded in the past month from UN operations.

MINUSTAH spokesperson Wilmhurst’s denial of civilian death in Mr. Lachey’s article lies in direct contradiction to numerous reports by both Haitian human rights organizations and mainstream media. The Times simply failed in accurately reporting the inhumane consequences of the U.N.’s peacekeeping mission.

Sincerely,
Brennan Bollman

Love for the Least (i.e. Matthew 25)

In honor of Valentine's Day, I'm posting a prayer attributed to Mother Theresa. We joined hands many mornings at Bethany House, to give us all grace for the day. I know it by heart, and it reminds me of a love I began to experience this summer, agape:

Dearest Lord, may I see you today and every day in the person of your poor, your homeless, your sick, and while ministering to them minister unto you. Though you hide yourself behind the unattractive disguise of the irritable, the exacting, the unreasonable, may I still recognize you, and say: "Jesus, my guest, how sweet it is to serve you.

Lord, give me this seeing faith; then my work will never be monotonous. I will ever find joy in humoring the fancies and gratifying the wishes of all poor sufferers.

O beloved guest, how doubly dear you are to me when you personify Christ; and what a privilege is mine to be allowed to tend you.

Sweetest Lord, make me appreciative of the dignity of my high vocation, and its many responsibilities. Never permit me to disgrace it by giving way to coldness, unkindness, or impatience.

And, O God, while you are Jesus, my guest, deign also to be to me a patient Jesus, bearing with my faults, looking only to my intention, which is to love and serve you in the person of each of your poor, your homeless, your sick. Lord, increase my faith, bless my efforts and work, now and forevermore.

Global Fund ED

See the linked article in the Boston Globe.

Please, no. Please don't tell me that the executive director of Jeffrey Sach's genius idea--which gives hundreds of thousands ARVs and TB medication, and distributes millions of bednets and malaria treatments--is abusing his power. Does greed rule everything? If you want to make a fortune and ride in limos, be stockbroker. Don't usurp the poor.

Hopeless?

As he took command over U.S. troops in Iraq, General David Petraeus, said yesterday that the “way ahead will be hard, but it is not hopeless.” What does he mean by “not hopeless”? If he’s saying a U.S. conceptualization of victory is achievable—solidifying through our military presence a working coalition of Shiites and Sunnis that can autonomously control extremist, sectarian violence—I don’t think that’s a practical hope. We can’t write the whole country off as hopeless, but I think we need to redefine both our hopes and our “way ahead.”

If we hope to offer security through our military presence, can we at least couple it with aid when security fails? Every day, I can see horrifying photos of not only dead Iraqi’s, but dying Iraqis. Can we not prevent some of those deaths? With the billions of dollars we give to support our military and the Iraqi military, I wonder how much we’re providing to give medical care, food assistance, basic needs to the victims of this war? I assume we’re doing something for the people who lose their homes and livelihoods over our battles, but somehow I doubt it’s enough. Here, we could think about the message we’re sending to Iraqi people: they see no end to the violence, and also no help in the midst of violence. I expect some of these people who have no hope might become part of the extremist rebellion. If the loss of life isn’t enough to cause our government to do more, maybe the threat to our “hope” in Iraq will cause our government to think more critically.

Thomas Friedman's February 7 column in the New York Times takes an interesting and honest approach to the international affairs angle of our "end game" in Iraq with his deadline and gas price cap proposal. I commend him, but I also wonder what can we do to at least help cap the human toll--treatment when prevention falls? We know exactly how many US soldiers have given their lives, and we must not forget them. But estimates of Iraqi civilian deaths vary from 30,000 (Pentagon number) to 600,000 (Lancet). How much is each life worth to us? Worth enough to try to keep the dying from death?

Lancet Article - Health & Human Rights

This Lancet editorial is short, but it gets the point. Access to the highest standards of health care is an inalienable human right. Inalienable--meaning no person can take it away. But we do: every day, every hour, every second, people die of easily preventable and treatable illnesses. It all comes down to a differential valuation of human life. We have the solutions, and we have the wherewithal to solve these problems. Maybe 50 years ago, we wouldn't have been as guilty. But in this technological age, where individual and collective wealth abounds, we are directly to blame for the inequalities of access and outcome in health care. Until our society, not just the medical community, adopts some attitude of penitence, we will continue to allow mass unnecessary death. Everyone can do something. The key word there is "do."

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673607602050/fulltext

Where do you stand?

Last week, in my peace studies class, we were presented with four views on war and asked to choose the one that best describes our position:

Realist: War is hell--deal with it.

Neo-realist: War is a necessary but unfortunate evil, justified by the greater evil it's meant to combat.

Just War: War is often the last resort, but also as such can and should be regulated by rules and norms.

Pacifist: War is hell--and evil--and to fight evil with the evil of war is to sustain two evils.

I think it's essential to know one's beliefs, now especially with the pending escalation in Iraq. I know most people have sincere beliefs, and all sincerity should be heard. So, to anyone who might possibly read this (all 2 of you, maybe)...where do you stand?

Truth and Haiti

Two bits of wisdom, from the philosopher Mulder, came to mind this weekend: "I want to believe" and "The truth is out there."

I want to believe...in Haiti's democracy. I want to believe in honesty when former President Jean Bertrand Aristide extolled liberation theology, when he wanted justice and transparency. I want to believe that he really did do his best to serve the poor of his country. I know his hands were wrenched behind his back: his resources were blocked and his measures killed. Of course US-owned sweatshops wouldn't want him to raise the minimum wage to a dollar a day. I want to believe his decisions were only unwise in that he based them on hopes of honesty from his colleagues, that he suffered only from falsely believing the world would treat him as another democratic leader. I want to believe that the chimeres were a desperate group of young people called upon at a desperate final hour, that he really did only lose control. I want to believe that the person the people so overwhelmingly cast their hopes in was and is a good man.

The truth is out there, but it's sinking deeper every day. Despite all I want to believe, I know I must believe the truth. But how can I find the truth? Propaganda is so entrenched in our culture that it's unrecognizable. We see authority, and we believe it as truth. Any common establishment newspaper around the world will proclaim that Aristide was overthrown by a "popular uprising" or a "rebel movement." Who were these "people"? They were extreme right-wingers, armed by the US, trained in the Dominican Republic. They were the disgruntled minority rich, fueled and nurtured by our majority, ruling rich. Among the obvious propaganda, I find things I don't want to believe, but that seem like truth. I know MINUSTAH is murdering civilians, but are they also fighting the gangs?

News is not truth. News is feeds us what it wants us to believe...what we want to believe.

In George Orwell's 1984, the ministry of truth is really the ministry of lies, and the ministry of peace is responsible for making war. With such a web of snide deals and ulterior motives that links the allies and the enemies, how far are we from an Orwellian reality?