I’m reading Everything is Tuberculosis (great book by the way), and the author posits a reason for African mistrust of Western medicine. As a civilization, we have created a surge and abandon standard of care in Africa.
Clinics open up on grants, send doctors and facilities, then evaporate when the grant/interest dries up. There is no continuity of care, no training of local doctors, and no reliable facilities and supply lines. Of course there is no trust.
We need to be investing in training and sustainable care if there is to be any changes in the culture around medicine in Africa.
But isn’t this specifically by design as well? We don’t actually want to invest in Africa, we want to keep it destabilized so we can continue to exploit those countries and its people for resources. It’s a form of imperialism. We can overload them with aid, they in turn have to be dependent on that aid. This then de-incentivizes those countries from putting any resources into the problems.
So yes, John Green is right. I haven’t read the book, but I don’t know if he talks about how the geo politics, all of this is by design. The Global Perspective: Reflections on Imperialism and Resistance by Torkil Lauesen talks to how the global south gets exploited for profits.
The clinics are not intended to uplift the people there. It is to prevent an outbreak that could spread to other areas that the politicians do actually care about. That is it. If it were at all possible to keep the diseases contained to Africa, politicians would do that instead.
I’m reading Everything is Tuberculosis (great book by the way), and the author posits a reason for African mistrust of Western medicine. As a civilization, we have created a surge and abandon standard of care in Africa.
Clinics open up on grants, send doctors and facilities, then evaporate when the grant/interest dries up. There is no continuity of care, no training of local doctors, and no reliable facilities and supply lines. Of course there is no trust.
We need to be investing in training and sustainable care if there is to be any changes in the culture around medicine in Africa.
But isn’t this specifically by design as well? We don’t actually want to invest in Africa, we want to keep it destabilized so we can continue to exploit those countries and its people for resources. It’s a form of imperialism. We can overload them with aid, they in turn have to be dependent on that aid. This then de-incentivizes those countries from putting any resources into the problems.
So yes, John Green is right. I haven’t read the book, but I don’t know if he talks about how the geo politics, all of this is by design. The Global Perspective: Reflections on Imperialism and Resistance by Torkil Lauesen talks to how the global south gets exploited for profits.
The clinics are not intended to uplift the people there. It is to prevent an outbreak that could spread to other areas that the politicians do actually care about. That is it. If it were at all possible to keep the diseases contained to Africa, politicians would do that instead.