Sat, Apr 10, 2010: Claudio Schuftan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

    Human Rights Reader 237

SOME REACTIONS TO WHAT WE HEAR (AND DO NOT HEAR) IN MANY A PUBLIC
HEALTH CONFERENCE THESE DAYS.

Am I tired of going to such conferences? Sort of.

It is just that, in them, we hear about so many things that need doing
and have so long been overdue (…achieving the health MDGs,
strengthening health delivery systems, organizing and empowering
beneficiaries to demand changes ….and on-and-on…). One gets the
impression that it is in times of crisis that we finally will bring
to the fore what really needs doing and has long been overdue… But
not even in such circumstance does the needed happen in our meetings
of the learned; almost nothing substantial, beyond a passing comment,
is heard about taking actions to address the ‘condition of poverty’,
about disparity reduction, about addressing the widespread and
numerous violations of the human right to health and to nutrition;
nothing substantial and really deep-felt is heard about empowering
claim holders --or worse: the concept of empowerment is repeatedly
hijacked by making it mean giving women greater self-esteem,
providing them with health education and nutritional knowledge and
skills and/or ‘empowering’ them to better take care of their
children.

The full text of this Reader can be found at

http://www.socialmedicine.org/2010/04/10/human-rights/some-reactions-to-what-we-hear-and-do-not-hear-in-many-a-public-health-conference-these-days/


Claudio
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Forwarded by:
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Dr Sam Lanfranco (Prof Emeritus) Econ, York U.
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA - M3J 1P3
email: [log in to unmask]   Skype: slanfranco
blog:  http://samlanfranco.blogspot.com
Phone: 613 476-0429 cell: 416-816-2852
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