Phoenix blog

Its time to resurrect the blog. Again. A quick update. My long drawn out medical studies are finally over and from August 2007 I will start work at the Tribal Health Initiative in Sittilingi, Tamil Nadu as a junior doctor. I hope this change in my setting will be reflected in a change in perspective and content of this blog. I hope to delve deeper into understanding the chaos which is the Indian health system and use this blog as a platform for opinion and discussion. As of now I am using this rare free month to travel as much as I can within North India.

Brecht sums up my reflections on the near completion of my degree

To The Students Of The Workers’ And Peasants’ Faculty

1
So there you sit. And how much blood was shed
That you might sit there. Do such stories bore you?
Well, don’t forget that others sat before you
Who later sat on people. Keep your head!

2
Your science will be valueless, you’ll find
And learning will be sterile, if inviting
Unless you pledge your intellect to fighting
Against all enemies of all mankind.

3
Never forget that men like you got hurt
That you might sit here, not the other lot.
And now don’t shut your eyes, and don’t desert
But learn to learn, and try and learn for what.


A Worker’s Speech To A Doctor

We know what makes us ill.
When we are ill we are told
That it’s you who will heal us.

For ten years, we are told
You learned healing in fine schools
Built at the people’s expense
And to get your knowledge
Spent a fortune.
So you must be able to heal.

Are you able to heal?

When we come to you
Our rags are torn off us
And you listen all over our naked body.
As to the cause of our illness
One glance at our rags would
Tell you more. It is the same cause that wears out
Our bodies and our clothes.

The pain in our shoulder comes
You say, from the damp; and this is also the reason
For the stain on the wall of our flat.
So tell us:
Where does the damp come from?

Too much work and too little food
Makes us feeble and thin.
Your prescription says:
Put on more weight.
You might as well tell a bullrush
Not to get wet.

How much time can you give us?
We see: one carpet in your flat costs
The fees you earn from
Five thousand consultations.

You’ll no doubt say
You are innocent. The damp patch
On the wall of our flat
Tells the same story.

- Bertolt Brecht

Look at the Dalit basti!

Look at the dalit basti
What plight of humans!
From the belly rises fire,
But the chulha can not be lit.
- Bahinabai Chaudhari (1888-1951)

I am not in chains, not in chains:
I a neither diseased nor I am a healer.
Am not a Moman nor a Khafir am I,
Neither a Mulla nor a Saiyed,
Why ask Bulle Shah his caste?
Neither I created caste, nor am I born in one.
- Bulleh Shah (1680-1748)

Brahmin, Vaishya, Shudra or Kshatriya,
Dom, Chandal or Mlechchha: All have the same soul.
They can all attain purity, singing hymns to God:
It will liberate both – self and generations.
- Ravi Das (1398-1448)

Sugar cane is rough; the juice in it is sweet,
The bow is not straight but the arrow is,
River zigzags, but not the water in it.
Chokha isn’t beautiful but the God in him is.
Why get misled by outward appearances?
- Chokha Mela (14th century)

Actions, says Dadu, rank higher that one’s caste,
Think not, therefore, of anything else;
Social ranking is tainted,
Illumined are only noble thoughts.
- Dadu Dayal (1544 – 1603)

Immortal is the land I come from;
There are no Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Shudras or Vaishyas
No Mughals or Pathans, nor Saiyeds or Shaikhs;
The message humble Kabir brings, in essence, is:
Let’s go to that land.
- Kabir (1398-1518)

This set of poems is from a calender designed by Loknaad.

The Aphorisms of Rudolf Virchow

Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow (1821 – 1902) was a German doctor, anthropologist, public health activist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist and politician. His famous report titled Report on the Typhus Epidemic in Upper Silesia is an absolute classic and established him as one of the founding fathers of social medicine. Among his many talents Virchow was adept at coming up with catchy aphorisms. These are some of my favourites:

“Medicine is a social science, and politics is nothing but medicine on a large scale.”

“It is the curse of humanity that it learns to tolerate even the most horrible situations by habituation.”

“Medical education does not exist to provide students with a way of making a living, but to ensure the health of the community.”

“The physicians are the natural attorneys of the poor, and the social problems should largely be solved by them.”

“My politics were those of prophylaxis, my opponents preferred those of palliation.”

“Virchow had a comprehensive vision. Pathology, social medicine, politics, anthropology. My model.” – Paul Farmer. Mine too :-)

A community health oriented Indian Christian

‘The Jews expected a messiah, and perhaps they had hopes of Jesus. But they were soon disappointed. Jesus talked a strange language of revolt against existing conditions and the social order. In particular he was against the rich and the hypocrites who made religion a matter of certain observances and ceremonial. Instead of promising wealth and glory, he asked people to give up even what they had for a vague and mythical Kingdom of Heaven. He talked in stories and parables, but it is clear that he was a born rebel who could not tolerate existing conditions and was out to change them. This was not what the Jews wanted, and so most of them turned against him and handed him over to the Roman authorities.”

