March 7th; early morning dialogue

I awoke early today to dogs howling outside and wind rattling the blinds. It is still very dark, and rolling over in my bunk bed I can see that my dad is awake as well, wearily massaging his temples and trying to sleep. Before falling back asleep we have a long discussion about the history of globalization and development, the focus of my undergraduate study of cultural geography at the University of Washington, though a topic I have never really spoken with my dad about.

We go through the politics of development issues, and the problems created by the free market ideology that has driven post-1970s globalization, discussing the long and impossibly sad history of human rights abuses that this kind of socio-economic system engenders. It is disheartening to see how this history of growing inequality and entrenched poverty has had a direct effect on the health and human rights of the children in Gilgil.

Clearly, many here are without access to basic human rights such as access to preferential health care, clean drinking water and food, adequate clothing and shelter, and the means to support themselves and their families. In Gilgil, the effects of this history are very real and tangible, unlike when I was studying these processes in the cavernous libraries of the University of Washington.

Reflecting on this history, Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize economist, writes:

We have to shift our attention from an exclusive concentration on incomes and commodities (often used used in economic analyses) to things that people have reason to value intrinsically. Incomes and commodities are valued mainly as "instruments"--as means to other ends. We desire them for what we can do with them; possessing commodities or income is not valuable in itself. Indeed, we seek income primarily for the help it might provide in leading a good life--a life we have reason to value.

Progress is more plausibly judged by the reduction of deprivation than by the further enrichment of the opulent. We cannot really have an adequate understanding of the future without some view about how well the lives of the poor can be expected to go. Is there, then, any hope for the poor?

In a similar vein, the initial statement from the leaders of the Zapatista Rebellion (a Chiapas-based indigenous revolution launched on the day the North American Free Trade Theory was signed) situates their struggle in terms of social and economic rights:

We have been denied the most elemental education so that others can use us as cannon fodder and pillage the wealth of our country. They don't care that we have nothing, absolutely nothing, not even a roof over our heads, no land, no work, no health care, no food, and no education. Nor are we able freely and democratically to elect our political representatives, nor is their independence from foreigners, nor is their peace or justice for ourselves and our children.

As market-driven approaches to development were advanced by Developed countries, international bodies (such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund), and multinational corporations (MNCs) over the past forty years, we have seen some of the most fundamental human rights, including the right to life itself, stripped from some of the world's poorest individuals.

If these are issues you find interesting and/or intriguing in any way, I will include a reading list on the topic of international health, human rights, and globalization at the end of this online journal as well as a list of internet resources.