Old White Guys! Holding you down since.......always
-Golden Words Poster
Fridays mean something again for the time being. Jordan is coming over and we're gonna make ribs. Well, I've already made the ribs. Jordan is gonna come over and I'm going to put the ribs in the oven.
School is off to a quick start. Lots of material has already been covered and it's not even labour day. I'm not really stressed, but it is a stark contrast from my life only one week ago. I definitely feel like I have suddenly accelerated. I guess the trick is to manage this without letting your time slip by you. I find it's easy to spend your weeks looking forward to the week-end and each looking forward to the next. Days of studying and social events seem long, but when the next year rolls around, I wonder where the time went.
Our afternoon workshop was on International Health. I have participated in some volunteer projects in the developing world and thought alot about the whole situation but still haven't come up with any real opinions on what aspects are good ideas and what are bad ideas. It seems too easy for any sort of aid to end up being entirely useless or even harmful. I sometimes even have a problem with the whole issue of charity. I'm reading a collection of essays by Bertrand Russell where he argues that most men in business are "more anxious to keep foreigners poor than to make themselves rich". This is a bold statement, but it's hard not be pessimistic sometimes about why things are the way they are. International Health, even when done properly, seems to be so inconsequential to people's well being when you work in or take an indepth look at the problems of the developing nation. Medical work is important but the real issue is organization. Policy. Trade. I guess it can be considered that any help given will be an extra push to get a country on it's feet.
At any rate, I will have to decide sometime how much involvement I will have with international health. There are many opportunities but they are so difficult to evaluate. It seems like the main problem, once you've decided the idea itself is valid, is the time commitment. Any worthwhile project will take years of dedication and work, if not a lifetime. Is it worth it to sacrifice so much for something of questionable impact or value?
-Golden Words Poster
Fridays mean something again for the time being. Jordan is coming over and we're gonna make ribs. Well, I've already made the ribs. Jordan is gonna come over and I'm going to put the ribs in the oven.
School is off to a quick start. Lots of material has already been covered and it's not even labour day. I'm not really stressed, but it is a stark contrast from my life only one week ago. I definitely feel like I have suddenly accelerated. I guess the trick is to manage this without letting your time slip by you. I find it's easy to spend your weeks looking forward to the week-end and each looking forward to the next. Days of studying and social events seem long, but when the next year rolls around, I wonder where the time went.
Our afternoon workshop was on International Health. I have participated in some volunteer projects in the developing world and thought alot about the whole situation but still haven't come up with any real opinions on what aspects are good ideas and what are bad ideas. It seems too easy for any sort of aid to end up being entirely useless or even harmful. I sometimes even have a problem with the whole issue of charity. I'm reading a collection of essays by Bertrand Russell where he argues that most men in business are "more anxious to keep foreigners poor than to make themselves rich". This is a bold statement, but it's hard not be pessimistic sometimes about why things are the way they are. International Health, even when done properly, seems to be so inconsequential to people's well being when you work in or take an indepth look at the problems of the developing nation. Medical work is important but the real issue is organization. Policy. Trade. I guess it can be considered that any help given will be an extra push to get a country on it's feet.
At any rate, I will have to decide sometime how much involvement I will have with international health. There are many opportunities but they are so difficult to evaluate. It seems like the main problem, once you've decided the idea itself is valid, is the time commitment. Any worthwhile project will take years of dedication and work, if not a lifetime. Is it worth it to sacrifice so much for something of questionable impact or value?
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