Law, Culture and Health

One of my newest and therefore most cherished hypotheses is that different cultures view governance differently than we do, and cultures also view health services provision differently. The idea that everyone all around the world expects (or SHOULD expect) their government to provide health care is bizarre. One of my subset favorite ideas du jour is that in countries like Afghanistan, where NGOs have been providing health care forever, and where there has never been a strong central government, it doesn't make sense to try to "legitimize" the central government by assisting it with providing health services. However, I'm just formulating this theory, you heard it here first, and I'm sure I'll be back to mull this over quite a bit in the future.

Anyhow, while I was poking around on the web, I came across Georgetown Law's Oneil Institute that has a global public health and law center. Here's the URL: http://www.law.georgetown.edu/oneillinstitute/index.html.

I was thinking about human rights law this weekend (doesn't everyone?), and about war. I have recently read an interesting piece by an Air Force Colonel that described the liberalization of International Law and how that affected war. So, I was thinking about how "the West" also considers war, pondering the idea that cultures also don't think of war the same way we do. It's probably not always an extension of policy by other means, to misquote Clauswitz, in everyone else's mind.

So, where am I going with all this? Well, it seems to me that the Global War on Terror, which is apparently now over somehow...according to the Obama administration...., is being articulated as a war against those who fight against the State-ordered international system. That's kind of a no-brainer, and if you step back, it's a bit startling too. But to move on, it seems to me that rushing hither and thither about the globe helping people develop their own health systems or handing out aspirins in the hope of creating healthy and stable communities might be a bit premature without a better understanding of what THEY think of health, their government and so forth.

I'm speculating, here, really. But it's as fair to speculate in this way as it is to speculate in terms of the benefits of 'health diplomacy' if one were only to focus on benefit to the other guy. Don't forget that there is a lot of gratification in doing good deeds all about.

I have strayed away from my thoughts about law, but they follow along this same vein. Law is the venue by which cultural imperatives express themselves. It would be interesting to study the changes in international health law to better understand international priorities...or at least priorities of the dominant actors in the international arena. Ah ha. Another possibility for a dissertation.