Sickness and Wealth: The Corporate Assault on Global Health

Book Description

In this powerful and accessible collection of new essays, international scholars and activists examine how official and corporate actors of globalization-including multinationals, the IMF and World Bank, the World Trade Organization, and "first world" governments-have enacted policies that limit medical access and promote disease and death for many in the poor world. The contributors to Sickness and Wealth provide a history of health and "development" strategies; reveal the grim health consequences of these policies throughout the world; and highlight the work of activists and organizations currently working for improved global health.

Edited by affiliates of Health Alliance International, which is based at the University of Washington in Seattle, Sickness and Wealth features lucid explanations on this pressing topic, as well as instructive graphics and strong photography.

Sickness and Wealth provides a history and context for health and development strategies; shows how profit-driven "development" policies are being exported to countries throughout the world; and reveals the actual health consequences of profit-driven policies, and highlights the work of several social movements currently confronting globalization and working toward improved health.

Authors include Vandana Shiva, revealing the effects of industrial agriculture on poor people's health; Patrick Bond, exposing the political roots of South Africa's cholera epidemic; Evelyne Hong, exploring the role of international agencies and corporations in health care; Seiji Yamada, documenting how militarism and war produce disease; and several writers describing how the struggle for people's health is, itself, becoming globalized.

Contributors include: Stephen Bezruchka, Joseph Brenner, Patrick Bond, Alejandro Ceron, Abhijit Das, Paul Davis, Meredith Fort, Oscar Gish, Steve Gloyd, Tim Holtz, Evelyne Hong, Celia Iriart, Patrick Kachur, Mary Anne Mercer, Emerson Merhy, Ellen Shaffer, Vandana Shiva, Juan Carlos Verdugo, Howard Waitzkin, Seiji Yamada.

Customer Reviews:

Globalisers' attack on national health services.......2005-10-04

Even the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) now admit that divisions within and between nations are growing. Recent US studies show that greater inequality is linked to increased mortality rates, violent crime, poor educational outcomes, teenage pregnancies and obesity. The facts are familiar. But what to do?

The editors of this collection of essays claim that we need "the establishment of people-centred solidarity networks across the world ... a global movement for health and social justice. ... By globalizing the struggle, we can all create a different world ..." This is Trotsky's `permanent revolution', that you can't have a revolution unless everyone has one - which equals, you can't have a revolution. Workers need to oppose these promoters of globalisation just as much as we need to oppose its more obvious agents like the IMF, the World Trade Organization and the European Union.

The authors deplore `the extraction of human capital from Africa during the slave trade', but accept today's similar extraction of skilled labour. The Blair government, in true colonial fashion, strips developing countries of their skilled people, their most precious asset, robbing Zimbabwe for example of more than half its trained nurses. Countries should follow Cuba's example, where those trained in Cuba have to work either there or in a less developed country, and they take from no country which is short of doctors and nurses.

Of the 21 contributors to this collection, 15 are American academics - not one of whom identifies herself as a member of a trade union. These latter-day missionaries and do-gooders are telling the health workers of all nations not to make revolution in their own country but to become `global health activists'.

Health workers don't need `the establishment of people-centred solidarity networks across the world' or `a global movement for health and social justice'. We need strong trade unions rooted in their working classes. Workers need to defend and develop national heath services, defend public planned health care, defend jobs and industries, and strengthen our trade unions. The Cuban people have vastly improved their health, not by `globalizing the struggle', but by making revolution in their own country.

Health and Other Justice and Poverty Issues, Interwoven.......2005-02-23

Sickness and Wealth is an enlightening and in-depth collection of essays on this, perhaps the most central, of corporate assaults. This book will raise any reader's awareness of how health care issues, especially in the third world, are naturally intertwined with the issues of poverty, environmental degradation, militarism, racism, issues of democratic participation and all issues of economic justice. The book clearly depicts and emphasizes how the struggle for human rights is in its essence directly up against the corporate assault known as "globalization of economies" and how health is a central aspect of human rights.

