Keep the Fire Going ! - Daily Alert - People's Health Assembly - 9 December 2000

Daily Alert - 9 December 2000

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Keep the Fire Going !

PHA 2000 concludes but the movement goes on PHA 2000 concludes but the movement goes on PHA 2000 concludes but the movement goes on PHA 2000 concludes but the movement goes on

They came, they spoke and they concurred. The five-day meet of the People’s Health Assembly at Savar, Bangladesh had so much energy – drawn from the enthusiasm of its diverse participants- that for many this was indeed a unique and wonderful experience. A cross-section of PHA 2000 delegates speak about both their experiences and expectations.

Laxmi Menon, India
Groups from all over the world came together and were able to discuss various issues. Now they should carry forward the movement at the regional and national level. There should be some mechanism to implement the action plans outlined in the People’s Charter for Health regionally and nationally otherwise we will become another Alma Ata. There were far too many workshops. I would have liked to attend a few more but it was impossible.

Hani Serag, Egypt
It was very important to have a meeting like this. The People’s Charter for Health is an important tool and should be carefully followed line by line to evolve plans for action. In fact we need a global plan of action and greater coordination between groups at the national, regional and international level.

Yuri Nakata, Japan
The PHA 2000 was very successful. Lots of people from all over the world got together. It is very difficult to organize an Our biggest fear is not that we are inadequate, Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure, t is our own light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small does not serve the world. international meeting of this kind. We have to move governments to get our demands accepted and for that we have to stick together, continue discussing and collaborating. This is not the end but the beginning. We should get a list of names and addresses of participants so that we can keep in touch with them.

Sri Rahayu, Indonesia
It was a really wonderful process. There were so many people from so many professions- academics to poor people- all living in the same space with no differences between the rich and the poor, North and South, developed and underdeveloped. The organisation of the Assembly was also very good and everyone was given enough space to have their say. I never thought very seriously about the connection between inequality and health issues but I have learnt a lot in the past five days. I hope I have the strength to bring the message of PHA to the Indonesian people. We need to evolve an international structure that can keep the movement going.

Andrew Chapfika, Zimbabwe
This meeting was a first in every respect. It was a wonderful personal experience, an eye-opener in every respect. I used to think of health in more simplistic terms but this was a very informative event. As far as the objective of ‘hearing the unheard’ the PHA 2000 was very successful. It was centred on people, people were doing most of the talking, the trial was held by them and it was their verdict. I am happy that Africa participated. I will back home. I am not going to sit down but will carry the message forward. A worldwide organisation to carry forward the movement is very important. We need that as soon as yesterday ! We need to keep the fire going. If we allow it to subside we may lose the momentum. That is my greatest fear.

Fran Baum, Australia
I thought PHA 2000 was fantastic. The organisation of the event was wonderful. The content of the meetings was also very good and inspiring. We could do a lot of networking and establish connections across sectors. Sometimes when you are on your own you think there are only a few people who don’t agree with the direction the world is going in. It was good to know that there are so many people who think like you. The stories presented were good but needed more analytical debate. In terms of implementing the plan of action we are up against powerful interests and need more protests like the ones that took place in Seattle and Melbourne to demand change. We need to go back and talk to our political and health systems.

Our biggest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure, It is our own light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?".

Actually, who are you not to be/ Your playing small does not serve the world.

There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Nelson Mandela

Australia: A tale from the bush - Marie Russell
I live in the outback of New South Wales, on the banks of the Darling River, which is the longest river in Australia, with my husband Tom. We have six children between us, four of whom are married and we have five grand daughters.

The region I live in is the semi-arid rangelands of New South Wales, an area called the Western Division, which is the equivalent in size of Pakistan. It has only 50,000 people. The indigenous people of my area are called the Barcenji tribe and we co-exist in harmony. Reconciliation in Australia will come from the people not government.

My nearest town is 220 kilometers away, population 6,000. Water is a very important issue concerning my community. Last week the Water Bill reforms were passed in Parliament in my state. This is a first step for community and government working together in partnership for long term sustainability of our rivers. I would like to tell you about some of the real problems we are facing in remote Australia, and also about my role in the community. I think it is very important that we encourage women to have a much greater voice on the decisions that affect our families, our communities, and our environment. Just like in so many other countries rural women are the major builders of social capital. We mightn’t get much of the economic capital but we sure make the social capital.

