Money Talks

Taxes and tax credits are a powerful tool/weapon to wield in the global health arena. Taxes can deter smoking, while tax credits can uphold a one-child policy. While it requires a very intricate fine tuned and balanced approach to optimize results, it can be implemented across an entire gamut of global health to promote alternative fuel and energy usage, deter overutilization of non-renewable resources, and promote healthy behavior and corporate responsibility. Here's to many paradigm shifts to come.

Supreme Court...and other possibilities

I am by far one of the more extreme agnostics to have entered this world by no miracle; sperm meets egg and 9 months later, a young couple wishes they had used prophylactics. Just kidding. But yes, I do still have faith...of sorts. As much as Fush may have bucked things up, we have a brilliant system which has vested power in the Supreme Court to rule that the EPA does indeed have the authority to regulate emissions. I have faith that if the EPA demanded that cinnamon rolls and french fries pop out of exhaust pipes by tomorrow, that it could happen. I have faith that if the hundreds (yes, hundreds) of philanthropic billionaires in the world - and the Waltons - united, that we could solve some of our greatest dilemmas by tomorrow morning, all in good time to have afternoon tea with the Brits. The X Prize Foundation - a brilliant partnership - has just as much faith, as they offer millions in prizes to those who innovate innovation itself. Responsible for encouraging the creation of a vehicle short of a personal space ship, the foundation has just created a new prize to encourage the development of a practical car with a new feat of 100 mpg. However, we need more cooperation and involvement from national governments. Amidst corruption and conflicts of interest, we create solutions and attempt to eke out results.

Future of Health Care

Flying cars, skyscrapers through the clouds, meals-in-a-pill...but what of our precarious health care situation? We need universalized health insurance on a well-regulated privatized health care backbone. Smart cards seem like a great way to store information and track patients. Due to security flaws, it may be even better to combine this with biometric technology. Along the lines of telehealth medicine, there should be massive call centers with trained operators receiving calls 24/7. These calls should then be forwarded accordingly. For example, a patient complaining of mild symptoms should be forwarded to speak with a nurse. Furthermore, this private call center could contract out advanced care phone calls (i.e. nurses, dentists, PAs, doctors, etc.) so each time they receive a call, they would receive a consultation fee.

Lawrence for dictator of California (every state shall secede). 2008 - (until N. Korea sends assassins to restore democracy). Peace.

Emergence of and Innovations in Disease Management

Forty-something odd hours, two all-nighters, a parking ticket, and a case of hemorrhoids later (jk), here we are:

Part 1:


Part 2:

Thomas L. Friedman

Thanks to my wonderful colleague, Wilson Ong, I had the once in a lifetime - ok, maybe twice, but no more - opportunity to attend a lecture by Thomas Friedman. My intellect, or lack thereof, is still so overwhelmed that I am unsure of where to begin. But for now, enough kowtow and sycophancy. However, due to the immense compulsion that a man of his stature should have an honorific, let's just call him Dr. Friedman for the sake of me completing this post within the next year.

The eminent journalist has authored "The World is Flat," from whence he drew the framework for his lecture. To provide a quick synopsis relevant to the title, the flatness of the world refers to the ubiquity of communication, information, and technology brought upon by globalization. For example, a hospital in Kansas can be neighbors with an outsourced radiology facility in Bangalore, India, but this can only happen metaphorically as nobody wants to be in or near Kansas. By the same token, although Dr. Friedman is in Maryland, and I, in California, this blog entry is technically in his digital backyard, possibly even within equal reach of his toilet paper.

Moving onward, I feel that it would be more informative to say "The Developed World is Flat." Dr. Friedman mentioned that globalization took place in three chronologically distinct stages; the first in which nations globalized, then corporations, and now, individuals. So where can we find a global steamroller to even out the disparities and rifts in globalization? What do the nations who missed the globalization train do? For one, the last post links to a video that sheds light on the fact that millions worldwide still do not have access to water. How do we connect the flat world to the allegedly developing world? If these countries are in fact developing and possibly globalizing, why the lack of investment? Aren't even the most basic forms of infrastructure investments bound to pay off in the long run?

Also, in applying some of his views to some of the recent seminar topics such as sustainability, to quote Dr. Friedman, "the stone age didn't end because cavemen ran out of stones." They most definitely moved onto bigger and better things. But do homo sapiens have the same acuity, or will we wait until all the oil wells, domestic and foreign, are pillaged dry? Dr. Friedman suggests disincentivizing oil consumption through taxes at the pump. Can we really push individuals to develop alternative energy as a result or should the government subsidize such resources and incentivize them through lower prices? The former would cause the government to assume less debt while utilizing market forces. Nonetheless, depeletable resources are priceless.

Before I run amuck with questions, when the disparities in global standards really flattens, what do we do to save costs. Where do we outsource to?

To philosophically recount the experience, my entire life has changed as a result of a simple 2 hours during which our paths had crossed.

Global Water Crisis

My brief comment on this topic is attached to the video.

Rhetoric

We [politicians] need to stop throwing suggestions about freely like feces, but assert them backed with the guarantee of action. It's unsettling watching these videos and flipping through these images of haunting sunken eyes and swollen bellies. We read literature after literature on the issues and solutions, but I really am clueless on where to start. How can I make a difference? How do we teach these people to fish? How do we eliminate these disparities? How do we face opposition? What rights do these people have? Is there a hierarchy to these issues; a pressure point? Where does the causal chain start? What changes will produce what effects? I just purchased Jeffrey Sachs' "The End of Poverty" for enrichment and will hopefully find better insight and solace for my frustrations of my incapacity. Every second of hesitation and procrastination results in an unbelievable number of deaths. We are all victims of the bystander effect, standing by, watching souls dissolve. We need to stop sticking bandaids on all these problems and attack the underlying issues. HOW ABOUT SOME INITIATIVE?