Year: 2007
Type: article
Abstract: Out of the BoxIsn't your column a bit . . .political?I have been asked.Sure.Public health is political, in the sense of the word in Romance languages, meaning policy as well as politics.Bear in mind Rudolf Virchow who, aged 27, was told by the rulers of Prussia to check out an outbreak of typhus in Upper Silesia.In his report he indicted the government, stated that the disease was caused by squalor and misery, and advocated radical economic and educational reform.Weeks later the 1848 revolution broke out 1 .He said: 'Epidemics are great warning signs, against which the progress of civilisations can be judged'.Consider that, as we anticipate the pandemic of childhood obesity and early-life diabetes.This month I report from Hobart in Australia, and from Santiago in Chile.I propose we should learn from the methods and success of environmentalists who have established that climate change is for real.Then I suggest that before we accuse others of taking the industry dollar, we should take a look at ourselves. The law of returnsFirst, happy news.The great thing about the election of Bush II, said a friend in 2000, is that things will get better; but first they will get worse.He repeated this pendulum theory of human affairs in 2004.It seems to work.Perhaps things started to get better the moment this spring when Paul Wolfowitz ascended an elevator at the World Bank in Washington DC with a female employee and chatted to her, asking what the blue ribbon she was wearing meant.'This shows that I am a member of the campaign to get rid of you', she said 2 .Imagine that, two years ago.The president of the USA appoints the president of the World Bank; and also the chief executive of UNICEF, now Ann Veneman, previously a Bush II cabinet member as secretary of agriculture.
Source: Public Health Nutrition
Author: Geoffrey Cannon
Language: English
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4240464069