We have faced hard times in rural areas over the last ten years, as a result of- low commodity prices, the wool price crash of the 1990; the long drought of the nineties; escalating fuel costs (which are now crippling some industries); massive floods in western part of New South Wales, causing devastation with stock losses and most crops ruined in the past few weeks.

A lot of farmers will go bankrupt as a result of our floods, or have pressure applied from financial institutions. These farmers and their families have lived in the area for generations. A large percentage of them have endured long term debt as a result of poor commodity prices forced by the worsening world trade climate.

Health
Declining medical services throughout rural Australia are having an impact on the community with shortages of general practitioners (GP’s) and health services. In my area we have a clinic, run by the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) once a month located in our very tiny village called Tilpa, which has a population of six people. There is always a nurse on board and a general practitioner. This service is accessed by all the people in the district and other people passing through or working in the rural service industry such as shearing teams etc.

People travel long distances to the clinic - up to 300 kilometers the round trip. This service has become more and more in demand over the last ten years as the economic downturn, the drought and the drought breaking floods, took their toll on the community. It can take up to three weeks to get an appointment with a GP in the town 200 kms away; so the Royal Flying Doctor Service is a preferred choice in our area. My husband and I only have to travel 50 kilometers each way if we wish to get a prescription or have a check up.

Managing Change/Education/ Communications/Technology
Education for children in remote areas is becoming increasingly difficult; long separations of families have become a way of life. The women are leaving the properties and moving into nearby towns to educate the children and supplement farm income, returning only in school holidays, leaving the men to work in isolation and working long hours.

The health and well being of the men is of great concern. Struggling families are being fragmented as they try to cope within declining economic circumstances and restructuring of their industry. There is a need for physical support for men and their families and also emotional, psychological and moral support to cope with challenging and changing circumstances.

There is a rising level of suicide, with the problem concerning mainly men and leadership role in their communities, and young men. It may only be the interest of networking the nation which, here we women that in the long run will improve established a cyber café in a disused the health of rural men. We have virtually railway station in Cobar. I represent lost a generation of children to the regional community in natural resources and towns or cities, most of this generation will environmental issues. probably not return to the land. This is shown by the ageing of the farming population – the average age of framers is 58 years.

From 1992 to 1996 there was a restructuring in my area, seeing the first wave of properties changing hands and old families leaving as a result of the prolonged drought, high interest rates, low commodities, reduced stock numbers and rising costs. We are now seeing the second wave of people leaving – at a much greater rate.It is estimated that 75% of the landholders in my area will leave the land within the next ten years.

Women in Rural Australia
Rural women are becoming more involved in decision making and running the family farm. They are also being more involved in the decision making process for the community.It hasn’t always been easy to achieve this, but women are now being more recognised than they were in the past and also more supported by their menfolk and the Government. Both Federal and State Government’s are encouraging this.

I am the Western Division representative of the Rural Women’s Network, which is a state-wide program which aims to provide an interface between government and the community on priority women’s issues and empower a diversity of rural women to better achieve their own goals. It is a network linking with agencies, individuals and groups.

Who are rural women?
There is no definitive rural woman. She may have lived on the land for 40 years or a mere 4 months. She may or may not speak English, she may be 18 or 80, a single parent, a wife, a single woman, an employee, a mother; she may be a farmer or work off farm. She may live in town or village or in the remote outback. Some rural women live in the country by choice – for some there is no other option.

Incomes and conditions vary but all are exasperated by lack of transport, isolation, and in most cases declining rural services. I now participate in a number of other programs in addition to the Rural Women’s network, such as Farming for the future program, which is assisting farmers to remain viable, the Rural Leadership program, which is training women and men to take a greater leadership role in their communities, and networking the nation which, here we established a cyber cafe in a disused railway station to Cobar. I represent community in natural resources and environment issues

Initiating change yourselves in your own communities and working hand in hand with government and organisations is a step forward to viable communities in the future.

