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Global Health Justice

Tag: inequality

Art for global health equity

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A July essay in PLOS Global Public Health argues that art and its expression are critically important in the struggle for global health equity.  Reñosa and his colleagues make the case that art can be leveraged to (1) to amplify disenfranchised voices, (2) to advance social justice activism, (3) to strengthen communities and individuals, and (4) to improve global health communication. They argue that art facilitates the inclusion of diverse cultural perspectives and engagement and uplifts marginalized voices. They provide a…

Barred from Healing: Denial of Qualified Medical Care Deepens Humanitarian Crises

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This article is written in Arabic and English. For the English version, please see below. في مناطق النزاع حول العالم، يمكن أن يكون الوصول إلى المهنيين الطبيين المؤهلين هو الفارق بين الحياة والموت. ولا يوجد مكان يتجلى فيه هذا الأمر أكثر من غزة، حيث أدى الحصار المتعمد على العاملين في مجال الرعاية الصحية الماهرين إلى تفاقم كارثة إنسانية متزايدة. أحد الحالات الرمزية هو حالة الدكتور محمد الموسوي محمد طاهر، الجراح البريطاني-العراقي المتخصص في جراحة الصدمات والمعروف بمساهماته الاستثنائية خلال مهمة…

IMF imposing austerity on new Sri Lanka government

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The new wave of IMF-imposed austerity measures is now reaching Sri Lanka, and their newly elected center-left government is challenging the usual IMF terms of social welfare cuts, rise in the VAT, and other measures that have the effect of doubling the cost of living and reducing the real wages by half for those that have formal employment. These are the standard IMF free-marked driven policies that typically benefited the elite in the country, while the burden typically falls on the…

Kenya’s protests: The violent cost of IMF debt

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Peaceful protestors in Kenya against Finance Bill 2023.

Recent demonstrations against Kenya’s Finance Bill 2024 were met with deadly repression. At least 39 civilians were killed and hundreds injured by Kenyan police while protesting the proposed 346 billion Kenyan shillings ($2.6 billion) tax increase. This Bill was intended to generate government revenue, a condition of the $2.34 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) 38-month loan issued to Kenya in April 2021. The proposed tax levies would have increased the price of basic commodities including bread, sugar, and car petroleum,…

The Shift Towards Private Education in Rural India

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India’s education landscape is witnessing a significant shift, with nearly 50% of students now enrolled in 4.5 lakh privately managed schools, making it the third-largest school system globally. This surge is driven by low- and middle-income families seeking quality alternatives to government schools. The ‘State of the Sector Report on Private Schools’ by the Central Square Foundation and Omidyar Network India highlights the urgent need to improve learning outcomes in these institutions, which contribute approximately Rs. 1.75 lakh crores to…

Chiquita guilty of funding terrorists in Colombia

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A South Florida jury just found Chiquita Brands liable for killings by right-wing paramilitary death squads that the the company financed in their banana plantations. Chiquita, formerly the United Fruit Company (UFC),  has a long history of deadly repression against workers. The New Orleans-based multinational has long monopolized land and markets and controlled governments throughout Latin America. UFC was implicated in massacres in Colombia, the overthrow of democratically elected President Jacobo Arbens of Guatemala, and propped up many so-called “banana…

Decolonizing must challenge globalized systems of wealth extraction and profiteering.

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The authors of a February 2024 Bulletin of the World Health Organization article call for global health actors to challenge current forms of corporate and financialized colonialism that operate through globalized systems of wealth extraction and profiteering. They note that most of the current narrative on decolonization focuses on correcting power imbalances between health actors in high-income and low-income countries and on challenging ideas and values of some wealthy countries that shape the practice of global health. The authors of…

Defunding UNWRA in Gaza is ‘collective punishment’ – Lancet & Health Justice Organizations

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Health and political leaders globally have condemned defunding of UNRWA, the principle lifeline for the people of Gaza.  Sharmila Devi, in the current issue of Lancet, quotes UN leaders and aid agency leaders (including WHO) “no other entity has the capacity to deliver the scale and breadth of assistance that 2·2 million people in Gaza urgently need,”  the cuts are “collective punishment,” and “if a teacher is found to be a murderer, we don’t get calls to defund the school…

Tim Schwab & “The Bill Gates Problem” Town Hall Seattle Podcast

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Tim Schwab, author of  the recently published “The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the myth of the good billionaire,” headlined a Seattle Town Hall event in December 2024 sponsored by the Community Alliance for Global Justice. In this podcast of the event, Tim explains how Bill Gates’ uses his foundation as a vehicle for unaccountable personal power and influence, using taxpayers dollars. He describes how  dogmatic belief in the primacy of the private sector and their patent interests and the…

UN Tax Reform offers hope to Low Income Countries

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In late November 2023, developing countries at the UN won a historic vote to set up a tax convention in spite of resistance from rich countries. This Guardian editorial (see below) explains how poor nations’ ability to feed, educate and provide healthcare to their people is hobbled by illicit and hidden movements of capital worth billions each year. The Tax Justice Network (also below) documents how countries around the world are losing US$480bn in tax a year to tax abuse, with…