Response to Farmer's NPR Fresh Air podcast
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Having established and run a hospital/clinic in the middle of a squatter settlement in Haiti, where infectious diseases and health problems are rampant, a gives Farmer a unique perspective of humanitarian aid. Where the majority are involved at most with giving money and donations far from the areas in need, he - among many others - have a first-hand experience of the issues that need to be addressed. And in doing so, he describes the idea that much of the monetary aid is ineffective - or rather, much less effective than it could be due to the existence of other issues at the same time which are not being addressed to the fullest extent. In addition, he mentions that the role of corporations and manufacturers make it difficult for any real progress to be made. And knowing that giants such as Target, Walmart, Apple, and etc use cheap and dangerous labor elsewhere to make huge profits, I sympathize with his frustration that some medicines and medical supplies can have their prices lowered by ~8 times for those in need (only sometimes, however; I also am frustrated that many companies and community leaders refuse to prioritize helping areas in dire need over maintaining their own gigantic profit. In the normal market, they are also rarely affordable to the middle class, and even less so to the poor. He says that in Africa, there is no political will to pay health workers in order to start effectively treating AIDS in Africa. At the same time, there are other factors involved, such as education and whatnot.
It strikes me that since he started working in Haiti and providing free care to his clients, he hasn't lost a patient to tuberculosis. At the same time, he brings up how it is only when we (activists, those who care) stop talking about the money issue and stop being selfish can we finally can look at the root causes and other symptoms, and achieve real progress.
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