Summary Of Dr. Paul Farmer's Pathologies Of Power
Dr. Paul Farmer shares with us his experiences with the violation of human rights in his latest book Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New war on the Poor. This book was centered around a well noted critique of the liberal views on human rights, which has rarely served interest. The first half of this book is called Bearing witness. He used this title to describe the first half of the book because it was based solely of on personal experiences. He stated, “They are partial accounts, but they are eye witness accounts.” I plan to analyze this book on the basis of its positive and negative issues that Farmer brought to attention in the book, how this work has added to the depiction of a group community as a whole and if these
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issues will continue to grow as a global health issues due to the structure of power and inequity of the society that Farmer observed.
In the book Farmer talks about many social, economic and political violence against the poor, and powerless individuals. In each chapter he made it a point to address the human rights and public issues that was constantly in occurence. What I enjoyed most about this book was the structure and organization of this book. It broke the book down into different issues that was a constant reminder of the problems that had occurred. He also broke the book down in two halves. The first half of the book was called “Bearing witness,” which took place in Latin America and Russia. He used this title to emphasize that the chapter were based solely on personal experiences. He even stated, “They are partial accounts, but they are eye witnessed accounts.” This half of the book dealt with the extremities of structural violence and human rights violations. Structural violence is also one of the chapter titles. The term structural violence is commonly accredited to Johan Galtung and is defined as a form of violence wherein some social structure violence of institutions may harm people by preventing them from basic needs for qualities of living. I believe that Farmer wanted us to see the accumulated effects of structural violence on and individual which could mean less health or maybe even death. He wanted us to see that those of poverty were suffering and the injustice was a product of human action or nonaction because of structural violence. The second half of the book was called “One physician’s perspective on human rights.” This part of the book focuses on the liberal views of human rights, since the poor rarely a concern. It was basically saying that social justice is geared more in favor towards the power and wealthy. In the end, Farmer was able to take all of the problems and give options for change. The first part of the implies that the inequity of those with power and wealth to those who have neither, they are often left behind or the least of concern.
This half of the book dealt with the poor and how the deep poverty issues lead to social issues like racisim. This part of the book highlighted the lives of individuals and how their situations related and how if they were poor or hungry then they would continue to live in poverty or worsen and the power and wealthy would continue grow. I found this part of the book interesting because I was able to visualize what he was trying to convey, which gave me a better understanding of his …show more content…
study.
Farmer argued that equity is the central challenge for the future of medicine and public health. He linked public health and to social justice. The poor dealt with issues of not having access to treatment, pneumonia or TB is more lethal than AIDS. Many times people travel on mission work to assist with providing health care, but many times the medicine that’s donated is only given because it’ll soon expire. Its safe to say that the poor and powerless are often second priority and many feel that they deserve only whats left. “Health care can be a commodity to be sold or it can be considered a basic social right, but it cannot be both.” Speaking on the works of many Farmer underlined the “Pathogenic role of inequity.”
Another chapter would be chapter 4, “A Plague on all our houses? Resurgent Tuberculosis inside, Russia’s prisons. In this chapter, structural violence also played a big role. Due to the structural violence it was able to be predetermined who would most likely be imprisoned, infected or sick once detained. This epidemic was to much to hide. One of the men that Farmer got to talk with was a man named Sergei. Sergei, told his story to Farmer and other inmates and guards surrounded and listened. Farmer found out just like Sergei, all of the other young convicts were sick with pulmonary tuberculosis. Sergei was imprisoned for a fake checks scam. While Sergei awaited trial he was housed in jail in Kemerovo, where the food and sanitary conditions where unbearable and crammed to capacity with other young men. Through his living conditions he began to cough and lose a tremendous amount of wait. He stated, “I knew I had Tuberculosis.” This occurred well before his case trial. He was transferred to a TB Colony, a facility that confirmed his diagnosis and began his treatment. It had then went away but came back due to lack of medicine, wrong dosages, and more to be determined. He then became resistant to the drugs, which can be termed “Multidrug-resistant Tuberculosis” (MDRTB). Patients with MDRTB requires long-term treatment with about a two year regimen treatment. Sergei informed Farmer that many were diagnosed with this disease but they did not have the resources due to a medication budget of just $2000.00. Farmer was able to determine that these facilities were still in better shape than others that he had visited, for example Haiti. This chapter was quite sad. Yes, they are prisoners but they are still people and should have quality resources for situations like Sergei.
