Readings on Globalization, Health and Power for Convulsive Times (and What Awaits Us)

I recommend hereunder a few books to buy or ask for on this Sant Jordi DayI'm getting old. I review the reading recommendations that I have made in previous editions of World Book Day (2016, 2017) and their number has decreased at the same rhythm as my hair. This year you will have to make do with five. Anyway, given the workload that seems to increase without end -unlike its remuneration- and anchored in the Kingdom of Ice; the usual and not always predictable personal and family relationships; and a rather hectic local, international –and even intergalactic- environment; I do not think you have time or humour or motivation for many more. In case you still feel like it, I recommend hereunder a few books to buy or ask for on this Sant Jordi Day, reviewed in four questions and an epilogue.

Photo: Annie Spratt / Unsplash

What can we do to fix our problems

Global health has been –and still is– an inexhaustible source of agreements that once seemed impossibleLet's start with the most urgent: we desperately need diplomatic people. And we need them everywhere: in workplaces, in the neighbourhood council, in the queues at the cinema or boarding planes and –please– in parliaments and other centres of power. Global health has been –and still is– an inexhaustible source of agreements that once seemed impossible, and approaches between the most recalcitrant extremes. Fair enough, the result has not always been to one's own taste, but isn’t that better than letting the problems rot?

Ellen Rosskam & Ilona Kickbusch. Negotiating and Navigating Global Health: Case Studies in Global Health Diplomacy. World Scientific. 2011.

How to reverse the descending curve towards our extinction

Those who speculate on the stock market (don’t laugh)will know the term, drawdown, as the decline in the value of an investment, below its historical maximum. Making a parallel, these gazillion experts propose 100 ways to change the direction of our descent to hell that represents global warming and ensure our survival as a species. That is, if it is still worth the effort!

Paul Hawken (Ed.). Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming. Penguin. 2017.

What is our margin for hope

Oh! In 2017, the good old Hans Rossling left us forever. He was a charming man who got upset when we found his public appearances as funny as his disposable messages. Long before the rise of fake news, Rossling insisted that, despite our natural pessimism, we are not in such a bad situation. As a farewell gift, he bequeathed us this beautiful and forceful plea in favour of the progress of humanity, written jointly with his son and daughter-in-law. A must.

Hans Rossling & Co. Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World - and Why Things Are Better Than You Think. Sceptre. 2018.

Who will come to our rescue

Medical students from around the world, now young professionals, have developed this fresh and practical compendiumThose who come behind, the new generation, those who are pushing: call them as you want, but it is they who come to save us. They are the same that are rising, reflecting, organising themselves; without guidance, with aplomb. A group of them, at the time medical students from around the world, now young professionals, have developed this fresh and practical compendium on the basics of our discipline. Among them, our Master student Meggie Mowka, co-author of the chapter on health and human rights. I hope that they soon take our place.

Babulal Sethia & Parveen Kumar (Eds.). Essentials of Global Health. Elsevier. 2018.

Epilogue: Interrupting a woman when she speaks is nothing new

Although our level of paternalism reaches far, we have had to resort to an English neologism in order to give visibility to a practice almost as old as humanity. Mansplaining is the unpleasant habit of imposing a man on a woman, usually interrupting her, with condescending arguments. Mary Beard, who on Twitter exerts an astonishing perseverance against the trolls, shows that verbal machismo has primarily targeted influential or powerful women, who questioned male pre-eminence. Does it sound familiar?

Mary Beard. Mujeres y poder. Un manifiesto. Crítica. 2018.

Foto: Stefan Steinbauer / Unsplash