Hari Kumar wrote:
Julio Huato :
"I was thinking that, using the knowledge and information you *already* have
about Mexico's
or about countries with similar conditions and problems, at that (perhaps high)
level of generality or abstraction, you made your
points. . . . Let me list issues in which
information people on PEN-L already have may be useful: technology, the
environment, foreign policy, international economic relations,
dealing with the U.S., development, macro policy, finance, political organizing,
etc."
Dear Julio:
I have enjoyed your insights into the situation of a country I know little
about.
I am 'shy', but perhaps these simple thoughts might be of some small use.
Health.
1) Stats inevitably place the primacy for health care outcome figures on
overall environmental issues and socioeconomic determinants of health - not
hospitals.
Thus: Any national programme should stress sanitation, clean water, clean air
(mindful of Mexico City), nutrition.
Achieving equity in income is beyond the direct purview of this
limited-reformist type of approach that is aimed at here. I think that is the
idea anyway. (I obviously have some ideas as befits one who professes some
Marxist ideology!)
2) There are available health care models from even the most capitalist states
(to wit - India) that show the health care benefits of a midwife-infant health
care giver non-physician based rural care.
Hence: A regionalised non-physician care system with emphasis on infant and
mother health care.
These would focus on preventive health care starategies - appropriate free
vacccinations; weight gain & free nutritional supplements; advice re breast
feeding strategies; delivery assistance;
maternal support vs paternal battering etc...
3) Mixed model systems show that listening to the community challenges power
structures & improves health care outcomes.
Hence: A detailed sampling (in a non-hostile environment) that explicitly
evaluates community responses to the level and type of health care they are
recieving. This feed-back must be responded to.
4) A national health care structure that starts with a model of the preventive
health care model. Including the regular medical chek-up that endorses highest
levels of evidence. Canada has such a programme. I must say that I am not a
Canada-phile but if you have to live in a 'classic' capitalist country....
5) A system like the NICE programme in the UK - that brings experts together to
explicitly weighs competing hlat care burden-costs-benefits - & comes out with
some evidence based recommendations. My issue with this is that it often kills
Peter to save Pauline. However.... again, short of a fully socialist state...
Anyway... if you have progressive health care docs-health care workers who want
links to far better policy advice than I can proffer, I would be happy to put
them in touch with some leading lights.
With Best Regards, Hari Kumar
.
I second that, health care.
Even the U.S. leaves it's less afluent adrift.
More generally, I was scratching something like this, but hadn't posted
it, because, like Hari, I'm shy, and don't have the advantage of a CV in
any area of expertise except being a nuisance on internet email lists (I
have been known to excel in that field...) .
Repeatedly over the last few mornings, Travus T. Hipp mentioned that
Oaxaca was particularly restive. Here is a synopsis I typed this morning
for posting:
.
Mexican Independence day has been cancelled by Presidente Vincente
Fox, because protestor are occupying all the parks and streets around
the city for the last 2 months.. Obrador’s crew calls for a fiesta!
General uprising in Oaxaca, and the Federales have pulled out. Sitrep.
<http://leighm.net/blog/?p=660>
.
It would be worth investigating, at a socio-cultural-economic level, why
Oaxaca?
It's almost the only Department mentioned when one searches google news
for "unrest mexico"
Political chaos rules in Oaxaca
Arizona Republic, AZ - Sep 11, 2006
Militants with clubs roam Oaxaca, raiding government offices and
dragging out employees who refuse to leave. Barricades and torched
vehicles block the streets. ...
Taking Notes in Oaxaca, Mexico
Upside Down World, NY - Sep 11, 2006
Oaxaca is wide awake. While many of us seem to be in a deeply
unconscious state, oblivious to the world’s realities of violence ...
Oaxaca: arson attack on APPO office
World War 4 Report, NY - Sep 10, 2006
Unknown perpetrators attempted to burn down the offices of a leftist
organization that is taking part in protests in Oaxaca City early
Saturday. ...
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&resnum=0&tab=wn&ie=UTF-8&q=oaxaca&btnG=Search+News
It seems that analyzing, understanding 'why Oaxaca', and working on
ameliorating the situation there through whatever resources are
available and effective would help... And in the process, build a
nationwide parallel structure based on a working model already in place
and functioning with the ability to service other areas nearby. You
might find people coming from all around Mexico to watch, learn, and
participate in the experiment, then take the information and techniques
home with them... to eventually serve their respective regions. This is
not to say that all areas of Mexico have the same issues, but if the
underlying skills are spread nationwide, it could produce meaningful
results.
I believe this is known militarily as the "inkblot' strategy.
Google:
<...>
THE SMALL WAR MANUAL AND MARINE CORPS MILITARY OPERATIONS OTHER ...File
Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
Lieutenant General Victor’s Krulak’s Vietnam War era “spreading inkblot
strategy”. versus French Colonial General Joseph Gallieni’s “progressive
occupation” ...
PDF:
<http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/usmc/ford.pdf#search=%22inkblot%20strategy%22>
HTML:
<http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:0kGVR78U5s0J:www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/usmc/ford.pdf+inkblot+strategy&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=3>
<...>
This technique is used in a slightly different manner at 'Free Skools'
and 'Penny Universities' around the US, where there is active exchange
of educational techniques and curriculum spreading throughout the
informal network, and Lopez Obrador already *has* a network in place.
.
A parting thought:
Never forget there is a geopolitical hegemon in the regional equation
affecting much of the Americas.
Us, the U.S.
As the U.S. rock band Steppenwolf said years ago, "There's a monster on
the loose, he's got our heads in a noose, and he just sit's there
watching...". The U.S. government is watching... very closely.
Mexico is in the crosshairs, being a U.S. strategic national border, and
because of trade/economic/regime ties and interaction between Mexico
and the U.S., which causes ...panicked action... (?) in relation to the
endangerment of those relations and the entrenched bureaucracies that
would prefer 'business as usual'.
.Fom the peoplesvoice in Tennessee, a take on the buildup of U.S.
military in other regions of Central/South America follows.
The second paragraph re-iterates the importance-in-concept of my earlier
suggestion about the situation in Oaxaca. It scares the powers-that-be
when there is social change for the better of everyone in a society.
09/13/06
Operation Latin American Freedom
Benjamin Dangl
Preparations are underway for renewed US militarization and intervention
in Latin America. To protect its own hegemony and economic interests,
the US government is using the threat of terrorism as an excuse for
military operations aimed at destabilizing leftist movements and
governments and securing natural resources such as oil and gas.
By focusing on social programs in education, land reform and healthcare,
many of the region’s new leaders have put the needs of the people ahead
of the demands of multinational companies. This leftist resurgence makes
corporate investors and other harbingers of the free market nervous.
Recently, the Bush administration has gone to extreme measures to ensure
that this leftist trend is put in check...
<...>
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2006/09/13/p10741
Leigh
http://leighm.net/
