Wise Women and Maternal Health in Malawi

Joyce Banda with Chief Kwataine

While biomedical techniques in childbirth, including the use of doctors, hospitals and modern technology, have aided health outcomes in pregnant women and their babies in Africa, it's sterile, institutionalized methods are often unavailable, unaffordable or culturally inappropriate - a particularly important element in health seeking behavior - to make a difference in the lives of the poor or those living in tribal areas. To remedy this and to help improve its maternal mortality rate, Malawi is introducing  “safe motherhood committees,” including the use of 'secret mothers' who serve as liaisons between expectant women and health care professionals.

This represents a change in approach unique for national administrations whose health reforms, often implemented at the expense of local cultural norms, despite good intentions often fail. Good for you, President Joyce Banda and village Chief Kwataine for you wise decision to promote cultural change while utilizing empowerment and respect, not coercion or methods based on Western cultural norms.

On a similar note, changes too are at work to irradiate genital cutting in Senegal through information sessions deemed 'cultural diffusion' by Molly Melching of Tostan. Read about both in The New York Times Malawi's Leader Makes Safe Childbirth her Mission.

Pretty Politics on the Wall

Do you know about my fascination with graffiti art and politics? Reprinted from from Al Jazeera, painted walls in Lebanon.

Walls That Speak

The graffiti on the walls of Beirut offers an intriguing insight into both the city and the psyche of its people. Al Jazeera World Last Modified: 03 Apr 2013 13:06

The walls of Beirut talk volumes about the city and its habitants. Many of the city's bullet-scarred walls are covered in words, drawings, signs, slogans and graffiti art. They offer a glimpse both of a vibrant and emerging art culture as well as the abiding dark force of political sectarianism. "Walls communicate with people in different ways. Sometimes they whisper. Sometimes they shout. And sometimes they choose to speak more eloquently," says Tarek Chemali, a researcher. "Walls keep many memories and express opinions."

Which country has more female than male science majors?

From Unesco. Are you surprised?

Immigration's Winners and Losers

In the New York Times op ed piece, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, and Your Economists Too,  Harvard professor Gregory Mankiw gives three main reasons to support immigration to the US. While I, too, am pro-immigration, I find his reasoning another example of an academic mired in theoretical assumptions, disconnected from reality. 

For instance, Mankiw says, “If an American farmer wants to hire a worker to pick fruits and vegetables, the fact that the worker happens to have been born in Mexico does not seem a compelling reason to stop the transaction.” Of course not, especially when the worker has no health insurance, and the farmer has no obligation to the worker to provide a safe work setting, adequate cost of living wages, or any kind of employment security.

He continues that, “When thinking about immigration, there is little doubt that the least fortunate, and the ones with the most at stake in the outcome, are the poor workers who yearn to come to the United States to make a better life for themselves and their families.” True – to a point. Unfortunately, not all immigrants to America arrive with the same advantages, and once here, those who are disadvantaged may find it more difficult to obtain the American Dream. They may lack citizenship, an obstacle to legitimate employment even if they have an advanced degree; they may lack political power if they cannot vote; and they may suffer poor health if their socioeconomic status is low or their families far away.

Money and Happiness Redux

In my blog Bhutan Suggests to US How to Measure Happiness, I wrote how the leaders of Bhutan spoke before the United Nations and suggested a new measure of happiness, one not based simply on a country's GDP, but one that includes a holistic look at a person's well being. At the end of the post I wrote, "I hope it takes hold: perhaps after academics have found a way to quantify the spiritual . . . " Well, it seems that has happened. While not an academic exactly, senior correspondent Derek Thompson wrote in the Atlantic, Yes, Money Does Buy Happiness: 6 lessons from the newest research on income and well being. I've reprinted the 6 points below, would love to hear a response from Bhutan, am concerned about #6. Particularly in light of the recent report on the health failings of the US as well as its high rates of violence when compared to other developed nations.

The Gender Wage Gap and Me

Just today, I went to my workplace, a state university where I teach, and spoke to the chair of my department about offering an independent study opportunity to students. I am teaching medical anthropology, my specialty, on an exciting medical/dental trip to the Inner Himalayas with the Himalayan Health Exchange next June. State universities, like all state agencies, are bureaucratic. Having offered travel study courses in the past, I was hoping to streamline the process by letting students sign up individually (an independent study) vs. via a new course offering, a process with enrollment restrictions requiring a review by the department, the Dean and the Provost. In providing the details of the trip to the chair,  I actually said, "I don't even care if I get paid, I just think this is a great opportunity for students." The chair wisely responded, "No, you will get paid for sure! And if nine students sign-up it will be the same as offering a course!"

Fly Larvae Anyone?

Photo by - World Entomophagy

A while back I wrote a post about deep fried maggots in Nigeria. I was browsing around a country market that was selling natural remedies made of reptiles and herbs, 'bush meat' and all sorts of produce and seafood when I saw what appeared to be skewers of shrimp being deep-fried  and looking delicious. Once informed that these were not shrimp but maggots, I sadly declined (so hungry for those shrimp!) and snapped a photo of our host enjoying a maggot snack instead. Now, apparently, these delicacies are becoming a bit more mainstream than I thought.  Read below about how China's Maggot Factories Hope to Feed the World from Le Monde by way of Worldcrunch.  When it comes to Chinese capitalistic ventures, economic development and food, leave no insect behind!


By Harold Thibault
LE MONDE/Worldcrunch

KUNYANG - Li Jinsui is an ambitious man. He invested 250,000 euros of his own money in this insect factory, sitting amidst the hills of Kunyang, on the outskirts of Kunming, the capital of the southwestern province of Yunnan. With seven patents, production officially kicked off in 2009.
Since then, no visitor comes by without being offered a plate of bamboo worms, one of the dishes in his catalogue. Yunnan Insect Biotechnologies also offers dried larvae, protein powder from insect exoskeletons and actual insects for human and animal consumption.