In the second half of this book, farmer goes more into the human rights theory in light of his work in anthropology and medicine.
He also revealed his own roots which came from Christian Latin Americans theologist Gustavo Gutierrez. At time the second part of the book lacked structure causing an audience to become tiring because of some of the similarities of “structural violence.” Farmers ultimate goal with his work was to bring to attention the realities of the poorer of majority of our world. He used this reality as a call for new medical ethic.
Chapter 5 distinguishes the difference among three approaches, in comparing charity, development, and social justice. Of those three approaches to health care and other rights, only social justice is adequate. Charity can sometimes be helpful and necessary, it theorizes that that people in better positions are inferior, rather than to structural inequalities. Development mat lift society in aggregate, but it may not lift the poorest of the poor. Inequalities are more significant because of such an advancement in scientific studies. Healthcare today is now life and death situations, whereas before this kind of technology didn’t really
exist. Chapter 7, “Cruel and Unusual” goes more in depth in the considerations of prison-tuberculosis. This chapter discusses tuberculosis as a punishment. This disease has a long history in the prison setting. According to the book, 8 percent of deaths in the prison was because of TB in the min-nineteenth century. TB is an air borne pathogen, it is coughed into the air in what is known as “droplet nuclei,” and can be inhaled by anyone who shares air with an infected person. Though the prisoners are gated in, it can be transported in several ways like, employees, guards, or surrounding communities. The largest outbreak began in New York City in 1989, 80 percent of all cases could be traced back to jails and prisons. New York reportedly had the highest HIV infection rate. Prisons without the proper ventilations were crammed with inmates who had high baseline rates of infection with both HIV and M. tuberculosis. The three major problems facing out correctional system are underfunding, overcrowding, and tuberculosis. Farmer concluded chapter 7 by returning to the concept of tuberculosis as punishment. He stated that “Contracting tuberculosis in prison, is certainly not part of a prisoner’s sentence.” (Farmer 193)
Chapter 9, “Rethinking Health and Human Rights” reflects on the implications of the books central arguments for and emerging field of inquiry and action. It reflected on his bear witness to decades of violence in Haiti and to hear outsiders, including some in the human rights community. They have seen little progress in the efforts to secure social and economic rights, even though there were some gain in political and civil rights. It was crucial in Russian prisons. In the overcrowded prison hundreds to thousands of Russian prisoners fell ill to tuberculosis and then sent TB colonies that Farmer described in earlier chapters. Farmer seen this in several prisons, and most of which when this book went public those prisoners are still receiving medications that cannot cure them. Sadly, that is probably still taking place.
Some of the methods addressed by Paul Farmer was to make health and healing the symbolic core of the agenda. He want to ensure health and decrease the health inequalities with the help of health professionals by getting them involved. Another method was to make the provisions of services central to the agenda. It was asked of us to listen to the sick and abused who were most likely to have their rights violated. He reminded us that the states are best placed to protect the basic rights of poor people. To establish research agendas he thought that we should examine and observe why some populations were at risk and others were spared human rights violations. Farmer believed that research should remain secondary and was created to enhance services and social justice. We should assume a broader educational mandate. We should not limit ourselves to teaching only a select group of students. Also, achieve independence from powerful government and bureaucracies, which is a central irony of human rights law and consist mainly on the appeals to the perpetrator. Most of the crimes committed were by powerful states. The last method was to secure more resources for health and human rights. States have become less able to help their citizens attain social and economic rights even though they have most often retained their ability to violate these rights. “Its easy to demand more resources, but what’s hard is to produce and put into action.”