WHERE THERE IS NO CHARTER
David Werner, a guiding spirit of the people’s health movement spoke to PHA Alert on the way forward to achieve the ideals of the new Charter adopted at PHA 2000 Following are excerpts from the interview

What is your impression of PHA 2000
In terms of bringing together a broad spectrum of people from many countries and from many different sectors concerned about the impact of economic globalisation on health and well-being I think it was very successful. I think there was a marvellous interchange among people and a learning process for everyone. I think one of the strong points of the PHA was the testimonies of people. However I think that there could have been more links in these testimonies between the micro and the macro- how the policies at the global level are actually affecting the lives, increasing the poverty, cutting back health services for the people who spoke out.

What do you think of the People’s Charter for Health ?
I think that the People’s Charter for Health is really a very valuable tool for looking at issues and identifying areas so that they can take action for change.

How different is it from the Alma Ata ?
It is very different, because it specifically reaches out to a lot of areas affecting health outside of the health sector and looks at the organisations the IMF, WTO and the TNCs very specifically which are only very peripherally referred to in the Alma Ata.

But are those who are ‘fighting for peace ‘as organised as those who ‘love war’ ?
Not really. I think that the weakest point so far of the PHA 2000 is concerned is the plan for action- because it is still not much of a plan.

What do you think is a viable plan of action ?
I think we need to look at the issues that are raised in the People’s Charter for Health and at the different organisations and groups and movements from different countries represented here at the PHA we need to identify those areas where they really feel capable of getting some action on, define those actions, move forward with them in their own countries and areas but with a close contact with the coordinating group for the whole PHA which can get the word out so that there can be a demand placed over certain issue in a particular country for which there can be a bombardment of support all over the world .An example of that kind of support is the Zapatista uprising in Mexico . The Mexican government’s first response was to crush them but they had a very well coordinated approach through the internet, through progressive groups around the world. The clamour in support of them and in protest against their suppression was such that the Mexican government really had to pull back, negotiate on their demands. This is a very good example of the kind of thing we can begin to do in the PHA. We now have potentially a very broad based network . We have to find a way to encourage action at the local level and the country level that can be supported internationally.

How do you see kind of global action happening organisationally ?
I don’t think that has been adequately specified as yet. This is where I think there wasn’t time enough to look at how we are going to go forward, and how to take action, and how to coordinate the different country programs with the central program.

There was a suggestion placed from the floor to form a kind of democratically elected international council, founded on national and regional level councils, to take the movement forward. What do you think of this idea ?
I think it is a good idea. One way or the other there needs to be a representative group that carries the movement forward and continues to make the links between a united international body and the different coalition members at the national level.

Heard in the corridors
Despite the huge amount of energy that PHA 2000 participants imbibed from the sheer enthusiasm of the event many of them must have returned home leaner. (though not necessarily meaner). The reason is simple. Remember all those long walks between the PHA Secretariat building and the Conference center ? Well, those who did those walks seriously (and did not succumb to temptation and take the free rickshaw rides ) are returning home a few pounds lighter with trimmer waists. We hope this critical reduction does not affect the outcome when they put all their weight behind the demands of the PHA charter.

Guess what ? Our dear friend Richard Skolnik ( of December 6 ‘World Bank faces the People’ fame) was discovered by two Palestinian delegates recently at an upmarket Dhaka restaurant having a sumptuous dinner. A conversation with him over some Bangla delicacies soon revealed something quite interesting – ( though not entirely unpredicted. in these columns) The fellow remembered nothing, (or at least pretended to) of what happened at PHA 2000 with all those hundreds of delegates treating him as Public Enemy No.1. Just goes to show that it was indeed all in a day’s work for Richard the Coin Hearted. Somebody called him Mr World Bank the other day- maybe they should now call him Mr World BLANK !

The title of the youngest delegate to PHA 2000 goes to one cute little baby brought along by his brave parents. Imagine subjecting kids (however indirectly) that age to weighty discussions on globalisation – or the need to ‘radically transform’ the WTO. The baby was relief to see in an event that was otherwise quite an adult affair. The least we can do to pay back the little fellow is to ensure that the world is far closer to the ideal of ‘Health for All’ by the time he grows up to Assembly-attending age.