Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights and the New War on the Poor

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Pathologies of Power uses harrowing stories of life and death in extreme situations to interrogate our understanding of human rights Paul Farmer, a physician and anthropologist with twenty years of experience working in Haiti, Peru, and Russia, argues that promoting the social and economic rights of the world s poor is the most important human rights struggle of our times With passionate eyewitness accounts from the prisons of Russia and the beleaguered villages of Haiti and Chiapas, this book links the lived experiences of individual victims to a broader analysis of structural violence Farmer challenges conventional thinking within human rights circles and exposes the relationships between political and economic injustice, on one hand, and the suffering and illness of the powerless, on the other.Farmer shows that the same social forces that give rise to epidemic diseases such as HIV and tuberculosis also sculpt risk for human rights violations He illustrates the ways that racism and gender inequality in the United States are embodied as disease and death Yet this book is far from a hopeless inventory of abuse Farmer s disturbing examples are linked to a guarded optimism that new medical and social technologies will develop in tandem with a informed sense of social justice Otherwise, he concludes, we will be guilty of managing social inequality rather than addressing structural violence Farmer s urgent plea to think about human rights in the context of global public health and to consider critical issues of quality and access for the world s poor should be of fundamental concern to a world characterized by the bizarre proximity of surfeit and suffering. New Download Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights and the New War on the Poor [ Author ] Paul Farmer [ Kindle ePUB or eBook ] – kino-fada.fr FARMER IN THE FIELDS OF HORROR AND HOPEI have known of Paul Farmer for years, principally through footnotes in his fellow Bostonian Noam Chomsky s books whom Farmer thanks in his acknowledgements to this book and in a variety of other books and articles over the years, and I thought it was about time that I became better acquainted with his writings and managed to get my hands on a copy of his 2004 book Pathologies of Power.Farmer s basic aim in this book is to argue for a working definition FARMER IN THE FIELDS OF HORROR AND HOPEI have known of Paul Farmer for years, principally through footnotes in his fellow Bostonian Noam Chomsky s books whom Farmer thanks in his acknowledgements to this book and in a variety of other books and articles over the years, and I thought it was about time that I became better acquainted with his writings and managed to get my hands on a copy of his 2004 book Pathologies of Power.Farmer s basic aim in this book is to argue for a working definition of Human Rights that includes those social justice in general those social and economic rights which articles 22 27 of the UN Declarations of Human Rights 1948 describe His particular expertise is in the medical sphere and it is that aspect that the book primarily, but far from solely, focuses on The first part of the book is based around his experience...Efficiency cannot trump effective treatment When capitalism infused with racism is in charge of healthcare, people die from preventable diseases Farmer is a modern prophet in this field and shines light on structural issues of poverty As he says, deaths of poverty are crimes against humani...This book is every human rights activist s dream come true, because Farmer documents his efforts to provide quality health services in poor communities around the world, and he shows how the struggle for adequate health care is unavoidably connected to the struggle for other human rights Through various case studies, Farmer demonstrates that, contrary to the claims of most governments and international agencies, public health crises in poor communities can in fact be avoided Most governments This book is every human rights activist s dream come true, because Farmer documents his efforts to provide quality health services in poor communities around the world, and he shows how the struggle for adequate health care is unavoidably connected to the struggle for other human rights Through various case studies, Farmer demonstrates that, contrary to the claims of most governments and international agencies, public health crises in poor communities can in fact be avoided Most governments and international agencies primarily concern themselves with the cost effectiveness of addressing health crises in poverty stricken areas Fa...This probably isn t most people s idea of recreational reading, but Farmer s view of the aid community and how first world powers use aid and don t aid when they should really resonated with me It s an angry book from one who knows just how angry we all should be This has me looking forof what he has written I am particularly interested inabout Haiti It wasn t always comfortable We are all complicit in this and I could feel my own complicity as I read it I thought about This probably isn t most people s idea of recreational reading, but Farmer s view of the aid community and how first world powers use aid and don t aid when they should really resonated with me It s an angry book from one who