My overall opinion of this book is that its extremely truthful in the realties that it describes and regarding the crimes it unveils that are predictable and ongoing. All of the victims had a common source of poverty. This ethnography allowed the readers to understand the perspectives of anthropologist about global health concerns and way to address it that’s more reasonable. It good to acknowledge the problem but its equally important to put into action and act on the problem. We should all take Paul Farmers perspective and take action to help those who are and still repressed by the power and wealthy.
issues will continue to grow as a global health issues due to the structure of power and inequity of the society that Farmer observed.
In the book Farmer talks about many social, economic and political violence against the poor, and powerless individuals. In each chapter he made it a point to address the human rights and public issues that was constantly in occurence. What I enjoyed most about this book was the structure and organization of this book. It broke the book down into different issues that was a constant reminder of the problems that had occurred. He also broke the book down in two halves. The first half of the book was called “Bearing witness,” which took place in Latin America and Russia. He used this title to emphasize that the chapter were based solely on personal experiences. He even stated, “They are partial accounts, but they are eye witnessed accounts.” This half of the book dealt with the extremities of structural violence and human rights violations. Structural violence is also one of the chapter titles. The term structural violence is commonly accredited to Johan Galtung and is defined as a form of violence wherein some social structure violence of institutions may harm people by preventing them from basic needs for qualities of living. I believe that Farmer wanted us to see the accumulated effects of structural violence on and individual which could mean less health or maybe even death. He wanted us to see that those of poverty were suffering and the injustice was a product of human action or nonaction because of structural violence. The second half of the book was called “One physician’s perspective on human rights.” This part of the book focuses on the liberal views of human rights, since the poor rarely a concern. It was basically saying that social justice is geared more in favor towards the power and wealthy. In the end, Farmer was able to take all of the problems and give options for change. The first part of the implies that the inequity of those with power and wealth to those who have neither, they are often left behind or the least of concern.
This half of the book dealt with the poor and how the deep poverty issues lead to social issues like racisim. This part of the book highlighted the lives of individuals and how their situations related and how if they were poor or hungry then they would continue to live in poverty or worsen and the power and wealthy would continue grow. I found this part of the book interesting because I was able to visualize what he was trying to convey, which gave me a better understanding of his …show more content…
study.
Farmer argued that equity is the central challenge for the future of medicine and public health. He linked public health and to social justice. The poor dealt with issues of not having access to treatment, pneumonia or TB is more lethal than AIDS. Many times people travel on mission work to assist with providing health care, but many times the medicine that’s donated is only given because it’ll soon expire. Its safe to say that the poor and powerless are often second priority and many feel that they deserve only whats left. “Health care can be a commodity to be sold or it can be considered a basic social right, but it cannot be both.” Speaking on the works of many Farmer underlined the “Pathogenic role of inequity.”
Another chapter would be chapter 4, “A Plague on all our houses? Resurgent Tuberculosis inside, Russia’s prisons. In this chapter, structural violence also played a big role. Due to the structural violence it was able to be predetermined who would most likely be imprisoned, infected or sick once detained. This epidemic was to much to hide. One of the men that Farmer got to talk with was a man named Sergei. Sergei, told his story to Farmer and other inmates and guards surrounded and listened. Farmer found out just like Sergei, all of the other young convicts were sick with pulmonary tuberculosis. Sergei was imprisoned for a fake checks scam. While Sergei awaited trial he was housed in jail in Kemerovo, where the food and sanitary conditions where unbearable and crammed to capacity with other young men. Through his living conditions he began to cough and lose a tremendous amount of wait. He stated, “I knew I had Tuberculosis.” This occurred well before his case trial. He was transferred to a TB Colony, a facility that confirmed his diagnosis and began his treatment. It had then went away but came back due to lack of medicine, wrong dosages, and more to be determined. He then became resistant to the drugs, which can be termed “Multidrug-resistant Tuberculosis” (MDRTB). Patients with MDRTB requires long-term treatment with about a two year regimen treatment. Sergei informed Farmer that many were diagnosed with this disease but they did not have the resources due to a medication budget of just $2000.00. Farmer was able to determine that these facilities were still in better shape than others that he had visited, for example Haiti. This chapter was quite sad. Yes, they are prisoners but they are still people and should have quality resources for situations like Sergei.
