15 Oct thesis schmesis

I have a Master’s thesis due at the end of the quarter. I imagine it won’t write itself. But i like to pretend that it will. It’s nearly written, in a virtual kind of way, in my brain. The thoughts and ideas are all u there, just not coherent, articulate, or organized. That may have been redundant.

So i’ll chat about it.

1. health as a human right
which leads to a. what is a human right? which leads to b. who decides what is a right? according to what standard. Consider: Yew and the Asian values argument; Saudi Arabia and the freedom to choose your religion (circa, 1947/48); what’s the other argument against the UNDHR?
This also begs – To what extent? Or better stated: who pays for it? Pogge warns against arbitrary Duty Dumping, e.g., pharmacies and pharmaceuticals. Rather, this comes around to Charles Taylor and issues of citizenship and responsibility.

2. Right citizenship and health
which leads to a. what is a ‘right citizen’ [referencing Katharyne Mitchell and the question of homo sanctum (or something) and it’s use in determining non-citizen (i think i have that convoluted)
but how does that reflect back to health?
a. who is deserving of health care – by scale: in the city, in the state, in the country, in the world b. by what determinants do we begin to parse out health care, or rationing of health care
e.g., Great Britain nationally,through the NHS, by age and through worth to society [kidney dialysis – seriously – look it up]
U.S. over whole world with Bush’s 2003 HIV/AIDS aid plan [what is the name of it???] in determining that aid will only be given in hand with abstinence only programs – who says they gots to be abstinent – to some of the poorest countries in the world: Botswana, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. Also included are the two Caribbean countries Guyana and Haiti. Which brings us to issues around population control of the ” not-right citizens” [does this need to be included? it is, after all, a form of structural violence, right?]

there’s more. but not now.