But still, I thought I was unique...
- Secretary Clinton's Remarks on Global Health Initiative: "The United States is investing $63 billion - first, to sustain and strengthen our existing health programs, and second, to build upon those programs and take their work to the next level by collaborating with governments, organizations, civil society groups, and individuals to help broaden the improvements in public health that we can expect. We're shifting our focus from solving problems, one at a time, to serving people, by considering more fully the circumstances of their lives and ensuring they can get the care they need most over the course of their lifetimes. ..." (Btw, this speech was actually at the Johns Hopkins SAIS in DC. Crazy. Hopkins represent!)
- And this dude...who started a public health education and training program for rural Haitian youth: "I'm striving to be more than just a physician. I want to be an advocate for human rights, a voice for those whose voice goes unheard and a face for the poorest of the poor. I don't imagine myself in a hospital or in a lab. I'm interested in political medicine, changing policy, the way medicine is practiced, the way it is distributed, and how it is defined."
- And this other Dr. Francis Collin dude too: "The aim of the [NIH/PEPFAR $130 million global health initiative], Collins told Nature in an interview in July, is 'to build research capacity in African institutions to enable them to begin to play a larger role in studying their own health needs, in providing solutions, because I think the era of the developed world swooping in, doing the research, saying 'here's what you should do' and leaving is not the era we want anymore.'"
- And this dude Nicholas D. Kristof, this chick Maggie Doyne, this dude Professor Peter Singer: "Many people want to connect to a cause larger than themselves, but they are busy and juggling priorities, have limited time and don't know quite what to do. There's a market failure there; so many people who would like to help, and so many people who would benefit from that help, but there's a shortage of channels to connect them...The challenge is to cultivate an ideology of altruism, to spread a culture of engagement - and then figure out what people can do at a practical level."
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| 23-year old Maggie Doyne with her kids at the Kopila Valley Primary School, which she is the founder and principal of. |
- And this mere commentator dude on Kristof's article: "I am sad to say that I am afraid you are correct, and Americans will turn back inwards. After 911, it was fear that motivated many, I believe. I think the only way to hope for us to really get it would be for us to learn the real links between our own prosperity and the poverty of so many worldwide..."
Oh well, on the bright side, and the only side that matters, other people are already acting on good ideas and doing good. How awesome is that?
