As the world watches the unfolding tragedy of what is Ebola, this piece "Modern War: A True Modern Medical Emergency" on CommonDreams details how modern warfare is creating a totally different medical emergency. It is something all of us, wherever we live, will have to deal with.
"For some years now, prominent doctors, medical organizations and institutions such as Partners in Health (PIH) have been talking about the critical importance of "life on the ground" factors that influence health. And even more importantly, they have been initiating and implementing projects based on a holistic, human rights approach and encouraging others to do the same. PIH has been promoting support for international covenants that guarantee health as a human right, understanding that the health of individuals and communities is directly impacted by other guaranteed rights: adequate housing, education, food, social security, decent work, and "the right to the highest standard of physical and mental health."
A February 2014 paper published in The Lancet goes even further. The report—The Lancet-University of Oslo Commission on Global Governance for Health: The political origins of health inequity: prospects for change—points out that in today's globalized world, ensuring health requires looking beyond communities or country borders to "... policy areas that affect health and that require improved global governance: economic crises and austerity measures, knowledge and intellectual property, foreign investment, treaties, food security, transnational corporate activity, irregular migration and violent conflict."
It's radical and powerful stuff: controlling transnational corporate activity or abandoning a war because it threatens health? This is stuff you don't hear or read in the mainstream media, and stuff you may not think about if you're not in the medical profession, reading journals such as The Lancet. But, on some level it's common sense, something everyone, everywhere knows; your health is the sum total of every aspect of you and the world you inhabit. Your "health" was being determined before you were born, by your parent's circumstances and by those of their parents. It's basic and obvious, hidden in plain sight.
In the background of the Ebola crisis, quietly day by day, out of the headlines and seemingly unimportant, the US and others are bombing in Iraq and Syria; no one is talking about how this will impact health or the health care system in those countries. In the case of Iraq, the question is how it will further exacerbate the already disastrous and ever-deteriorating health situation that has been developing over the last twenty four years, since the First Gulf War and UN Sanctions in 1990.
The country once had the best medical care in the Middle East. It was a modern country, with modern facilities and infrastructure. Social and economic policies supported other aspects of life that contributed to a healthy population: free and mandatory education through university, affordable housing, ample food availability and high employment, guaranteed by government subsidized jobs. Most, if not all of this is long gone, along with the general state of good health and well-being of the population in Iraq. It shouldn't surprise anyone. As the famous poster said, back in the 60s, War is not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things. Another obvious truth gathering dust in closets all over the USA."
"For some years now, prominent doctors, medical organizations and institutions such as Partners in Health (PIH) have been talking about the critical importance of "life on the ground" factors that influence health. And even more importantly, they have been initiating and implementing projects based on a holistic, human rights approach and encouraging others to do the same. PIH has been promoting support for international covenants that guarantee health as a human right, understanding that the health of individuals and communities is directly impacted by other guaranteed rights: adequate housing, education, food, social security, decent work, and "the right to the highest standard of physical and mental health."
A February 2014 paper published in The Lancet goes even further. The report—The Lancet-University of Oslo Commission on Global Governance for Health: The political origins of health inequity: prospects for change—points out that in today's globalized world, ensuring health requires looking beyond communities or country borders to "... policy areas that affect health and that require improved global governance: economic crises and austerity measures, knowledge and intellectual property, foreign investment, treaties, food security, transnational corporate activity, irregular migration and violent conflict."
It's radical and powerful stuff: controlling transnational corporate activity or abandoning a war because it threatens health? This is stuff you don't hear or read in the mainstream media, and stuff you may not think about if you're not in the medical profession, reading journals such as The Lancet. But, on some level it's common sense, something everyone, everywhere knows; your health is the sum total of every aspect of you and the world you inhabit. Your "health" was being determined before you were born, by your parent's circumstances and by those of their parents. It's basic and obvious, hidden in plain sight.
In the background of the Ebola crisis, quietly day by day, out of the headlines and seemingly unimportant, the US and others are bombing in Iraq and Syria; no one is talking about how this will impact health or the health care system in those countries. In the case of Iraq, the question is how it will further exacerbate the already disastrous and ever-deteriorating health situation that has been developing over the last twenty four years, since the First Gulf War and UN Sanctions in 1990.
The country once had the best medical care in the Middle East. It was a modern country, with modern facilities and infrastructure. Social and economic policies supported other aspects of life that contributed to a healthy population: free and mandatory education through university, affordable housing, ample food availability and high employment, guaranteed by government subsidized jobs. Most, if not all of this is long gone, along with the general state of good health and well-being of the population in Iraq. It shouldn't surprise anyone. As the famous poster said, back in the 60s, War is not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things. Another obvious truth gathering dust in closets all over the USA."
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