Sandbox - NP
From straightjacket
NITASHA's SANDBOX
A Letter to Jane Philpott Musings After Her Talk
Dear Dr. Philpott,
I just wanted to write to you and say thanks so much again for the talk you presented to us last week. I was wondering about a few random thoughts in my head, and wanted to share them with you and perhaps even ask for your feedback perhaps?
You see, I was thinking about the question you asked about motivations...and it got me thinking about why I was interested in global health. Among some of the same motivations that you outlined when you were honestly sharing with us, I also realized that one of my motivations was the fact that when I am learning about or practicing in the global health realm, I usually feel more energized, charged, or 'alive'. I'm not sure if that makes sense...do you know what I mean when I say that?
I then wondered why it is that I feel this sort of energy when doing global health. I thought about in a bit of a roundabout way...but I invite you to go along with me on this train of thought. Is that okay? Anyways, I've always felt that people are just people -- in our essence, we are all the same, no matter where we come from. Of course, who we are, the labels we have, the experiences we have endured, the resources that are available to us -- all these things change us and make us unique and create power differences and all that sort of stuff. But at the essence, we are all people. I bring that perspective to all my interactions and to my view and judgement of everyone I come across.
Still, I notice that there is a weird sort of difference between the people in my daily work life and the people who are grouped into the global health category, despite people all being people, etc. It seems to me (perhaps wrongly) that the people who are 'served' or who 'work' in global health have stories and lives that seem to be grounded in a reality that is less about the constructed world we live in and more about the basic needs, community, survival, and resourcefulness... And it seems, again, that in struggling to meet these basic needs, there is an unexplicable sense of comraderie that I just haven't quite experienced in my non-global health work or endeavours. Do you know what I mean? In other realms of life, this "aliveness" is quite present...but in the work realm, in the academic realm -- it seems to be most present when working to address someone else's needs. As I write this, I'm not even sure if aliveness is the word...perhaps it is more of a solidarity, an inexplicable connection that goes deeper than many of the superficial interactions we have in many other realms of our life. Do you know what I mean? Ah...it's so hard to articulate.
Anyways, all this also got me thinking about the potential for the humanities and global health. I mean, sometimes I hesitate sharing my ideas or thoughts because they seem so 'non-academic,' sort of 'hippie-ish,' if you'd like. And in all the programs that I have seen and even many of the conferences and presentations that I've been to, it seems that the humanities are so far away from the global health sphere. Why is this? We are talking about a discipline that deals as much with the human condition as it does with the politics and economics and health status of populations. You know what I mean? All this self reflection, all these questions -- do any of them have any relation to philosophy, literature, psychology, music and other narratives, etc.?
I'm not sure if these kinds of questions have all that much to do with practical applications in global health...but I would venture that they are at least important in exploring things like our own motivations and what that means.
Anyways, that's it from me. I apologize for the incoherentness of this email, but if you have any inkling at all of what I am trying to say, and are interested, I would be more than happy to try and re-articulate or further articulate these thoughts. I also feel that another one of my colleagues, Azad Mashari (who has worked with Kelly Anderson on her ethics material) also introduced me to this idea of humanities in global health in a talk that he presented last March at the UWO Hungry for Change event.
I don't know, either way. But thanks for reading this with an open mind and heart Dr. Philpott. It's great to meet someone who is so genuine and honest when it comes to learning about the world. It's a real priviledge.
I hope you have a lovely evening, and enjoy that Spring weather! Keep smiling, and thanks again, Nitasha
