BRAC

I have to admit I really like those videos listed on blackboard. I found the achievements showcased in the BRAC video to be very inspiring. It was impressive as not only did BRAC have the insight that to create local level education programs focusing on women and children would alleviate the issue, but they have created a self-sustaining organization that embraces several business ventures. The size and sustainability they have afforded themselves is a testament that organizations can be successful if they make smart decisions, with so many organizations out there plagued by erred beliefs and graft, it almost makes one think it was impossible.

Catching Up...

It was just recently reported the Indonesian government has started to withhold sharing Bird Flu samples with such organizations as WHO in light of a new business deal with US owned pharmaceutical company, Baxter International. Though WHO has expressed they fully support the right of Indonesia and any other country to pursue an agreement with a vaccine company, we as a collective are left to wonder what implications this will have in securing the safety of the global community. Baxter International has gone on the record to state they do not have an exclusive agreement with the Indonesian government, so I wonder what prompted the sudden stinginess? Is it necessary to withhold such pertinent material from the public sector? The Indonesian government states they may make samples available in the future, but what affects will this have on our ability to prepare for pandemics when virus surveillance is so hindered? Such behavior seems a little myopic and selfish...

Slow start...

1) After running out of time to have a make-shift blog up on my own site by week 2 of class, I am temporarily throwing in the towel and using blogsplot as a interim blogger for this assignment. Hopefully I'll have the new one up soon.

2) I'm really delighted to see how cohesive all the GHL courses are in unifying themes and ideas. Though there is somewhat of an overlap, I actually prefer it as it reminds one about the tidbits learned in other classes and allows us to not only add more detail to that topic, but helps us to see the bigger picture more easily.

3) I have to mention the TED video featuring Hans Rosling because it was so damn inspiring. Not only did it prove public health information can be disseminated in an entertaining manner, but it also demonstrated the effectiveness of intercalating such knowledge with Internet technology. The TED site itself is something I've never seen in the public health field in terms of its aesthetically pleasing nature and professional use of Flash. Though it requires ALOT of man hours, we need more sites of this caliber to deliver information to the public, especially in the manner of a global database as Hans was talking about. I currently do side work in Internet design and was just completely inspired by the ideas brought by this site. Zipandme.com is an endeavour I was going to begin this summer with a few art buddies just to showcase ideas and expression as an online art house and I was trying to think of a way to intercalate public health on the site. I may start earlier because of this video.