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HSPH CLASS DAY World Bank Official Warns Against Global Health ThreatsAsserting that graduates would be confronted by new ethical, philosophical, and political conundrums, HSPH commencement speaker Mamphela Ramphele said that rapid globalization had precipitated a "softening of boundaries" between public and private spaces. She said that HIV, for instance, "challenges the space between the most intimate private acts of sexual relations and their public consequences." She questioned how nations will balance the right to privacy with the public's right "to be protected from the consequences of private acts."
In her commencement keynote, Mamphela Ramphele points out that in an age when diseases readily jump national borders, the boundaries between private behaviors and public consequences also are easily crossed. (Photo by Richard Chase) She is the first African to serve as managing director of the World Bank Group, and she was the first black woman to hold the position of vice chancellor at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Ramphele called on wealthy nations in the Northern Hemisphere to pool resources and invest in human development and health in the Southern Hemisphere, rather than draining these nations of their human capital. Righting Public HealthIn a world where diseases easily jump national boundaries, such as the recent example of SARS, Ramphele said, "Poaching health and other professionals from the South to cater to the needs of the aging North is no longer a sustainable strategy." She said that the public health systems in the South had been badly neglected, and she rejected a market-based approach to health care delivery.In an apparent rebuke to U.S. foreign policy, she acknowledged the risks to public health of "growing and powerful" unilateralism and "frightening, persistent greed that focuses on short-term profits." She cited the opportunities available to public health professionals despite these threats. "You have the opportunity to lead against the grain," she said to HSPH graduates. "You have already renounced materialism by choosing a public health career. Are you willing to go the distance? The future depends on you doing so." All the DifferenceThe June 5 ceremony, at which more than 440 degrees were conferred, began with an address by HSPH dean Barry Bloom. He said that closing disparities in health within the United States and between countries is the greatest challenge in public health today. Using data from the Harvard Burden of Disease Unit, he cited alarming gaps between the life expectancies of those in industrialized nations and poor nations. He remarked that there are great discrepancies even within the United States."I believe that each and every one of you can and will make a difference in your own way to contribute to improving the health of the populations of this nation and around the world and reducing the disparities wherever possible," said Bloom. Student commencement speaker and MPH program graduate James Robertson, who has worked to mitigate the spread of HIV, drew an analogy between preventing disease and waging war. He said that the greatest obstacle to public health is not a "lack of cash," but society's failure to view disease prevention with the same urgency as it would a war--and to bring the money and means to where they were most needed. He called on his classmates to become part of a sustained campaign to conquer the social ills of which disease is often symptomatic: poverty, inequity, ignorance, and injustice. --Paul Massari |
