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The
Politics of Health Care:
Good intentions are not enough
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Date:
March 6, 10.30 AM
Venue:
Casuarina Hall, India Habitat Centre, Lodi Road, New
Delhi.
Speakers:
Dr.
Roger Bate, Institute of Economic Affairs, London, author
of "When Politics Kills: Malaria and the DDT Debate",
published by the Liberty Institute, 2001.
Dr.
Anil Patel, Action Research in Community Health (ARCH),
Mangrol, Gujarat
Dr.
Parth Shah, Centre for Civil Society, New Delhi
Chair:
Swaminathan
S. A. Aiyer, Consulting Editor, The Economic Times
Following is a summary of Dr. Roger Bate's paper. Dr
Bate is a fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs
in London and a board member of the South African NGO,
Africa Fighting
Malaria. He is also a visiting fellow at the Liberty
Institute, New Delhi.
When
Politics Kills: how our preoccupations harm the poor
Most
of the pre-occupations of rich westerners arise from
the modern paradox: while their longevity, health and
environment has never been better they spend more time
than ever before worrying about all three. Numerous
scares (e.g. Alar, Saccharine, Breast implants, passive
smoking and nuclear power) attest to these pre-occupations.
But even if these scares had more validity it may be
inappropriate for poor countries to be worried too much
about them. Indeed, it may be necessary for these countries
to allow things to happen which the rich world would
sensibly discourage or even prohibit.
The
classic example of this phenomenon is the current attempt
by western governments to ban globally the pesticide
DDT. But although DDT can be environmentally harmful,
it is still required for malaria control in some developing
countries. Furthermore, since it is only sprayed indoors
it is unlikely to cause any environmental problem at
all, and will save thousands of lives.
Dr
Bate will discuss the proposed United Nations treaty
to globally ban DDT, the status of malaria around the
world and the impact of a global ban. He will draw parallels
with other less obvious, but still harmful, western
policies, and discuss the strategies by which the developing
world can retain the right to use products/processes
we in the west have long discarded.
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