The essays hold together to form a well-rounded picture of how globalization has already affected how health care and health opportunities are pursued and achieved throughout the world and what the major forces restricting future achievement are likely to be. Scores of detailed specific examples are discussed to give the reader a concrete understanding of how health care has been involved with other social and economic issues in the modern history. The essays are well the referenced, enabling further serious study.

The volume will be extremely useful as a reference for people already involved in public health and health policy, who want a greater breadth of knowledge about the interconnections between health and other development issues, whether social, political or economic. Likewise, the book will excellently serve individuals already concerned and/or involved in anti-globalization work, but uncertain of how health relates to protesting trade agreements, environmental degradation or militarism in the third world.

The book's one weakness is its failure to describe the struggle for health care rights in the USA. The struggle for health care as a human right and the broad agreement that the current market-driven US health system is in shambles must be an important facet of the worldwide struggle. The book does acknowledge that US-based corporations are exporting the privatization of health services, health products and the natural resources which support health. But the logical and important conclusion that this movement towards privatization might be fought most effectively by aligning US progressive forces with international human rights concerns does not become clear anywhere in the book.

A chapter could easily have been included on the struggle for health care rights in the USA, the grassroots struggle parallel to the work of the People's Health Movement in other countries. Especially, the grassroots, state level and local struggles in the USA for a right to health care should not have been left out, as they so closely parallel the struggles in less wealthy nations and are making such determined progress at this moment. Readers might have also enjoyed learning about the struggle for maintaining single-payer national health care in Canada against the assault from companies trying to invade from their southern neighbor. Leading Canadian organizations appreciate the important role of the US movement against the commodification and privatization of health care resources. Educating US workers about their worsening deprivation of health resources under the current schemes of privatization is vital to weakening the base of globalization and raising the standard everywhere.

What you need to know about the impacts of globalization.......2005-02-08

I recently read Sickness and Wealth and found it to be a great resource in understanding the impact of contemporary globalization from a historical perspective (institutions, policies, etc.) and its damaging effect to the public's health; both domestically and internationally. I hope this book finds its way in the hands of both individuals involved in the struggle to understand and alleviate the symptoms of inequality and to those who are truly blinded by their actions.

I applaud all the authors for their work and continued efforts in their established professions. It gives me great comfort to know that there are individuals who with their accomplishments, small or large, are balancing the negativity of this world.

Corporate Control, Population Health and Dis-ease.......2004-11-05

Corporate Control, Population Health and Dis-ease

My hope is that Schools of Public Health, particularly the faculty and students within International Health tracks throughout "the West" (or North) will require considered examination of this exemplary contribution to Population Health in this century.

The editors and authors not only precisely capture in its introduction, conclusion and supporting chapters the substantial effects of global corporations vying for full market control of community health essentials, but offer perspectives and daily realities of people challenging and reversing those effects.

In reflecting on the "northward view" of people described throughout the book, people struggling creatively in their humaness towards health, one begins to fathom the innumberable myths their daily lives renounce; myths handed many of us throughout our formal and informal educational venues focused on individual illness and community/public health.

While pondering the various topics addressed, I'm curiously reminded of the writings of C. A. Bowers, an environmental educator. In a particular book of his, "The Culture of Denial: Why the Environmental Movement Needs a Strategy for Reforming Universities and Public Schools", c.1997, he argues for a revisioning of educational objectives, outlining why earth-based ecological centered curriculums are our ultimate (final?) opportunity for curtailing contemporary tail-spin into environmental catastrophe.

Although centered on the effects of corporate control on financially impoverished health systems in representative regions within "the South", I submit that this book offers an overall similar argument as Bowers', specifically calling for formal and informal curriculum overhauls toward real-time, wholistic understanding of essentials to health for human populations the world over.

Present day "Western" educational curriculums, continuously modeling us (with the impetus and backing of national and international corporate/state policies and programs) into promoting our consumptive, exploitive and paternalistic cultural paradigms, CAN be and MUST be challenged by efforts from community inhabitants and University post-grad faculty and students. This book exemplifies that effort by assimilating the factual experiences known and wisdoms gained first-hand throughout Earth's "South", then presenting it to we "Northerners" in compelling contextual arguments.

I look forward to more writers and educators such as these joining yet others in cultivating this fertile alluvial plane of fundamental understanding, evolving on into curriculums silted in reality-based, planet/populous health for all.

