Hunger in an Age of Plenty

This semester, I'm taking a class called "The Art of Advocacy: In/Out of Government", which I'm finding absolutely fascinating. The course is particularly interesting because lobbying normally engenders disillusionment, but "advocacy" takes a much broader look. I chose the class because the syllabus was based around 5 issues I thought would be interesting to learn about: hunger/food security, PEPFAR, Israeli War of 1967, BP Horizon oil spill, and the recent wars in Iraq & Afghanistan. The focus of the class is not to argue the issues themselves, but use them as case studies of advocacy, of how change happened or didn't happen. We'll spend two weeks on each issue, discussing as a class during the first week, and in the second week bringing in guest speakers who have played truly substantial roles in the issue.

So this coming week we're starting the first case study on hunger in an age of plenty. Stayed up late last night reading because I couldn't put the book down. First time in this program that I've enjoyed an assignment so much that I'd sacrifice sleep because I'm so fascinated! The book is "Enough: Why the World's Poor Starve in an Age of Plenty" by Thurow & Kilman, and is basically a very well-articulated argument for ending global hunger -- essentially one very long policy briefing! I recommend it.

The thoughts below are some personal thoughts that came up, although they're mostly tangential to the book content:

1) A couple years of bumper crops in Ethiopia were immediately followed by famine, caused mostly because of market failures during the plentiful years. When the production increased, there was no market nor storage facilities for the excess supply, so the glut of crops caused prices to decrease and farmers actually lost money. As a result, farmers didn't plant as much the next growing season, and drought whittled away additional crops, so the years of bounty were followed by scarcity and famine. This story reminded me of Joseph in Egypt with the 7 years of plenty followed by 7 years of scarcity. Where was the prophet / the man of God in Ethiopia? Why didn't anyone see into the future and manage the years of plenty to sustain life during scarcity? Someone should have been there, someone able to hear from God and partner with Him to transform that situation.

2) There's so much "technology"/skill behind agriculture, which I'd like to experience first-hand. I don't have any land myself, so it might be interesting to get a plot at a community garden. Even if I only do it for one growing season, I feel that growing some crops/vegetables would provide me with:

a) a small-scale perspective on the struggles of farmers in developing countries;

b) an opportunity to ponder biblical metaphors concerning seed, planting, harvest, etc., particularly since a prophetic word to me was that I have "planter's hands"; and

c) an avenue to relate more with my friends by inviting them to participate, sharing harvested foods, and bringing their children as a babysitting activity. Some of the kids are still too young, but I'm sure the 3-year-old boys would love the experience. What little boy doesn't enjoy digging in dirt? :) Not sure what the costs and time commitment would be, so I'll look into it but maybe won't actually obtain one until after I finish grad school.

3) Finally, one point actually on the topic of advocacy. In many ways it struck me that effective advocacy is a form of empathy. In trying to gain support for your position, you want to put yourself in your listeners' shoes and find the message that appeals to their passion. Lobbying frequently comes across as manipulations for self-interested reasons. However, I'm beginning to see that "advocacy" can be done from an entirely different position, one of uniting people under a common cause based upon values. I don't think I would ever want to work as a lobbyist, but I could potentially see myself "advocating" for an issue, either as a US citizen appealing to Congress, or as an IR professional to foreign governments. In those cases, I picture a role that really is more akin to advising -- researching an issue, asking God "What do you want?", and writing a policy brief in such a way that a government official, or a private client, or a non-profit could act upon that advice.

Looking forward to the class discussion (on Tuesday)!

workaholics

So funny. A symptom of our modern age and a reflection of "communication" skills.

I especially love the physical comedy of it, like when he brushes off the bottom of her hand, or how she rests her head on her opposite hand while he flops her arm around.

Translational and basic science

Just some notes to myself to research. Thoughts came out of Peggy Zelenka's retirement party plus the PI mtg discussion about translational research.

When did scientists say the earth is round? How long was it from then until someone carried that out into trying to sail around the world (get to a location from the opposite direction). Started with basic science and hypotheses, but the practical implications of that science ended up being the “discovery” and colonization of the Americas by Europe.

more links

Hans Rosling in Foreign Policy magazine's top 100 global thinkers

Did You Know? -- a look at our future world
http://www.youtube.com/user/xplanevisualthinking#p/u/4/pMcfrLYDm2U
from http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com/versions

Gapminder. org

I went to a really good lecture at NIH today by Hans Rosling, creator of Gapminder. I want to remember the link, so I thought putting it here in my blog would be an easy way to access it later.

