This week, we're continuing our discussion of "structural violence," inequality, and disease/health. We'll be concentrating on the first two chapters of Paul Farmer's book, Pathologies of Power.
The introductory chapter of the book draws heavily on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which can be found here: http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml
For your commentaries this week, simply choose one of the following topics and write a brief commentary only on that topic:
Describe what structural violence means for Paul Farmer and why he has written his book on it. With that, what unites the two stories that Farmer relates--those of Acephie and Chouchou--and why does Farmer suggest that the level of suffering expressed in these stories is difficult to know and to relate (see passages beginning on 39-40)?
Farmer very clearly articulates the goals of his book. What are they and to whom are they directed? Why is he particularly well suited to address those parties and what kind of evidence does he draw on to do so?
Why does Farmer suggest that the "reigning ideologies of public health" runs counter to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? What are the reigning ideologies of public health (and what other ideological framings do they fit with)?
What does it mean, for Farmer, to "bear witness"? What are the different ways of bearing witness that he defines? Why is the distinction important?
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ReplyDeletePaul Farmer's book “Pathologies of Power” describes the affect of social inequalities of public health and humanitarian rights in what he terms as “efficiency verses equity trade off.” Farmer refers to the Universal Decleration and its focus on defining the rights of humans but not as interested on the health matters that he feels is an important social right. Two cases in Haiti that he refers to demonstrate the severity of the health issues taken place within the political and economical status that they live in. The first was Acephie whose poverty and limitation to education has subjected her to make dire decisions to survive due to her lack of resources. The land is not profitable for farming due floods creating poor agriculture and she is subjected to involving herself to a military personal (they receive governmental salary) whom she contracts the aids virus from thus leading to death. Her poverty limited her choices in being intimate with someone who had financial gain. This is showing that the powers of sexism play a role in the social status as well in health. Farmer argues that we can try to comprehend the nature of Human Rights violations but fail in giving a deeper understanding of how politics, cultural and moral relativism are involved in protected human rights. He talks about social theory and liberation theology as a way to achieve a better understanding of structural violence; how it has the power to place people at high rates of health risks in war like settings. As with Chouchou the beatings he endured by soldiers and attaches are difficulties of human agency as with Acephie. In both situations, they were affected health wise by the military that can strongly influence the livelihood of the poor. Farmer gives three reasons why structural violence is more overwhelming than when it’s explained. The first is eroticization, which distances us from the initial suffering impacted due to remoteness of place, geographically or culturally speaking. Second the unheard voices of the poor with out rights enduring the harsh realities, which inaccurately relayed solely in facts and inaccurate numbers. Third is how the fluctuation and distribution of the suffering is poorly understood. Overall, he is addressing on one hand that governments are implying the idea of the rights that are set out but not approaching it from a social or economic point or view which is apart of the dilemma and the public has no voice because of its low social status making the issues of the poor becoming sickly and dying due to militarism which is more funded than public health care. That is not essentially enacting the purpose of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
ReplyDeleteMelissa, this is a terrific commentary. Nice job drawing out the question of "human agency" in relation to Acephie's contraction of HIV and Chouchou's beating. This ties into Farmer's challenge to our meaning of "freedom," which we'll discuss in more detail tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting - we were just discussing different ideas of freedom in our class as well - including the idea of "choice" as it's used by advocates of the free market to mean anything that's not forced by physical violence. The article by Seabrook about adopting a Haitian orphan and the film "Daughter from Danang" raise the question of whether giving up a child due to poverty can be seen as a "free" choice.
ReplyDeleteStructural Violence is a form of violence in which physical violence is not being used. Instead it uses another form of violence such as racism and classicism which is inequalities between different groups of people, such as social difference and culture difference.The example of the exclusion act shows a form of culture difference in which chinese are view inferior for having a distict culture. In the other side in Chiapas, Mexico the idigenous people living in this area were demanding better education, medicine and resources for their community. They did all they could in order to made their voices heard and see the changes they demanded. Perhaps their were ignore by the goverment and seeing no progressive changes they decided to use violence. In the other parts of Mexico people were not aware about this conditions in which people of Chiapas were living in, this condition is classified as eroticization. This condition enables people to be inform about the issues that are occuring in other parts of the country. It also shows the difference among social classes since people of the wealthy class were not experiencing the same conditions as Chiapas habitants since they had all the resources they needed. This show how the distribution of resources is not equally distributed among people creating a structural violence. In which minorities groups mainly from the working class suffer the consequences of not being treated equally.
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