Thank you Meredith Fort, Mary Anne Mercer, and Oscar Gish for your indispensible efforts in this regard.

El negocio de la salud/ Sickness and Wealth: Los intereses de las multinacionales y la privatizacion de un bien publico/The Corporate Assault on Global Health (Paidos Controversias / Controversies)

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El negocio de la salud/ Sickness and Wealth: Los intereses de las multinacionales y la privatizacion de un bien publico/The Corporate Assault on Global Health (Paidos Controversias / Controversies)

Manufacturer: Editorial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 8449317649

Book Description

. The last years of the 20th Century may well have reflected a brief "golden age" for Human Resource Management. In an economy where ideas and capital were plentiful, the critical facet for success increasingly became human resources. Having the people on hand, with the right skills to bring new products into existence with a first mover advantage became the definitive factor. As a result, policies and initiatives at the intersection of Entrepreneurship and Human Resource Management proliferated in an unprecedented way, and is the focus of this volume.

As is traditional for the series, the volume includes two major reviews: of HRM in entrepreneurship and of stock related rewards. Volume 5 also includes leading-edge papers on topics emerging from the retrospective of the dot-com boom and bust, such as optimal methods of recruitment for smaller firms, defining and assessing the new concept of person-entrepreneurship fit, and the impact of union

Book Description

The far-reaching effects of radiological hazards on population, environment, agriculture etc., are not yet clear and only limited research is being done in this specific field to date. The author provides updated information in several radiological hazardous areas based on field work between 1995 and 2000. The sites include the Techa Riverside, contaminated by the plutonium production complex Mayak in Russia, the area around the Semipalatinsk nuclear weapon test site in Kazakhstan, Rongelap Island contaminated by fallout from a Bravo 15Mt thermonuclear test on Bikini in the Marshall Islands, Sakha with underground nuclear explosions for industrial application, Zaborie Village, the most contaminated area in Russia due to the Chernobyl nuclear accident, Tokaimura, Japan, exposed to radiation in a critically accident and Hiroshima, Japan. The relationship between contamination levels and doses in the population and the recovery from hazards are discussed in detail.

Nuclear hazards in the world: Field studies on affected populations and environments [A book review from: Ecological Economics]

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Nuclear hazards in the world: Field studies on affected populations and environments [A book review from: Ecological Economics]
R. Reibstein
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000PDTWVA

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Ecological Economics, published by Elsevier in 2007. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Book Description

With new observations delineating the large-scale magnetic fields in galaxies and renewed interest in the influence of magnetic fields on star formation and on the collimation of jets this book provides a timely review of cosmic magnetohydrodynamics. The book has a broad sweep, from the theory of the Earth's dynamo through the magnetically dominated Solar corona to the magnetic fields of stars, galaxies quasars and the intergalactic plasma. Particular strong points are the magnetic fields of degenerate stars. Both white dwarfs and the fascinating evolution of neutron stars' magnetic fields are discussed in detail. The book is dedicated to Professor Leon Mestel who has seen the subject grow from its early days to its current flowering on the wealth of new observations described here. Stellar winds, cosmic rays, galactic dynamos, active galactic nuclei and black holes provide a wide range for both scientific imagination and precise deduction. Many of the creators of the subjects have contributed to this volume, which is vital reading for astronomy graduate students with magnetic interests as well as plasma physicists.

Customer Reviews:

Great Book For Beginners.......2007-01-11

Are you planning a hiking trip and not sure what to bring or what to buy? Well, this is the book for you. I found a lot of great tips and good advice from safety to how to build up to long hikes. Great Book !!!

An excellent "how-to" book.......2001-08-06

I bought this for my husband, who has recently taken up hiking. He loves it and in fact reads it at bedtime every night. Says it is the best book he has seen for beginners. And, not a bad price either!

Average customer rating:

Great book overall, but I think a few answers were wrong...

Great Book!!

Math Smart, 2nd Edition ( Princeton Review Series )

The best math review for standardized tests!