Basically it's a tool to graph statistical informormation concerning global development indicators and allows non-statisticians to more easily understand trends. His software is actually named Trendalyzer and has been purchased by Google. I really appreciate the ability of these graphs to transform people's worldviews. Many still view the world according to the facts of 1950, when the world was divided into the West and the developing world; between small families with long lives and large families with short lives. But there has been massive change and transformation in the development of nations in the last 50 years, and especially in the last 10, including the rise of Asia. The sequence of progress for these former "developing world" countries has been very different from the West. In the West, wealth was developed first and then health. In emerging countries, health has developed first, which is now allowing wealth to grow astonishingly quickly. This caused a shift in Rosling's perspective, to now believe that disease causes poverty, not the reverse.

So instead of a polar world of West contrasted with developing world, we now live in a world defined by economic level. Rosling sees the world as collapsed/low/middle/high income. Collapsed are countries like Afghanistan -- very few fall into this category. Low income are countries receiving aid, which have less than $1K USD/capita -- about 2 billion people. Middle income are emerging economies, with between $1-10K USD/capita -- about 3 billion people. High income is the West + 20%, with greater than $10K USD/capita -- about 1 billion people. This breakout is not sustainable and won't be with one superpower. For example, China is now accumulating $1B per day! Compare that to Gates Foundation which distributes $3B in aid per year. When the US economy crashed and the government needed money, they couldn't get it from their own population. The countries with money now are Brazil, China, etc.

In terms of health, most of the world now fits into the old picture of the "West" -- small families with long lives. Because of these healthy populations, the middle income countries are having incredible ecomonic growth. In the meantime, these are highly educated people who can get a diagnosis, e.g. cancer, and know of the appropriate treatments but can't afford them. The low income countries do still need help with diseases like tuberculosis and malaria. However, as development continues, they will work themselves out of poverty. Development = school, health, infrastructure, information, freedom & rights, credit, market & employment, security, etc. So the global health goals are two-fold:
1) bring health research to bear on the problems of low income people, e.g. solve TB
2) use populations of the whole world with all genetic variations for studies

Avatar

So after being buried under a pile of snow for a week, I went to the movies this evening and finally saw Avatar. It took a little while for my eyes to adjust to the 3D but once they did the images were really incredible. I loved being carried away into another world and may go see the movie again, just to examine the scenery.

But it also strikes me as ironic -- the movie transports us to another world, yet "there is nothing new under the sun." Human imagination is incredible and beautiful, from curly-que plants to insects with circular overhead wings to hammer-head animals to large blue "humans", and even to macro ideas like day/night and air and religion. But at the end of the day they are still plants, insects, birds, animals, etc. These things were all created by God, and we can't even imagine a world outside of these structures. It's meaningless to us. The other world is beautiful in it's variety and differences to ours, but underneath is actually still the same.
Especially the culture and religion of the "humans" (sorry, I don't remember what they're called) on this other planet is essentially ancient tribal and animist/antheist.
Regardless of the pantheism, I did appreciate the ideas about "joining". The humans have these neurons that can connect to the neurons in other beings, e.g. animals or trees. It's an organic connection, as opposed to the mechanical one of the regular humans from Earth. Examples of the mechanical one: the link into the avatars, the robot machines that a human can be inside of and controlling. I think that organic connection is an element missing in modern life that appeals to the audience. I keep encountering so many stories these days that seem to be successful because they do play on godly principles that people are longing for and don't have: connectedness to other humans beings, true manhood, sacrificial love, etc.

today

I heard today that I didn't get accepted into a work program that I applied for. The program would have let me keep my current job, but go work at an international health program overseas for 3 months next summer. I'm disappointed.... I really thought I would get in and had all these plans in my mind for the next year because of it. And now it's not happening and the future feels blank stretching out before me. Now I need an alternate plan, which I suppose is grad school. But I definitely feel discouraged -- if I couldn't get into this program, why would a grad school want me? blech....

I went and sat in my car for a lunch break and googled "dealing with disappointment". Read some good reminders that even the negatives in life can be used positively if you look at it the right way -- as a growing and learning experience, an experience of life.