In the second half of this book, farmer goes more into the human rights theory in light of his work in anthropology and medicine.
He also revealed his own roots which came from Christian Latin Americans theologist Gustavo Gutierrez. At time the second part of the book lacked structure causing an audience to become tiring because of some of the similarities of “structural violence.” Farmers ultimate goal with his work was to bring to attention the realities of the poorer of majority of our world. He used this reality as a call for new medical ethic.
Chapter 5 distinguishes the difference among three approaches, in comparing charity, development, and social justice. Of those three approaches to health care and other rights, only social justice is adequate. Charity can sometimes be helpful and necessary, it theorizes that that people in better positions are inferior, rather than to structural inequalities. Development mat lift society in aggregate, but it may not lift the poorest of the poor. Inequalities are more significant because of such an advancement in scientific studies. Healthcare today is now life and death situations, whereas before this kind of technology didn’t really
exist. Chapter 7, “Cruel and Unusual” goes more in depth in the considerations of prison-tuberculosis. This chapter discusses tuberculosis as a punishment. This disease has a long history in the prison setting. According to the book, 8 percent of deaths in the prison was because of TB in the min-nineteenth century. TB is an air borne pathogen, it is coughed into the air in what is known as “droplet nuclei,” and can be inhaled by anyone who shares air with an infected person. Though the prisoners are gated in, it can be transported in several ways like, employees, guards, or surrounding communities. The largest outbreak began in New York City in 1989, 80 percent of all cases could be traced back to jails and prisons. New York reportedly had the highest HIV infection rate. Prisons without the proper ventilations were crammed with inmates who had high baseline rates of infection with both HIV and M. tuberculosis. The three major problems facing out correctional system are underfunding, overcrowding, and tuberculosis. Farmer concluded chapter 7 by returning to the concept of tuberculosis as punishment. He stated that “Contracting tuberculosis in prison, is certainly not part of a prisoner’s sentence.” (Farmer 193)
Chapter 9, “Rethinking Health and Human Rights” reflects on the implications of the books central arguments for and emerging field of inquiry and action. It reflected on his bear witness to decades of violence in Haiti and to hear outsiders, including some in the human rights community. They have seen little progress in the efforts to secure social and economic rights, even though there were some gain in political and civil rights. It was crucial in Russian prisons. In the overcrowded prison hundreds to thousands of Russian prisoners fell ill to tuberculosis and then sent TB colonies that Farmer described in earlier chapters. Farmer seen this in several prisons, and most of which when this book went public those prisoners are still receiving medications that cannot cure them. Sadly, that is probably still taking place.
Some of the methods addressed by Paul Farmer was to make health and healing the symbolic core of the agenda. He want to ensure health and decrease the health inequalities with the help of health professionals by getting them involved. Another method was to make the provisions of services central to the agenda. It was asked of us to listen to the sick and abused who were most likely to have their rights violated. He reminded us that the states are best placed to protect the basic rights of poor people. To establish research agendas he thought that we should examine and observe why some populations were at risk and others were spared human rights violations. Farmer believed that research should remain secondary and was created to enhance services and social justice. We should assume a broader educational mandate. We should not limit ourselves to teaching only a select group of students. Also, achieve independence from powerful government and bureaucracies, which is a central irony of human rights law and consist mainly on the appeals to the perpetrator. Most of the crimes committed were by powerful states. The last method was to secure more resources for health and human rights. States have become less able to help their citizens attain social and economic rights even though they have most often retained their ability to violate these rights. “Its easy to demand more resources, but what’s hard is to produce and put into action.”
My overall opinion of this book is that its extremely truthful in the realties that it describes and regarding the crimes it unveils that are predictable and ongoing. All of the victims had a common source of poverty. This ethnography allowed the readers to understand the perspectives of anthropologist about global health concerns and way to address it that’s more reasonable. It good to acknowledge the problem but its equally important to put into action and act on the problem. We should all take Paul Farmers perspective and take action to help those who are and still repressed by the power and wealthy.