Excellent review of basic math

Math Smart, 2nd Edition (Smart Guides)
Marcia Lerner
Manufacturer: Princeton Review
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Math Smart II: Get a Grip on Algebra, Geometry, and Trigonometry (Smart Guides)

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Writing Smart, 2nd Edition (Smart Guides)

Reading Smart: Advanced Techniques for Improved Reading (Smart Guides)

Word Smart II, 3rd Edition (Smart Guides)

ASIN: 0375762167
Release Date: 2001-08-07

Book Description

Whether an individual is checking it out at the supermarket or cashing it in at the stock market, one needs a command of basic math to survive in today's number crunching world.

But most people have problems with math. A decimal here and an exponent there and they've gone from a balanced checkbook to a multi-trillion-dollar national debt. That's why The Princeton Review created Math Smart.

Math Smart's approach is easy to follow. It will show readers how to perform basic math operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Once they've got that down, The Princeton Review will teach them how to handle the scary stuff like exponents, square roots, geometry, and algebra.

How does Math Smart work? It teaches user-friendly techniques that break down complicated problems and equations into their basic parts. Readers won't waste their time memorizing dozens of long formulas and equations.

Customer Reviews:

Great book overall, but I think a few answers were wrong..........2007-10-06

I wanted to confirm on the website that this book was as good as it appears. Overall, I got so much from the book - from basic algebra to complicated fractions and all of those polynomials.

However, I did find a small handful of answers - like one out of a hundred, when I got all of the answers right - just one would be wrong according to the key. I would rework the problem over and over, and even substituted the book's answer and it still came off wrong. Did anyone else notice that? So I'm a little trepid in totally recommending this book.

It would have been better, I agree had the authors explain how they got their answers.

Great Book!!.......2007-01-05

If you are having trouble in math, this is the book to purchase. It goes Step by steps very easy to understand.

Math Smart, 2nd Edition ( Princeton Review Series ).......2005-04-08

I always am the best math person in the whole class.
I just can't remember each formula, rule, and specific
step to do so. So when we went to Border's we saw this and Math Smart 2. I picked it up and scanned some of the pages. To my amazement, they had everything I was currently doing in my school. Integers, Fractions, Decimals. I was so good I finally found books with precise facts and easy-to-understand step-by-step guide. So I showed my mom and she said she would by it. Since then, I take Math Smart everywhere I go. It a perfect reference tool for math terms and the best studying guide I have ever seen. If you have a kid at home or want to brush up on math skills yourself, this is the book. Trust me your purchase will be worth it.

The best math review for standardized tests!.......2004-01-26

I was preparing for the GRE, but I had one big problem. I had not taken a math class in 5 years. I had made it through calculus, but after a 5 year hiatus, it had all left my brain. Even the basic stuff, such as rules about exponents was out of my memory.

This book takes you back to the very beginning (we're talking, "Here are the positive numbers, and the negative numbers"), and reteaches you math step-by-step in a very easy-to-understand way. It is also fun to read, as the author keeps the book interesting by using jokes and quips. This was the most helpful math review that I had (and I even took the Kaplan GRE course!). Teaches you how to solve math problems quickly by also giving tips and shortcuts. You won't regret buying this book.

Excellent review of basic math.......2003-03-25

I bought Math Smart to review all of the math that had gotten rusty from disuse in my brain. In just a couple of days, I was most of the way through the book, remembering how easy math can be.
Others have complained about this book and the sequel, Math Smart II, saying that they do not cover things in very much depth. I would disagree. Math Smart is not a comprehensive math text--nor does it pretend to be. It provides quick coverage of the basics.
Yes, there are a few incorrect answers to test questions. This is not a huge problem, as checking your work can ferret them out easily enough.
The only negative comment that I do agree with is that there is not very good explanation of the answers to the test questions. However, this has not stopped it from being a useful and effective book. And for the price, it is hard to beat.

