Aiming for elegance, one thought at a time

Health and organic food in Cuba

Posted: August 26th, 2009 | Author: Studds | Filed under: World | 3 Comments »

There’s a lot of lessons we could learn from Cuba. That’s right, Cuba. Poor, communist nation, currently the subject of US embargoes. Admittedly, I don’t fully understand the political situation there, but here’s what I do understand: in 2003 Cuba is ranked even 7th (behind 30 other countries) in terms of Healthy Average Life Expectancy (HALE – figures taken from WHOSIS).

The HALE in Cuba is 68. Japan’s HALE is 75. Japan spent $2018 (average of spending from 1995-2006) to achieve this. The USA (the least effective spender on health) spent $4949 to achieve a HALE of just 69. On average, the 30 top ranked countries spend $2475 per capita. Cuba spent just $211. The nearest rival in terms of health spending effectiveness was Singapore (HALE 70, per capita spending $941) which spent $13 per year of healthy average life, versus $3 per year in Cuba. The top five performers are Cuba, Singapore, Malta, Spain and Japan.

Hale (2003) vs per capita health spending (PPP int. $)

There are of course lessons to be learnt from all of these countries. Here are a few that we can learn from Cuba: focus on prevention. Train doctors, and imbed them in communities, rather than hospitals alone. Fund research. Use vaccines and eliminate diseases. Measles was eliminated in Cuba in the early or mid 1990’s. Grow and eat healthy food.

Cuba has been assisted greatly by the US embargoes on this front – it had no choice, other than starving. Cuban’s grow food without petrochemicals such as fertilisers and pesticides. They don’t depend on oil to plow the earth or ship produce great distances. Instead, farms are interspersed within communities, including within cities. They use natural substances to deter pests, and use complementary crop techniques, instead of monocultures that require substantial chemical intervention. The result is cheap, healthy food – and it shows in healthy average life expectancy.

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Review: Jeff Sachs’ The End of Poverty

Posted: July 17th, 2009 | Author: Studds | Filed under: Reviews | No Comments »

As I write this, I’m in Abu Dhabi International Airport. The last time I was here, I grabbed a copy of Jeffrey Sachs’ The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time. It’s a very readable book, and one that has opened my eyes to a whole different way of looking at the world. I very highly recommend that you read the book, as this review will not do it justice, but I would like to briefly summarise some key concepts that have stuck with me.

The key message of the book is that it is within our power, for the first time, to end extreme poverty. That is, over the next 15 years or so, we can build a world where no-one is without the basic necessities: food, clean water, shelter, education, health services, and the opportunity to work to better their lives.

To do this, we need to be guided by what Sachs refers to as clinical economics. Clinical economics means practicing economics as a doctor practices medicine, rather than as an exercise in promoting ideology. Rather than simplistic assessments of economic woes, it calls for a detailed differential diagnosis of the problem. Rather than one-size-fits-all solutions, clinical economics calls for an evidence based approach: choosing those courses of action that we have good empirical reasons to believe will work, and then rigorously assessing our progress against clearly defined goals.

While there are some parts of the work that I don’t completely agree with, for the most part The End of Poverty is excellent. Once again, I very highly recommend reading it. I found it to be thought-provoking and it has inspired me to find ways to engage with problems of this scale within my own domain. I have longed believed in the power of IT , and though my thoughts are yet to coalesce, I’m sure that IT has a large role to play in the end of poverty.

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