knows just how angry we all should be This has me looking forof what he has written I am particularly interest...Paul Farmer s Pathologies of Power is a written protest against the structural violence suffered by the poor The first half of the book is devoted to anecdotes from his time spent in the rural highlands of Haiti, the HIV quarantine facilities of Guantanamo, the autonomous zones of Chiapas, and the prisons of Russia Through these anecdotes Paul gives voice to the suffering poor in these areas in a way that neither dehumanizes nor romanticizes their suffering, a rare feat in literature about Paul Farmer s Pathologies of Power...I read Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder which is about Paul Farmer, this is the first book I have read written by Paul Farmer He calls himself a physician and an anthropologist which makes a lot of sense from what I know about him I also saw Tracy Kidder speak once and talk about his experience learning about and becoming friends with Paul Farmer In Pathologies of Power he talks about structured violence against the poor around the world and he points out that the lack of social I read Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder which is about Paul Farmer, this is the first book I have read written by Paul Farmer He calls himself a physician and an anthropologist which makes a lot of sense from what I know about him I also saw Tracy Kidder speak once and talk about his experience learning about and becoming friends with Paul Farmer In Pathologies of Power he talks about structured violence against the poor around the world and he points out that the lack of social and economic justice which is a form of violence denying access to jobs, food, and medical care and that what happens to the poor is not random.I can t believe I started reading this book and the earthquake in Haiti happened a week later God, there is just so much suffering there now and has been in the past He is compa...This book by the brilliant physician and human rights activist, Dr Paul Farmer, is the single most trenchant analysis of our global human rights crisis I have ever read Weaving together the inescapable links between poverty, food, shelter and healthcare, Dr Fa...My main takeaways from this book were an appreciation for the lyrics of Bertold Brecht and some additional knowledge about tuberculosis in Russia and AIDS in Haiti from around the year 2000 That is not without value It is easy to see how the structural violence is turned against the poor on the matter of health, and to see the importance of health, and how it is tied in with access to food and clean water and all of the obvious things And maybe that s the problem, is that it is kind of My main takeaways from this book were an appreciation for the lyrics o...Pathologies of Power is a very important resource for those seeking to understand and morally diagnose the obscene global inequalities in health Dr Paul Farmer is an intimate witness to the suffering and struggle of the global poor and neglected Farmer s voice is deeply prophetic in both exposing the structural violence towards poor people by depriving them of the necessary conditions and resources to live healthy and hopeful lives, and advocating passionately on behalf of those catching Pathologies of Power is a very important resource for those seeking to understand and morally diagnose the obscene global inequalities in health Dr Paul Farmer is an intimate witness to the suffering and struggle of the global poor and neglected Farmer s voice is deeply prophetic in both exposing the structural violence towards poor people by depriving them of the necessary conditions and resources to live healthy and hopeful lives, and advocating passionately on behalf of those catching hell by challenging the powers responsible for their dehumanizing plight The book drips with a moral rage for what is going down, containing numerous accounts of human despair due to premature dying and disease It is full of cutting accusations and judgment, especially towards human rights organizat...It s books like this that make me temporarily enraged with America, its obscene affluence, and hypocritical Christian support of it, and that make me want to abandon my trek toward academia and do somethinguseful, like helping the oppressed.Edit I should add that I m not actually sure whether I should give this book 4 stars From a Christian and theoretical standpoint, it s very lacking He is not himself a Christian, and though he claims to draw on the insights of liberation theology to It s books like this that make me temporarily enraged with America, its obscene affluence, and hypocritical Christian support of it, and that make me want to abandon my trek toward academia and do somethinguseful, like helping the oppressed.Edit I should add that I m not actually sure whether I should give this book 4 stars From a Christian and theoretical standpoint, it s very lacking He is not himself a Christian, and though he claims to draw on the insights of liberation theology to formulate his argument against structural violence, he evacuates liberation theology of anything theological in the pr...

Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights and the New War on the Poor
  • English
  • 12 February 2019
  • Paperback
  • 438 pages
  • 0520243269
  • Paul Farmer
  • Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights and the New War on the Poor