Math Smart Junior, 2nd Edition (Smart Juniors Grades 6 to 8)

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Important math concepts offered in story form

Math Smart Junior, 2nd Edition (Smart Juniors Grades 6 to 8)
Marcia Lerner , and Doug Jr Mcmullen
Manufacturer: Princeton Review
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0375762604
Release Date: 2002-08-06

Book Description

A PARENTS’ CHOICE AWARD—WINNING SERIES

A hot summers’ day leads Sondra, Jennifer, and Taylor to do strange things, like approximating how many leaves are on the oak tree they’re sitting under or figuring out how to make HUGE quantities of lemonade. As you follow these kids and their feline friend Beauregard around the neighborhood on a hot summer day, you’ll learn
·approximation
·rates and averages
·fractions and decimals
·geometry and algebra

You’ll also learn some ingenious ways to beat the heat!

Math Smart Junior is one in a series of books that helps kids in grades 6—8 master the basics in many subjects using a fun, relaxed, interactive approach to learning.

Customer Reviews:

Important math concepts offered in story form.......2005-07-15

This book offers a range of middle-school math concepts, explained in story format. The story is age-appropriate, and although it's rather lame and strains in places to be funny (the giant talking animals are a bit much) it is actually fairly effective.

Almost the second half of the book is devoted to elementary school math as a review section, and I appreciated that they put that later in the book than the harder stuff: a student who is not doing so well in math is not going to be greatly cheered by a book that starts with "2+2=4 and why". By putting the review at the end, it can be read and digested at the student's own pace, instead of the pace of the book.

I am using the book for a slightly younger student who is struggling with math, and he is having fun with the scenarios that the story offers. However, I am guiding him through the problems and explanations: grades 6-8 is probably right on target for a student working independently.

Book Description

Nick Swansen pretty much knows what it means to be Special Ed.: You can't drive, even if you're sixteen and your parents have two cars; the regular kids in school don't talk to you much; and even if you can memorize every fact about amphibians, it's hard to make sense of all the other stuff swirling in your mind. What he doesn't know is whether being Special Ed. means you shouldn't go to the prom. But since no rule says you can't, Nick decides to ask Shana.

But the prom doesn't turn out at all the way Nick expects it to, and everything bad seems to get all mixed up together: the prom, what Shana does, and the terrible thing that happened to Nick's sister nine years ago. Nick doesn't want to think about any of it, but he begins to realize that unless he makes peace with all the memories that trouble him, they will haunt him forever....

Customer Reviews:

review.......2004-08-30

this was a great book about a special ed. child who wants to just be normal.

Probably Still Nick Swansen by Virginia Euwer Wolff.......2003-11-04

Review By: Mr.Francesco Galardo

This book is about a "Special ed" student who goes through a rough period of time in his life. His name is Nick Swansen and he knows that he is special ed student. One day he decides to ask out a fellow classmate Shana to the prom. The thing is special ed kids don't go to proms. Shana had recently graduated from being in the class with Nick to a regular high school ciriculum. Nick asks out Shana anyways. Nick does a lot to make everything work out for the prom but that night everything went downhill from there. Shana doesn't show up the whole night or even call Nick to let him know she wouldn't make it. Nick started to have bad dreams again of his sister's death nine years ago and doesn't go to school for a few days. Nick was doing a report on amphibians for his end of the year project. After a while, he feels up to talking to Shana again after she stood him up. She puts a few things together on how Nick likes amphibians and knows so much about them. You'll soon see how everything comes together with Nick and he can finally put all his thoughts troubling him to rest.

Some literly elements used in the book were:

Suspense-the book kept you waiting for more and willing to know what will happen next.

Mood-the book really expresses on how charcters feel throughout the story.

Personification-Nick sometimes gives certain human attributes to things that are not human.

Overall I'd say this book was a great book. I liked it because it related a lot on how teens deal with problems today and how some overcome their differences to figure out solutions. There was only one flaw and that was there were intentional spelling and grammar errors that corresponded to Nick's vocabulary. The book isn't in his pint of view. You should read this book because it's easy reading and it's a good book to learn a lot from and relate to a lot of your own experiances.

Great Book.......2002-10-28

I liked this book a lot. More Kids should read it.

i could indentify.......2001-11-26

since i too have ld. i could real feel for nick. it was a really good book. the kid you dont want to end.

Very thoughtful.......2001-04-22

I was reading this for the second time because of my homework. I was asked to find a story that's about a teenager having trouble with emotions and learned to deal with it effectively. I think this is a really good book for YA.

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