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Health for Peace

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “The first wealth is health.”

In this week’s Huffington Post, I read a blog entry by former Assistant Surgeon General Susan J. Blumenthal, M.D. and Elise Schlissel called “Health Diplomacy: A Prescription for Peace.” Her words struck me upside the head with their practicality and their wisdom.

So often the statecraft of diplomacy revolves around disputes, borders, finances and issues which focus more on disagreement than on agreement. Health is an issue that humans the world over can agree on.

We all want to be as healthy as we can be. All. If we want health for ourselves, can we not agree that promoting health for everyone is a good foreign (and domestic) policy? Dr. Blumenthal calls it “health diplomacy.” What a concept.

Doctors and scientists all over the world sharing information, collaborating in research, testing remedies, trying new things all in the interest of health the world over. Doesn’t that sound grand?

As is so often the case, Ralph Waldo Emerson was right. But the wealth of health doesn’t work as diplomacy unless we go for the whole world as healthy. The thing is, there’s no more “over there” in this day and age of globalization. “Over there,” instead becomes “right here” in the time it takes to fly across one border and alight in another land.

If you want to read the whole entry, visit: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-blumenthal/health-diplomacy-a-presc_b_73267.html

More importantly, visit the idea in your own imagination. Visualize how powerfully a difference could be made immediately if one country or another would lead the world in a commitment to health all over the world. Dream it, think how wealthy we would be, feel the satisfaction of world health in our reality. This is a dream that all people could be for instead of against as is more common.

Being for something is so much better for us than being against things. It’s easier, takes less effort, saves energy and produces results faster. Who do you know to whom you can speak today about this marvelous prescription for peace? Call your government representative. Your doctor. Your mother. Your friends. Send emails. Write blog posts.

Peace is inevitable, dear one. We just have the find the issue that will unite the whole world. Health is a start.

posted by Susan Corso on 11/26/2007 11:19 am | COMMENTS (3)
Comments (3)

For a nice list of Famous Health Quotes visit:

www.rxpop.com/quotes.asp

Enjoy!

posted by RxPop on 12/20/2007 3:02 am

Wonderful ideas. There are some things that almost everyone can agree upon. Having sufficient clean water and nutrutious foods, clean air to breathe, shelter from the elements, and good health are some of those.

Unforutnately, health aspects related to reproduction can engender political and religious conflicts that discourage these calls for cooperation. Infant mortality is important to everyone, but sexuality, contraception and abortion can become politicized to the extent that cooperation breaks down, especially under fundamentalist administrations. And the high costs of many procedures and medications, and even policies about the use of infant feeding formulae can price people out of the market for health.

Further, there are concerns that increasing research projects overseas are a means for exploiting foreign citizens rather than of offering them more and better health care options. Pharmaceutical manufacturers are important partners in the exchange of information and cures throughout the world, but there also must be accountability that the information and cures are safe and effective and that foreign subjects are treated with the same research protocols as American citizens, for example.

Local health problems around the world are also related to pollution and the exploitation of workers, both by local employers and multinational corporations. There is a fine film on the indirect costs of western consumerism at www.storyofstuff.com.

Health diplomacy is a worthy goal. And all of these problems can, and must, be overcome.

Peace,

Earon S. Davis, J.D., M.P.H., L.C.M.T.

posted by Earon on 12/24/2007 10:46 pm

Dear Earon, Thanks for writing. The story of stuff piece is awesome and frightening! I agree with you about health diplomacy being a necessity, and the corruption in corporate alliances must be exposed and overcome. Be peace, Susan Corso

posted by Susan Corso on 1/22/2008 8:25 am

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