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Monday, June 06, 2005

Declaring the Moral Course of Action to Be Henceforth the Reality

This reads like a movie story, but it's true:

One year ago, Mrs. Ngilu, the Kenyan minister of health, was visiting a rural hospital when a woman outside stopped her. The woman held in her arms her son, 9 years old, sick with swamp fever from bad drinking water. The unconscious boy was covered in blood boils. The mother had brought him to the hospital but had no money, so the doctor refused to treat him. On most days, her story would end there: the boy would die, like thousands of other children who die every day in Africa of preventable and treatable diseases. But luck was with her.

After confirming with the rural hospital's sole doctor that he indeed had turned the boy away because of money, an angry Mrs. Ngilu put the boy and his mother into the ministry car, ordering the driver to take them to the large regional hospital two hours away. "I held the boy in my arms," Mrs. Ngilu recalled. "His blood was all over me."

That night, the health minister boarded a small plane back to Nairobi. The plane flew into a storm, buffeted by high winds. Convinced that everyone aboard would die, the passengers started talking about what they would do differently in their lives if they lived. Mrs. Ngilu said: "I would want to die knowing that I changed something. That while I was health minister, I actually changed things."

Two days after the plane landed safely, Mrs. Ngilu made an announcement that took the entire government, including the president, by surprise, since she had not bothered to consult anyone. Kenya, she said, would offer health insurance to every Kenyan.

Across the country, a firestorm erupted. President Mwai Kibaki asked her to withdraw her pledge, Mrs. Ngilu said. She refused. Members of the cabal of ministers who backed the president clashed publicly with Mrs. Ngilu, as did much of the local business lobby, who fretted they would be forced to provide health insurance for their workers. The complaints were justified: how in the world could a country like Kenya provide universal health insurance when 56 percent of the population lives below the poverty line? Some nine million people are so poor they can't even afford food every day.

Mrs. Ngilu pressed on. Appearing in villages, she urged people to demand care when they showed up at their rural hospitals. "Just defy them," she said. "Don't wait until you die. Carry your voter card and demand that they treat your children."

OK, enough of an excerpt. Go to the article to read the rest. It should be made into a movie! (Unfortunately, such a film wouldn't yet have a happy ending, because of the greed of those of us who already have too much.)

Jack Clark 3:31 PM [+]   
Post #111809707566160879