Protests greet the IMF By Phil E. Benjamin The September meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank that is taking place in Prague, Czech Republic will be facing demonstrations and protests every bit the size and intensity that took place in Seattle last December. To try to deflect the worldwide anger, there are rumblings that the world financial leaders, acting under the orders of the G-7 capitalist economic power countries, will be offering relief to some debt ridden countries. What they offer will not be enough. The rage of the world's people will be heard. Global health suicide For example in the Aug. 25 Washington Post reported that Dr. Rene Favaloro, 77, committed suicide because, according to his peers, family and his own writings, he had come to blame globalization and the free-market revolution of the 1990s for "a growing callousness" toward health care for the poor." The last straw for the Argentinean physician was his failure to convince government and private leaders and officials to save a highly recognized heart foundation that he had helped found and lead. We reported last year in this column how the IMF and WB were forcing debt ridden countries, especially Latin American countries, to cut back on their publicly funded programs or they would not receive any international financing. They demanded privatization. Argentina followed the dictates of U.S. corporate demands that placed profits above the needs of patients. They privatized much of their health and pension programs. Once covered by a fairly good health insurance program, the uninsured became a major feature in Argentina. Dr. Favaloro refused to turn away uninsured patients. "Rene felt [the reforms] had left Argentina morally bankrupt, that the growing number of poor people were being ignored, that the government had become increasingly corrupt and that local companies and new multinationals simply didn't feel a responsibility to contribute to philanthropy," said Mariano Favaloro, the physician's cousin. U.S. insurance companies, Aetna and Cigna, operate in Latin America - pitting a profit-driven health system against public ones. Global public health crisis "Future health prospects depend increasingly on globalization processes and on the impact of global environmental change. Economic globalization - entailing deregulated trade and investment - is a mixed blessing for health. Economic growth and the dissemination of technologies have widely enhanced life expectancy. However, aspects of globalization are jeopardizing health by eroding social and environmental conditions, exacerbating the rich-poor gap, and disseminating consumerism. These changes include altered composition of the atmosphere, land degradation, depletion of terrestrial aquifers and ocean fisheries, and loss of biodiversity. This weakening of life-supporting systems poses health risks." These are the words from researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. They then added a strong recommendation to practitioners in regard to the new global scene: "Contemporary public health must therefore encompass the interrelated tasks of reducing social and health inequalities and achieving health-sustaining environments." In other words now is not the time to put your heads in the sand. The Prague meetings must be paid attention to. Local demonstrations to coincide with the protests in Prague should be supported. Australia and the Aborigines The British medical journal, The Lancet, recently reported that the United Nations Committee for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights roundly condemned Australia for its continuing failure to improve the health status of Aboriginal Australians. They cited substantially lower life expectancy, high maternal and infant mortality rates and higher rates of infectious diseases. The Olympic city of Sydney was specifically cited for its anti-Aboriginal activities.
