Manila conference says war, globalization are health
issues
By Hillel Cohen
Manila, The Philippines
Delegates from 10 countries joined health
workers and activists from the Philippines on Nov. 8-9 for an
International Conference on Challenges in Health Work Amidst
Globalization and War. Gathering in downtown Manila, over 150
delegates and observers exchanged information and experiences
of organizing resistance to imperialist attacks on health.
In a keynote address, Congressperson Satur Ocampo from the
Bayan Muna Party connected U.S. imperialist wars in Afghanistan
and Iraq with the plight of workers and rural poor in the
Philippines and many other former colonial countries.
The huge military spending diverts money from health and
other human needs while the threat of military force backs up
the economic domination of the U.S. through the World Trade
Organi zation, the World Bank and the Internat ional Monetary
Fund. Ocampo said that 31 percent--nearly one third--of the
national budget of the Philippines goes to debt service on IMF
loans, while the proportion for health has gone down to 1.5
percent. Budget cuts have led to big cutbacks in health
services and jobs for health workers.
Ocampo, recently elected to Congress, is a legendary figure
in the Filipino people's movement, having served years in
prison during the martial-law regime of Ferdinand Marcos.
Dr. Mira Shiva of the All-India Drug Action Network
explained how transnational pharmaceutical companies make
enormous profits using international patent laws to prevent the
manufacture or use of low-cost generic medicines. For example,
patented anti-viral drugs for one AIDS patient can cost as much
as $10,000 per year, but Indian manufacturers can market the
same drugs for $300 per year. But they are prohibited by trade
agreements like the one on Trade-Related Intellectual Property
Rights, known as TRIPS.
Giant drug companies are even patenting traditional herbal
medicines, such as Indian wheat. Dr. Shiva described a struggle
to stop this bio-piracy.
Emma Manuel, national president of the Alliance of Health
Workers, outlined the impact on health of the General Agreement
on Trades in Services. GATS extends WTO agreements from
covering manufactured and agricultural products to covering
services like health. In practice, this means foreign investors
can enter the Philippines to establish for-profit hospitals,
medical services and HMO-style insurance schemes. All of these
mean even higher-priced services that are out of reach for most
Filipinos, while the government cuts back and "corporatizes"
public hospitals.
'Corporatizing' health care
"Corporatize" is supposed to be different than privatize,
but in reality it means the same thing. Patients have to pay in
advance for everything they need. Whether it is film for an
X-ray, gloves for the doctor or any medication, the patient or
patient's family must buy it or the patient will not get
treatment.
Health care activists say the word should be "profitize,"
because all of health care is being made into a commodity
rather than a service.
Cutbacks also mean fewer staff in the hospitals, with one
nurse expected to care for as many as 80 or even 150 patients.
Low wages and bad conditions in the health sector drive nurses
and doctors to join the ranks of 8 million overseas Filipino
workers. In some departments as many as half the nurses and
doctors currently working have applied for overseas
positions.
The government encourages this "export" of health
professionals because they send money home, propping up the
local economy. Although earning much more overseas than in the
Philippines, these overseas workers are super-exploited in the
host countries and often suffer racial discrimination and
mistreatment.
Many other speakers representing Fili pino and international
health organizations discussed common problems stemming from
the WTO-style globalization. Delegates also expressed
opposition to U.S. military aggression around the world, to
U.S.-Israeli attacks on the Palestinian people and to
harassment by the Phili p pine military of indigenous people,
the Moro ethnic minority and poor people in the countryside who
are trying to eke out an existence, mostly as share croppers
and tenant farmers.
The delegates were especially interested in learning about
the growing anti-war movement in the United States and were
excited about the large rallies held in Washington and San
Francisco on Oct. 25.
In the week leading up to the conference, international
delegates took part in "exposures" hosted by organizers of
community-based health programs. These grass-roots programs
train volunteers to be community health workers with basic
skills in herbal medicines, acupuncture/ acupressure and
sanitation.
In these desperately poor communities there is no
electricity, no running water and no money for Western
medications, let alone visits to health professionals in a
distant urban center. The volunteer community health workers
provide the only available health care.
Participants in the weeklong exposures met with community
health workers and other community organizations and stayed in
their houses overnight. These workers are struggling to
substitute organization and dedication for the lack of
resources, and see health care in the context of a broader
struggle for basic rights.
On the last day of the conference, the delegates and
observers gathered for a march down Manila's busiest streets
for a protest at the U.S. Embassy. Chanting in English, Spanish
and Tagalog, the indigenous language of the Philippines, the
protest called for "Health, not war" and "WTO out of
health."
A line of riot police blocked the march before it could
reach the embassy, but the delegates continued the protest with
a rally right at the police line, blocking traffic in both
directions.
Reprinted from the Nov. 27, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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