Is neo-liberalism worse than Soviet socialism and terrorism globalization?
Dear The Lancet Editor,
I will comment the book-review of Vicente Navarro’s “Neo-liberalism, Globalization and Inequalities: Consequences for Health and Quality of Life” (April 5, p. 1155).[1]
I agree that “health should never be merely a means to an economic end”,[1] but add that: health care/education should never be simply a tool to political/ideological control/ political propaganda ends either, as Stalinist socialism has used it with its peoples and other peoples. Universal minimal healthcare/education cannot substitute the observance of other individual civil/political, socioeconomic rights,[2] because this weakens the well-being mental/social components of the WHO health-concept definition.
Global health is a sub-problem of the global free-life problem, which cannot be well-enhanced only by health-organizations as the WHO, COHRED, GFHR, supported by the World Bank, powerful countries/charities, focusing merely biomedical research.
It is needed to study/work more with the primary free-life care and healthcare of the U.N. Millennium Villages/Slums Projects approach, under the Sachs/Ehrlich/Sanchez’ bioeconomic-psychosocial implicit paradigm, with micro-credits,[3] individual freedoms/rights,[4] and material/energy, biomedical/information technologies.
The 21st-century scientists could convince with scientific facts the U.N. as a whole organism (misinformed for 91 years with Stalinist-socialist ‘mythistories’ without real facts [5]), to focus with all its Agencies and solve integrally and simultaneously the global free-life care, healthcare/education deficits in our near 200 developing countries.
I would add in parenthesis to the original view [1] that healthy-economic-policies are those that use the resources generated from (the own) economic development (not setback subsidized by ideological allies to conquer the world); to invest in raising (not in deteriorating) the living levels of low-income groups (without generalizing terror/repression/captivity, moral-illnesses, native discrimination/corruption, human-robotization, and infrastructure-destruction), and in public (and private) systems for health, education, and other essentials such as (human-quality) food (and housing) security --according to U.N. social health and well-being concepts, and norms on individual liberties/rights, and standards of living.[2-7]
In spite of all the inconveniences of the U.S. first liberal-period, welfare-state, and 28-years neo-liberal progressive integral free-life care and healthcare systems/policies in efficiency/equality,[7] I have not known any black or Hispanic U.S. citizen, who have emigrated again to live in Africa or Iberian America in the last 91-years of socialism.
I wonder what would have happened to the Canadian and West European welfare-states, if the U.S and U.K. since 1945 would not have stopped the Stalinist-Soviet armies in Central Europe, Asia-Oceania, Africa/Middle-East, and Latin America/Caribbean, strengthening and defending them, with their very socially expensive military powers, from the Soviet-socialism geopolitical conspiracy, misinformation, and guerrillas,[5] and their late-effects: the terrorist international-network attacks since 9/11?
I can imagine how could have been the Soviet socialism and terrorist globalization.
Navarro’s book sounds very interesting and I will try to study it. Nevertheless, I would suggest that the U.S. free public/private systems/policies deserve a very comprehensive and objective analysis of facts according to our unstable/complex world, were “all that shines is not gold”.
Thank you for reading me.
COHRED: Council on Health Research for Development
GFHR: Global Forum for Health Research
U.N.: United Nations
U.K.: United Kingdom of Britain
U.S.: United States of America
WHO: World Health Organization
References:
1. Whitehead M. Perspectives, Book. Health should never be merely a means to an economic end of the Navarro’s Book. Lancet 2008; 371: 1155-1156.
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673608605085/fulltext
2. U.N. Universal declaration of human rights. New York, NY: UN Publ; 1948. Available: http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html (accessed April 6, 2008).
3. Sachs JD. The End of Poverty. Economic Possibilities for Our Time, 1st edn, New York: The Penguin Press, 2005.
4. Sen A. Development as Freedom, 1st edn. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1999.
5. Andrew C, Mitrokhin V. The World was Going our Way. The KGB and the Battle for the Third World, 1st edn. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2005.
6. U.N. Report on international definition and measurement of standards and levels of living. New York, NY: U.N. Publ., 1954.
7. Fogel RW. The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, 1700–2100: Europe, America, and the Third world, 1st edn. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.