At DGH we believe there is an intrinsic relationship between art, health, education and Human Rights. Art, in its various forms, inspires our daily work. Every other issue we’ll share some of the books, movies and music that have touched us. We invite you to recommend some works that have moved and enlightened you. Send your suggestions with a brief description to Monica Sanchez at newsletter@dghonline.org.
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families, by Philip Gourevitch, Picador, 1999, Nonfiction, ISBN: 0312243359. For anyone interested in, and confused by, the genocide in Rwanda, this book is an essential read, and provides clarity into a situation that was often very cloudy. As the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda slowly hands out verdicts, Gourevitch's historical account of the gross crimes against humanity gives us perspective of all sides of the slaughter. By documenting the failure of the international community to respond to an emergency that quickly engulfed a continent and led to the deaths of millions of people, it sounds the alarm that disinterest in the rights of the disadvantaged can have disastrous consequences.
Medicine Betrayed: The Participation of Doctors in Human Rights Abuses, British Medical Association, Zed Books, 1996, Nonfiction, ASIN: 185649 103X. In 1992 the BMA took the bold step of publishing this volume documenting the participation of medical professionals in human rights violations around the world.
War and Public Health, edited by Victor Sidel and Barry Levy, Oxford University Press, 1997, Nonfiction, ISBN: 019510 8140. The first collection of articles to address the public health and human rights aspects of warfare, including the effect on civilian populations, economies and the environment. Dr. Sidel has been a human rights activist for over 40 years, from his seminal article in the New England Journal of Medicine in the early 1960s about the population effects of a nuclear attack on Boston, to his involvement with community health in the Bronx, to being an eloquent activist for a single payer health care system in the US. Dr. Levy is a nationally recognized occupational health specialist. Both are past presidents of the American Public Health Association.
King Leopold's Ghost, by Adam Hochschild, Houghton Mifflin Co, 1999, Nonfiction, ISBN: 0618001905. A fascinating and gripping account of the fight against the rule by King Leopold of Belgium over the Belgian Congo, arguably the first human rights campaign of the 20th century. It proves that the concerted efforts of a few concerned citizens can direct world attention on gross violations of human rights, embarrass a major world power, and lead to structural changes at national and international levels.
 |
Left: A man from Zinacantan, in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico. Photo by Jeffrey Jay Foxx.
|
| |
Living Maya, by Walter F. Morris, Jr. and Jeffrey Jay Foxx, Harry N. Abrams, 2000, Nonfiction, ISBN: 0810927454. This is the first volume to document the life of the Maya of today, a remarkable people who are the direct heirs to the magnificent Maya culture of Pre-Columbian times. Morris, a highly respected expert in the field, and Foxx, a well-known ethnographic photographer, capture the spirited story of this extraordinary people, who live in Central America and southern Mexico. Living Maya reveals daily rituals, religious ceremonies, colorful markets and stunning landscapes. Myths, legends and songs are explained and depicted, and there is a special emphasis on the Maya's weaving, the one art form to have persisted virtually unchanged throughout the last 2000 years. Includes 25 photographs in full color, 60 line drawings, and two maps (see photos in the sidebar).
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman, Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1998, Nonfiction, ISBN: 0374525641. Anne Fadiman spent seven years interacting with the Hmong community in Merced, California and the medical professionals that serve them. This book tells the story of a young Hmong girl born with an intractable seizure disorder, and the subsequent years of understanding and misunderstanding between physicians at the local hospital, her family, and the Hmong community in Merced. It is a compassionate account of how culture and context are important in the understanding of health and illness, as well as an illuminating history of the political economy of the Hmong people and the role of the United States in the War in Southeast Asia in the 1960s. A must read for everyone interested in cross-cultural medicine. A National Book Critics Circle Award winner.
Women in the Sanctuary Movement, by Robin Lorentzen, Temple University Press, 1991, Nonfiction, ISBN: 0877227 683. The sanctuary movement in the United States began in the 1980s in response to growing numbers of Central American refugees seeking political asylum. While the media portray male clerics as the leaders of this religious-based political movement, women outnumber men at all levels of organization. Using twenty-nine in-depth interviews with women involved in eight local sanctuary sites, Robin Lorentzen explores the workings of the sanctuary movement; the reasons for their commitment to this illegal activity; and the relationship between their activism, liberation theology and feminism.
Human Rights and Health: A Reader, edited by Jonathan Mann, Sofia Gruskin and Michael Grodin, Routledge, 1999, Nonfiction, ISBN: 0415921015. Quickly becoming the standard text for health and human rights courses around the country, this book is a compilation of seminal articles from the Journal of Health and Human Rights, published by the François Xavier-Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University School of Public Health. Even though it was published after the untimely death of one of the founders of the modern health and human rights movement, Dr. Jonathan Mann, it serves as a core representation of the ideas and principles that he and his colleagues are dedicated to promoting. You will find yourself going back to the articles again and again.
1900, Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, Starring Robert De Niro and Gérard Depardieu, 1976. Tracing 45 years in the lives of two men born just after the turn of the century, Bertolucci's four-hour-plus epic dramatizes the class politics that tore Italy apart. Alfredo is a wealthy padrone who finds himself aligned with the fascists, while his boyhood friend and double, Olmo, is a peasant-turned-socialist agitator. Their friendship, lives, and loves are strained past all limits by the brutality, prejudice, and warfare that erupt all around them.
El Mensaje (The Message), Sumaj CHASQUIS, 1994, Sumaj CHASQUIS Productions. The CHASQUIS were the messengers of the pre-Columbian culture. Sumaj CHASQUIS, meaning GOOD MESSENGERS, was founded by Bolivian Indian and Mestizo musicians in order to foster appreciation and conservation of the culture and music of the Bolivian Andean Highlands. Sumaj CHASQUIS performs their music in three languages: Aymara, Quechua and Spanish. They have performed throughout North America with great acceptance. A Sumaj CHASQUIS performance gives you a feeling for their ancient culture of BOLIVIA and makes sure that you get THE MESSAGE while having an extraordinary experience. For more information, write to 54 Canal Street, Medford, MA, 02158.
A Collaborative Poem
If the mango tree could speak, it would be honest.
It would tell us how it feels inside.
It would touch our hearts and we would know what is good and bad.
It would talk about my people and say how they live.
It would talk about my broken heart of memories,
If the mango tree could speak it would weep with the fear of thousands of years.
It would cry for all the suffering of the people.
It would say what happened a long time ago.
It would speak about what has been lost.
It would teach numbers by counting how many people it has seen killed.
It will tell how the people are suffering.
It would say that the children are strong.
If the mango tree could speak,
If the mango tree could speak it would say that the people are beautiful and that they have love to give.
It would say "help the poor people."
It would sing
If the mango tree could speak, it would say
It would say"
The mango tree would tell the truth.
- The Mango Tree poem was written collectively by the children of the "Writing Out of Darkness" program in Tucson, AZ. The children's thoughts were gathered into one poem after they watched a video of children who had stayed behind in their countries of origin: El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. The children in the group are from families who had to leave their countries during the civil wars and oppression of the 1980's because of threats of torture or death.
My broken heart of my past
My broken heart hearing people cry for their relatives.
it would be a storyteller.
It would be shy.
It would know great and sad stories.
"Hope lives on
Peace can come
Wave its banner in my leaves."
"Do not cut me, please."
I love you."
Use this link to purchase recommended books, CDs and videos, and earn referral fees for DGH–at no extra cost to you.
