At 10:47 PM 12/1/97 +1000, Eberhard Wenzel wrote:
>On  1 Dec 97 at 12:01, d.raphael wrote:
>
>> In Ontario, we see the poorest of the poor having their
>> incomes cut by 22%, hostel use increasing by 50%, and food
>> banks doing a booming business...
>
>Dennis, I guess this applies to other so-called developed countries as well.
>Social inequalities is the effect of current governmental policies in many
>countries.

and as Dennis pointed out:

>
>> If we, health promoters who should know better, do not speak
>> out, what hope do any of us really have?

While I don't disagree that rugged individualism may be fuelling some of the
debate about whether to act or not - and the comment raised regarding a lack
of identity on the issue of social inequality and the role the media and
governments have played in  keeping fuzzy the public understanding of the
relationships between acheiving health and health inequities under the broad
determinants - I think there is one fundamental and perhaps concrete barrier
which stops many health promotion practitioners from organizing and speaking
out - namely - biting the hand that feeds you.

In many cases the purse for health promotion resides with the very
governments who are implementing policies which fuel health inequity -
perhaps at their peril.

So when a public health employee or health promoter in a community health
centre entirely funded by government wants to get active then the breaks are
put on for fear of lost funding.

Does this ring true for others?

If so how to we dismantle this wall of silence?

Liz Rykert - Toronto