"Disempower WTO to ensure health for the poor”
Walden Bello appeals to health workers to directly confront the neo
liberal policies and US ‘empire’
14 January 2004
"Iraqi people’s resistance is turning Iraq into
another Vietnam for the US forces. Without this sort of resistance in Iraq
and elsewhere, US would have invaded North Korea and Iran” said Walden
Bello, well known social and human rights activist from Philippines and
recipient of the Alternative Nobel Prize.
Dr. Bello was delivering the key note address during the opening ceremony
of third International Health Forum for the Defense of People's Health,
being held in Mumbai on 14 and 15 January in the run up to the World
Social Forum. The International Health Forum is the culmination of a
global effort to put health at the center of the political agenda and
policy decisions.
Over 700 delegates from 50 countries are attending this forum organized by
the People’s Health Movement. The impact of war, globalisation and
neo-liberal economic policies on people’s health will be the focus of
this major gathering.
Referring to Washington as the ‘world’s number one problem’, Dr.
Bello, known for his well informed confrontation of the neo liberal
policies and winner of the prestigious Right Livelihood Award (otherwise
known as the Alternative Nobel Prize) said that ‘US empire’ is
misleading the world with the help of a ‘subservient media’.
Testimonies of grass roots people who have been facing the onslaught of
war, globalisation, militarization and increasing poverty (from the Middle
East, Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, Australia and North America)
will be a highlight of the Forum. People from main theatres of war like
Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Vietnam and Latin America will be testifying
just after the opening ceremony.
“Reject free trade, it is obscene” appealed Dr. David Legge a macro
economic health expert from Australia. “Dismantle globalization. It is a
regime of global economic regulation” he said. Health care and essential
medicines have become inaccessible and unaffordable for ordinary people
across the world. PHM analysis shows that high cost of medicines is a
major reason for the deaths and ill health of millions of people
worldwide.
“There is blood on their balance sheet” said a health activist from
Latin America while referring to the profit driven policies of Multi
National pharmaceutical companies. The International Health Forum has
expressed serious concern over the forthcoming changes in patent policies
that will further escalate cost of medicines.
Members of PHM will be actively involved in the World Social Forum to
strengthen alliances with social movements to push the agenda of Health
For All.
“The International Health Forum is a marriage of grass roots health
movements and global social movements” said Dr. Amit Sen Gupta of Jan
Swasthya Abhiyan, PHM-India, and the facilitator of the International
Health Forum.
“The need of the hour is synergy of health activists, health movements
and social movements to confront the common threats of imperialism,
globalisation and liberalisation” said Dr. Armando De Negri from Porto
Alegre Brazil, the Secretary General of ALAMES, the Latin American
Association of Social Medicine. Porto Alegre hosted the past World Social
Forums and International Health Forums
“The improving relations between India and Pakistan are not just
bringing peace alone, it is bringing people together” said Dr. Ravi
Narayan from India, the co-ordinator for the People’s Health Movement
global secretariat. He was referring to the presence of delegates from
Pakistan.
According to the People’s Health Movement, launched at the first
People’s Health Assembly in Bangladesh in 2000, there is an urgent need
to bring back and implement the Alma Ata strategy of comprehensive primary
health.
People’s Charter for Health, the guiding spirit of the People’s Health
Movement is the largest consensus document on health in the world.
Dr. Ravi Narayan
Dr. B . Ekbal
Co-ordinator: PHM Secretariat
Convenor Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (PHM India)
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