- Jawaharlal Nehru (1949, 85)

“Christ took pity on people and came to their aid, whether they were spiritually ill as a result of sin or physically sick. His attention was given to the sick person with whom he frequently talked, showing his preference for the poor but without excluding anyone in need who appealed to him.

Jesus considered suffering and sickness as forming part of the ‘less human’ situation and we are asked to endeavour to make these ‘more human’.”

“Since Christians are the leaven, we must reach out towards the masses by providing simple, accessible and promotional health care according to our own possibilities, modest as they are, or in conjunction with the public services, where this is allowed.”

- cf populorum progression, 20

“And because the life of Jesus has the significance and transcendence to which I have alluded, I believe that He belongs not solely to Christianity, but to the entire world; to all races and people, it matters little under what flag, name or doctrine they may work, profess a faith, or worship a God inherited from their ancestors.”

- Mahatma Gandhi

Action Heroes Wanted

Blank Noise is a public and participatory art project working both online and on the streets of Bangalore, Mumbai , Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad. Blank Noise seeks to recognize eve teasing as street sexual harassment and establish it as an issue.

Blank Noise project Bangalore calls for women/ girls/ ladies/ of all ages, languages, colour, and shape to be participate in a street intervention on Sunday January 28th. By participating you will be celebrated as a BNP Action Hero. Confirm /ask questions at 98868 40612. This street intervention will be approximately 1.5 hours ( 5 - 6 30 pm).

Find out more at the Blank Noise Project Blog

Communicable disease among rabbits

Untitled

Rabbits they say
Are very scarce to-day
My diagnosis?
Myxamatowsis.

- Spike Milligan
-------------------------------

Myxomatosis

Caught in the center of a soundless field
While hot inexplicable hours go by
What trap is this? Where were its teeth concealed?
You seem to ask.
I make a sharp reply,
then clean my stick. I'm glad I can't explain
Just in what jaws you were to supporate:
You may have thought things would come right again
If you could only keep quite still and wait.

- Philip Larkin (1955)
-------------------------------

Myxomatosis

The mongrel cat came home

Holding half a head

Proceeded to show it off

To all his new-found friends

He said, "I've been to where I like.

"I've slept with who I like.

"She ate me up for breakfast.

"She screwed me in a vice.

"But now,I don't know why I feel so tongue tied."

I sat in the cupboard

And wrote it down in neat

They were cheering and waving

cheering and waving

twitching and salivating

like with myxomatosis.

But it got edited fucked up

Strangled beaten up

Used as a photo in Time magazine

Buried in a burning black hole in Devon

And now, I don't know why I feel so tongue tied.

Don't know why I feel so skinned a- live.

My thoughts are misguided and a little naïve

I twitch and I salivate

like with myxomatosis.

You should put me in a home or you should

Put me down

I got myxomatosis.

I got myxomatosis.

Yeah and no one likes a smart arse

But we all like stars(Oh please)

That wasn't my intention(blah blah)

I did it for a reason (reason)

It must've got mixed up

Strangled

Beaten up

I got myxomatosis.

I got myxomatosis.

And now, I don't know why I feel so tongue tied.

- Radiohead. Hail the Thief (2003)

-------------------------------

Myxomatosis

A baby rabbit
With eyes full of pus
This is the work
Of scientific us

- Spike Milligan

-------------------------------

Myxomatosis (from the Greek μύξα (mucus), and ματώνω (to bleed)) is a disease which infects rabbits. It is caused by the myxoma virus. First observed in Uruguay in the early 1900s, it was deliberately introduced into Australia in an attempt to control rabbit infestation there.

Novartis, drop that case!

In August 2005 I had written two articles on this blog on the rewriting of the Indian patent laws using the controversy surrounding Gleevec, an anti-cancer drug by Novartis to illustrate the issue. Under the new patent regime, large pharmaceutical companies could take out product patents which would allow them to monopolise production of new drugs and increase prices.

In January 2006, Novartis' patent application for Gleevec was rejected on the grounds that the drug was a new form of an old drug and therefore was not patentable under Indian law. This enabled patients with certain cancers to access the drug at a price of around Rs. 9000 ($200) a month as opposed to a price of 1,15,000 ($2600) which was the price of the drug elsewhere.

Currently Novartis is suing the Indian Government in order to have the patent decision overturned so that it can sell Gleevec at the same price in India as in other countries. If Novartis wins the case and succeeds in getting the provision of Indian law changed to resemble patent laws in wealthy countries, it could mean that fewer and possibly no generic versions of newer drugs will be able to be produced by Indian manufacturers during the first 20 years after discovery of a drug and India will no longer be able to supply much of the developing world with cheap essential medicines.

Sign a petion to demand that Novartis drop its case against the Indian Government.

Read more about the issue at the Medecins Sans Frontieres site.

Another acorn!

How can you resist a blog subtitled "Epidemiology, truth and counter cultures" ? Rakhal has been a great friend, philosopher, guide and cousin over the years but seems to have kept his blog in the closet. Until now.

The oak tree out of which the acorn fell

After a large amount of persuasion and calming of apprehensions the NarayanBlog is up and running! Read and leave sweet encouraging comments here.