Sunday, June 05, 2005
At my first GFC meeting...
...there was a little reception honouring outgoing University of Alberta President Rod Fraser. He walked around and talked to everybody, and after a little while got around to talking to me. After inquiring as to my major(International Development), he wanted to talk about the problem of Aids in Africa from his Health Care Economist perspective. I happily obliged, and he made some argument about scientists not being sure that the retroviral cocktails really help- it sounded like he was making excuses for pharmaceutical companies upholding their copy rights in the face of this epidemic.
We talked a bit more, and then I tried to redirect the discussion to a more general ground with the question: "So, how do you reconcile the fact that under our current profit-driven research system chronic geriatric diseases that affect rich white men in industrialized countries are top priority, while infections and parasites that kill millions of 20-year olds in developing countries are neglected, because there is no funding for it and no money to be made from it?"
His answer consisted of "But there are endowment funds that support research on malaria..." Sure there are, Rod. For temporary prevention when we Northerners want to go on a Safari to Tanzania. And even if not, they're minuscule and not backed by profit incentives.
From there, our discussion went on to undergraduate education, and I told him how I've been trying to go abroad, but that we only have one exchange with Africa, and that despite the high costs of it, it is not backed with a single scholarship(The exchange is with Durban, South Africa, and the costs of flying alone are prohibitive. God, did I want to go there badly). Of course, the exchange is neglected in favour of "Go to Europe, get 2 semesters for the price of 1!" promotions.
Rod answered that he would like to give *everybody* the opportunity to go abroad, but that there's simply no money for it, but that if he could make it magically appear somewhere, he would. So I said, "Haven't we just been promised a $ 3 billion endowment fund? Do you think there's some money for sending people abroad?"
That was pretty much the extent of our conversation. Just 15 minutes ago, I saw this .
Did he know this all along? Could have dropped a hint, you know.
We talked a bit more, and then I tried to redirect the discussion to a more general ground with the question: "So, how do you reconcile the fact that under our current profit-driven research system chronic geriatric diseases that affect rich white men in industrialized countries are top priority, while infections and parasites that kill millions of 20-year olds in developing countries are neglected, because there is no funding for it and no money to be made from it?"
His answer consisted of "But there are endowment funds that support research on malaria..." Sure there are, Rod. For temporary prevention when we Northerners want to go on a Safari to Tanzania. And even if not, they're minuscule and not backed by profit incentives.
From there, our discussion went on to undergraduate education, and I told him how I've been trying to go abroad, but that we only have one exchange with Africa, and that despite the high costs of it, it is not backed with a single scholarship(The exchange is with Durban, South Africa, and the costs of flying alone are prohibitive. God, did I want to go there badly). Of course, the exchange is neglected in favour of "Go to Europe, get 2 semesters for the price of 1!" promotions.
Rod answered that he would like to give *everybody* the opportunity to go abroad, but that there's simply no money for it, but that if he could make it magically appear somewhere, he would. So I said, "Haven't we just been promised a $ 3 billion endowment fund? Do you think there's some money for sending people abroad?"
That was pretty much the extent of our conversation. Just 15 minutes ago, I saw this .
Did he know this all along? Could have dropped a hint, you know.
posted by Catrin
3 Comments:
[10:20 PM, June 05, 2005]
It says "last night."
You should've punched him in the face.
[10:31 PM, June 05, 2005]
[12:06 AM, June 06, 2005]
Post a Comment
<< Home